Fuglafjørður harbour expands to meet demand

Bakkafrost’s takeover of the Scottish Farming Company means there are now far more hungry salmon to cater for with fish feed from subsidiary firm Havsbrún.

The company’s CEO, Regin Jacobsen, has confirmed to newspaper Sosialurin that a deal has been made with Fuglafjørður Town Council for a DKK 500 million harbour expansion project to meet the increasing demand.

When the acquisition was announced last week, Jacobsen said that Fuglafjørður-based fish feed producer Havsbrún can now sell an additional 50,000 tonnes of fish feed annually to the Scottish company.

 >> Bakkafrost targets Scottish fish farming industry

Such a big growth in production calls for an extensive expansion of the town’s harbour area, and the company is not afraid to finance the project itself.

“We can obviously not demand that the council finances a project of this size,” says Jacobsen. “It’s only fair that since we are the ones requiring the expansion, we should be paying for it.”

Financing not a problem

Although the Faroese salmon farming giant spent DKK 5.5 billion on the acquisition of the Scottish Salmon Company, there appears to be no shortage of cash to complete the port expansion.

Bakkafrost, the biggest employer in the Faroes, last year enjoyed net profits of DKK 960 million and a turnover of DKK 3.17 billion.

In comparison, Fuglafjørður Town Council is expecting annual revenues of DKK 60 million in personal income taxes and DKK 11 million in corporation taxes.

See Translated by prosa.fo