Organic Irish salmon with a dash of Norway

This content was published before 1 July 2021 by GIEK or Eksportkreditt Norge

Better fish welfare

The Irish fish farming company has been in business since 2012 and has invested in further developing their fish farm for organic salmon. In contrast to ordinary salmon farming, the Irish company has significantly fewer fish in each cage. A key benefit of less fish in each cage is that it gives better fish welfare, less disease and it reduces problems with salmon lice. Additionally, to qualify as organically farmed salmon, the fish – from smolt to Salmon – can only be fed organic feed. It also has to adhere to a number of other regulations. The benefit, according to Bradán Beo Teoranta, is that the organic salmon attracts a higher price when it is sold to their customers. 90 per cent is exported, primarily supermarket chains in Europe and USA.

Consumers are prepared to pay a higher price for our organic salmon because they – and we – feel that it is of better quality than conventionally farmed salmon.

Liam Roche, CEO, Bradán Beo Teoranta

On the other hand, it is more expensive to produce organic salmon because you have to use higher quality fish oil and proteins, avoid using antibiotics and chemicals, and keep less fish in each cage,” says Liam Roche, CEO at Bradán Beo Teoranta.

Norwegian suppliers

To develop its latest fish farm site, Bradán Beo Teoranta has enlisted the support of two Norwegian suppliers to the fish farming industry. The company has ordered a feed barge from AKVA Group and nets and nettings for fish farming cages from Mørenot Aquaculture AS. “For AKVA Group it is actually the company’s Scottish business that has sold and delivered the feed barge, but given that Norwegian content accounts for minimum 30 percent of the total supplier contract, the project qualifies for financing from Export Credit Norway. We encourage other non-Norway based companies to explore this type of project financing,” says Kaare Haahjem, Export Credit Norway’s responsible for fisheries and fish farming.

Haahjem adds that Ireland is a relatively new territory for Export Credit Norway. “This is the first ever project we finance in Ireland. We have previously visited the country and held discussions about financing fishing vessels, but not specifically for fish farming. However, we are very pleased that AkvaGroup introduced Bradán Beo Teoranta to export financing. Today, we are in dialogue with several Irish companies about various projects, so it looks like Bradán Beo Teoranta has helped open other Irish companies’ eyes to export financing,” says Haahjem.

The people in Export Credit Norway are very helpful.

Liam Roche, Branán Beo Teoranta

Liam Roche in Bradán Beo Teoranta explains that the company have acquired equipment from Norwegian suppliers before, but then without the support of export financing. “It was the head of AkvaGroup’s UK operation that presented export financing as an alternative to us. Given that this was the first time we have used export financing, and it was the first time Export Credit Norway financed a project in Ireland, the process probably took slightly longer than usual, but we are very pleased with the end-result. The people in Export Credit Norway are very helpful and easy to deal with,” says Liam Roche.