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Finnforel announces plans for first rainbow trout selective breeding centre

Finland-based technology company Finnforel, which has become a leading ecological fish farm, has announced the next part of its growth phase involves new production facilities, as well as its first selective breeding centre for rainbow trout.

The company’s Varkaus plant’s production capacity will expand from one million to three million kilos, and will cover the entire fish farming process, from juvenile fish to consumer-ready products. The expansion work will cost Finnforel approximately EUR 25 million (approx. USD $28.6 million), with construction beginning immediately.

Finnforel will also begin to export its fish products to the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands and simultaneously, will enter the design phase for various similar projects in Europe, Russian, and the Middle East.

A major part of the company’s growth plans includes an industrial-scale broodstock and fry production, suitable for recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), located in Finland. Currently, a majority of eggs used in Finland fish farms are imported so additionally, the company will build a genetics and fry plant in Hollola. The EUR 12 million facility will have the capacity to produce eggs for six Finnforel gigafactor plants, worldwide.

An added advantage of this facility is, in co-operation with the Natural Resources Institute Finland, it will help secure the supply of fish eggs and fry in Finland, in the event of a crisis. “Since the early 1990s, Natural Resources Institute Finland has carried out pioneering research in rainbow trout genetics, breeding, and animal health,” said the Finnforel press release.

“Over the next decade, the mission of the Finnforel team is to bring Finnish genetics and fish farming know-how to the world. In the future, fish will be farmed where consumers are,”said Pekka Vijakainen, chairman of the board, and a founder of Finnforel Oy.