Bergen, Norway-based Grieg Seafood is counting on its Shetland, UK-based operation ramping up farmed salmon production by about 10,000 metric tons from more than 19,000t annually over the next five years.
The company, which operates in Scotland as Grieg Seafood Hjaltland, is on the lookout for potential new sites elsewhere in Scotland and has five options under consideration at any one time, reports The Press and Journal.
Grieg, which has had a presence in Shetland since 2007, is limited by a Scottish cap on the size of salmon farms. Sigurd Pettersen, who runs the UK part of the business, said he would like to see the limit relaxed.
“The average site size in Norway is 4,000t (of fish held at any one time) but in Scotland there is a random cap of 2,500t," he said. “There is no logical argument behind it and there are many sites which are suited for more than that."
He is also in favour of tighter regulation of the management of sea-lice and measures to prevent cross-