Cermaq builds new smolt facility in Troms and Finnmark despite increased salmon tax.

The new facility will provide 24 new jobs in the municipality, according to the farming company.

The fish farming company Cermaq Norway is building a new smolt facility in Hasvik in Troms and Finnmark, according to a press release.

The facility was originally put on hold due to the salmon tax. Now Cermaq has therefore chosen to build the facility anyway.

The facility will be ready in 2026 and will produce approx. 12. million postsmolt postsmolt The post-smolt stage is defined as the first period after the salmon has gone through smoltification, i.e. transitioned from being a fish adapted to fresh water, to a salmon that has developed seawater tolerance. How big the salmon can be before it stops being post-smolt is not clearly defined. By producing larger post smolt on land, it is achieved both that the fish become more robust and that the production time in the sea is significantly shorter.annual.

It is the first smolt plant Cermaq is building in Vest-Finnmark, and will create 24 new jobs in the municipality, according to project owner Snorre Jonassen.

Put on ice

Cermaq writes that the plant has been scaled down, but by how much we will not know. When asked by E24 about this, press contact Lars Galtung says that it is too difficult to say.

The facility was put on hold due to great uncertainty after the proposal for ground rent tax was put forward last autumn.

– Given our need for smolt, it is crucial to increase our own smolt production regardless of the tax regime. At the same time, we have scaled down the project because the framework conditions are uncertain as we experience them, says managing director Knut Ellekjær.

At the end of May, the government parties agreed with Venstre and Patientfokus on land rent tax on aquaculture.

The effective tax rate was set at 25 percent.

Biggest deal ever

Cermaq has chosen Akva Group, which supplies equipment and technology to the farming industry, to supply equipment (RAS) to the facility.

The agreement is Akva Group’s largest ever in Norway, and is worth a minimum of 60 million euros, according to a stock exchange announcement.

It corresponds to approx. NOK 710 million.

Akva Group rose on the stock exchange after the news and is up 4.5 per cent at 12.30pm.