IFFO met with Anne-Kristine Øen, Salmon Group's CEO, who shared her vision on sustainability and fish welfare.

1/ Could you provide a short introduction to Salmon Group?

Salmon Group is owned by 44 local producers of salmon and trout along the coast of Norway. These are family owned companies that are currently owned and run by the second and third generation. All together we produce 12% of the total production of salmon and trout in Norway. The Salmon Group administration manages the network and is responsible for closing good deals on behalf of the network, based on large volumes and economies of scale. The total turnover for all our owners adds up to BNOK 9,5 (equals 1 billion US dollars).

We negotiate contracts within fish feed, fish roe, vaccines and insurances to name the main ones.

Salmon Group also focuses on giving advice in biological matters related to fish health and on building competence through our Salmon Group academy.

Finally we also work in PR and communications. Making sure that the voice and the needs of the smaller, local companies are heard, and taking care of the reputation of the industry.

2/ What is Salmon Group's role in ensuring fish welfare and sustainability?

Norwegian farmed salmon and trout grows in fresh, cold waters. This is our main pre for producing top quality seafood at our end of the world.

Norwegian aquaculture companies take a great stake in protecting these waters and are aware of their social responsibilities and the duties they have to managing nature resources in a sustainable manner. Salmon Group is strongly aware of a healthy development of the aquaculture business and our aim is to be in the forefront of governing demands and regulations. 

In 2018 we launched our sustainability report that asks several key questions to our businesses, and to the entire segment of aquaculture: Sustainable farming of salmon and trout – what is that?

From our point of view there is no doubt that sustainability will be a central driver for all businesses going forward. Also for our business. So what we went on to launch, this summer, is a status report on sustainability on a company level.  In this report we document and identify a score on the three central sustainability indicators: environment, society, economy.
 
By doing this we are also documenting the individual producers focus on quality enhancing actions that are demanded by customers and consumers – and this again gives higher trust to the quality of the fish from the individual producer. The modern consumer is a demanding and conscious consumer that wants to know that this fish is made in a healthy and good way.

The most important factor from a sustainability point of view is fish feed. Fish feed represents 80% of the total carbon footprint of salmon production. So here is a great opportunity. This autumn Salmon Group managed to reduce the footprint from our fish feed by 36% in 36 days. We managed this through a combination of using more microalgae oil, cleansing technology and an increased inclusion of marine cut offs, plus cutting a lot of footprint via transportation through sourcing soy from European suppliers rather than South American ones. 

Our shareholders were willing to pay the price for this development. They are keen to do the right thing, and they see that there is a growing group of end buyers who are willing to pay for this investment in the future.

3/ Are marine ingredient inclusion rates key in Salmon Group's nutritional strategy?

Salmon Group has over the years been known to have a higher inclusion of marine ingredients in our fish feed than the standard feeds offered on the market. This has been a clear strategy for us as we experience that it gives us a cost- effective production with healthy fish of top quality. Our benchmarks have over the years ensured us that we are on the right way with this. New research shows that marine raw materials matter far more than previously expected.  The switch to larger inclusion of vegetable raw materials have perhaps gone too fast. 

4/ The volumes of fishmeal and fish oil available to the global market have been stable for almost two decades. How does Salmon Group make sure is utilizes this raw material in a sustainable way?

We have our own recipe for fish feed in Salmon Group. This is an important arena for change and improvement for us. We are continuously keeping an eye on fish nutrition. We benchmark different factors such as feed conversion rate, growth and quality. We make sure that as much fishmeal as possible comes from cut-offs.