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Salmon farmer reaches 200g-smolt milestone
After a setback earlier this year, Bakkafrost Scotland is back on the road towards producing fish that spend longer on land and less time at sea
Salmon farmer Bakkafrost Scotland has reached a milestone in its journey towards production of 500-gram smolts, which will enable its fish to spend less time exposed to biological challenges at sea.
In the current quarter, the first large batch of 200g smolt produced at its redeveloped and expanded hatchery at Applecross is planned to be transferred to sea. And next year, all smolt stocked in marine pens are planned to be larger than 200g, the company said in its third quarter report today.
The operation of the new Applecross phase 5 module will commence in the current quarter, increasing the hatchery capacity by around 50% and enabling Applecross to produce around 3,500 tonnes of smolt. This capacity will be utilised to make Bakkafrost self-sufficient with around 14 million smolts of 250g.
With the completion of the Applecross phase 6 and 7 in 2025, the biosecurity in the smolt production will be further improved.
Despite its progress towards bigger smolts, the average weight of smolts stocked by Bakkafrost Scotland marine sites in Q3 2024 was 86g, which is 23% lower than in Q3 2023. The reduced average weight was a result of the previously announced startup issues at Applecross, experienced in Q1 2024.
Faroes-headquartered Bakkafrost has been steadily increasing the size of smolts stocked in the Faroes and Scotland, and its capacity to grow them.
The total number of smolts stocked by Bakkafrost Scotland in 2024 is expected to be around 6.2 million, with an average weight of 114g.
Bakkafrost’s expected smolt transfer in 2024 in the Faroe Islands is around 17.7 million smolts with average weight of 410g. Next year it expects to stock 18.5 million smolts with an average weight of 430g in the Faroes, and 10 million 200g smolts in Scotland.
As well as its development at Applecross, Bakkafrost Scotland has applied for permission to build a smolt facility at Hunterston PARC, Fairlie, Ayrshire. Applecross and Fairlie would have a combined output of 18 million 500g smolts annually.
