One year after Elisabeth Aspaker, in her capacity as Norwegian Minister of Fisheries, officially opened Nordnorsk Stamfisk (NST), the board of NST approved construction phase 2. The expansion will double the egg production capacity at the facility, which is operated by AquaGen.

Increased capacity from spring 2017

"The NST facility was built with plans ready for a 2nd phase of construction in order to rapidly increase production if needed," says Chairman of NST, Odd Strøm.

The boards decision initiates an expansion of the broodfish hall which will see an increase in the broodfish capacity to 7,000 salmon, from the current limit of 4,000. When completed, the egg production capacity will be 200 million eggs per. year. "We will start construction of stage 2 immediately and the new broodstock tanks are scheduled to be operational by mid April 2017, says Strøm.

"We have had a very good initial year and the feedback from our customers is that they are experiencing good hatching success and growth," says operations manager in AquaGen Steigen, Truls Theting. "Now we need to repeat the success this season."

Organic and onshore production
The expansion of the broodfish capacity will make it possible to produce organic salmon eggs in northern Norway for the first time. Organic production sets high demands with regards to fish feed and low salmon densities in cages and tanks.

There are plans for an additional 3rd construction phase that will make the facility capable of producing land-based broodfish and thus increase the capacity for "off season" AquaGen eggs. "We have established a production line for eggs from land-based broodstock which currently covers the demand for this type of eggs. We are monitoring the market closely and if the demand for off-season eggs increases we are ready to expand this capacity through a 3rd construction phase in Steigen", says AquaGen marketing director, Odd Elvebø.