Þorskeldisráðstefna á Grand hótel, 1. október 2008

Address by the Icelandic Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture,

Einar Kristinn Guðfinnsson

at the conference Cod Farming in the Nordic countries

Wednesday 1. of October 2008.

Ladies and Gentlemen

I want to express my appreciation to all those attending the Conference on Cod Farming in the Nordic Countries and welcome you to this event. Your contribution to research and development of this new industry is important and highly appreciated by the Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture.

Fresh-water fish farming has taken place in Iceland over a long period of time. Shortly before the beginning of the 19th century, the fertilization of roe and the release of fry into the salmon rivers were launched with the purpose of increasing the sport fishery for salmon. The farming of rainbow trout began shortly after 1950. Extensive build-up of salmon farming took place in Iceland during 1985 to 1990; however, we did not sufficiently succeed in developing this as a lucrative industry.

Fish farmers in Iceland have tested various species for this purpose, for example, turbot, abalone and halibut. Today, Iceland is the largest exporter of halibut fry in the world. The main fish-farming focus since 2000 has been on salmon, Arctic char and cod. The production of farmed fish peaked in 2006, reaching a quantity of about 10,000 tons. Fish-farming production now is less, or about 5,000 tons, and the interest in salmon farming has decreased, in fact it is very limited at this point.  

Fish farmers are now focusing on Arctic char and cod, and high hopes are attached to the farming of species that can yield attractive results. I would like to point out that Iceland is the home to the world's largest Arctic char producer, Samherji Ltd., which has three land-based facilities and an estimated production of just over 3,000 tons this year. Much expectation is also attached to  cod, which is the main topic of discussion at this conference.

Some 15 fish-farming companies and research institutions engage in cod farming in Iceland. The cod-farming companies are still operating on a rather small scale and hatchery-reared farming is still limited. The generating force is capture-based farming of cod and the development of selective breeding for juvenile production which is a prerequisite for full-cycle cod farming.

Over the next several years further promotion of cod farming is needed, and the ministry will support this as much as possible.

 Cod farming is a good addition to the economy in rural areas and is a good support for what already exists in this field, the fisheries, fish processing and the marketing of fish products. It is essential for the fishing companies that participate incod farming succeed and that increased production in cod farming yields attractive profits from operations. Today, 11 companies are producing farmed cod. The production has increased from 10 tons in the year 2000 to 1450 in 2007, and this year the production is expected to rise to about 2000 tons.

Most of the production is capture-based farming, but interest is growing in using hatchery-reared fry. Now for the first time the demand for fry is greater than the supply.

In the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, proposals are being prepared on how best to support cod fry production, and they will soon be finished.

Most of the farmed cod are filleted to produce fresh loins but other part of the fillet is mainly frozen. The main export market for fresh farmed cod from Iceland is in the United Kingdom. The two biggest producers of farmed cod in Iceland, the fisheries companies Hraðfrystihúsið-Gunnvör Ltd. and Brim Ltd.,are vertically integrated seafood enterprises, controlling the juvenile production, on-growing, harvesting, packaging and marketing of the products.

The last annual 500-ton allocation of cod quota for on-growing will expire in 2010. In the near future a workgroup will be appointed to review the rules on on-growing. It is anticipated that the current arrangement will be changed so that on-growing of wild cod can be increased.

In recent years breeding efforts in cod farming have been greatly bolstered. Plans call for this to continue since breeding is an essential element in building up profitable full-cycle cod farming in the future.

Many research and development projects on cod farming are international, and cod is also competing in markets with other kinds of whitefish. It is therefore important for Nordic scientists and cod farmers to work jointly on solving the main problems to ensure competitive cod farming.

I thank all those who have helped out with organizing this conference and I am certain that it will make a real contribution to the development of an important new part of our seafood sector.