The 10,000 square-meter facility will receive delivery of the first stock in November from Salten, the joint venture partner of Benchmark's subsidiary SalmoBreed, who have been growing SalmoBreed's genetic material. Salmon eggs from this stock will be produced early Autumn 2018 and first test batch sales are expected two months later.
The new facility will deliver eggs throughout the year for the entire production cycle and will be the first of its kind to do so in Norway. Smolt (young salmon) from SalmoBreed's breeding station in Lønningdal will also be delivered in November. This new site, which is based on Benchmark's Icelandic model, is fully-biosecure and has the capacity to produce over 150 million ova per year.
The build of the facility is on schedule and is expected to reach full capacity by Autumn 2019.
Malcolm Pye, Benchmark CEO, commented:
“SalmoBreed Salten will be the world's most advanced facility. This additional capacity will allow us to take up our production to meet the increasing demand for disease free, year-round salmon ova and support the strong growth of the Norwegian salmon industry.
“Norway is a leading player in salmon and there is a continuous drive towards improvements in production efficiency traits, disease resistance and product quality . Benchmark are well-placed to address this through our robust breeding programmes that are proven to tackle some of the industry's biggest challenges.”