Russian Aquaculture buys second smolt production plant in Norway

Russia’s largest aquaculture company announced on Monday, 23 October it had completed the purchase of Olden Oppdrettsanlegg AS, a smolt production facility in Norway.

The purchase is Russian Aquaculture’s second acquisition of a Norwegian smolt production facility in recent months, after taking over Villa Smolt in July.

“In a relatively short period of time we have made two important steps towards securing the stable supply with our own smolt,” Russian Aquaculture Ilya Sosnov said. “I am confident that this investment will strengthen our market position as well as decrease operating costs and biological risks. We are very happy to have acquired this first-class asset, and welcome the opportunity to work together with Norwegian colleagues who are among our longest-standing partners.”

Russian Aquaculture, which owns and operates Atlantic salmon farms in the Barents Sea and in Lake Segozero in the Republic of Karelia, sought out the acqusitions in order to obtain its own smolt plants as a way reduce operating costs and biological risks, according to the company. 

“The company views this acquisition as an important step towards building an efficient vertically integrated holding and achieving the company’s strategic goal of producing up to 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes of red fish by 2025,” Sosnov said in a press release.

The Olden Oppdrettsanlegg facility has been in operation since 1995 and has been one of the main suppliers of Russian Aquaculture for years, the company said. It utilizes a flow-through system and can produce up to two million Atlantic salmon and trout smolt annually. Russian Aquaculture said it expects to receive the first shipment of smolt from the facility in 2018. 

Sosnov said his firm plans to retain all current Olden Oppdrettsanlegg, with the goal of learning from their expertise and potentially replicating the facility’s success inside Russia.

“This acquisition will also enable the company to gain significant experience in the smolt-farming business, which may be further utilized in the construction of a smolt plant in Russia,” Sosnov said.