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Norway’s new strategy to grow its aquaculture industry

The Government of Norway has announced a new aquaculture strategy, ‘A Sea of Opportunities’, to simplify the country’s entire licensing system.

A Sea of Opportunities provides a blueprint for Norway’s aquaculture industry for the next 10 to 15 years. The plan’s message was clear: growth will come, but it must happen sustainably.

With this new plan, the government looks to establish a committee who will review the licensing regulations for the whole aquaculture industry, while exploring how they can be adapted to meet today’s, as well as tomorrow’s challenges in an efficient and coordinated way. By 2050, Norway plans to produce five million metric tons of salmon and trout per year, which is almost five times the current volume.

Currently, the size of farming permits is based on the ‘maximum allowable biomass’ (MTB), which states how many tons of salmon can be left in the cages at any given time. During the review of licensing regulations, the committee will likely assess whether MTB is still the most suitable tool to determine the size of farming permits.

Additionally, the committee will review framework conditions for land-based aquaculture, with a focus on strengthening biosafety and environmental measures. The government will look to continue facilitating offshore aquaculture.

Other aspects of the plan include:

• assessing if infections between sites can be reduced by changing the current site structure;
• facilitating suitable recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) technology and revising regulations for environmentally friendly inland farming;
• facilitating the development of new feed raw materials for the aquaculture industry;
• work for customs conditions in the export markets that make Norwegian farmed fish competitive. Zero tariffs for farmed fish is an objective in all new free trade agreements; and
• continue the focus on aquaculture research, including research on new species and fish feed/new feed ingredients