Working on new solutions for land-based facilities

Helgeland Miljøfisk is in the process of finding new solutions that can be accepted by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, after its application for a new land-based facility was rejected in Brønnøysund.

On Wednesday, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority announced that it is rejecting the application from Helgeland Miljøfisk to establish a land-based facility for the farming of juvenile and food fish of salmon and trout at Toftøya in Brønnøy municipality.
Helgeland Miljøfisk plans to produce up to 40,000 tonnes of fish a year at the facility, which when fully developed could help to create between 100 and 300 jobs.
- We will be appealing the decision, and our plans for the development at Toftøya remain unchanged. Efforts to resolve the challenges identified by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority are already underway, and we are confident of finding solutions that will enable the Authority to approve the facility. Our goal is still to start construction this year, as planned," says CEO Sten Roald Lorentzen of Helgeland Miljøfisk.

New treatment
He admits that he had expected the green light, but at the same time is clear that what the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has based its refusal on are matters that can be answered - and resolved in a way that the Authority can approve.
- "It's over four years since we submitted the formal application. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has been considering it for two years and ten months. We therefore thought all the questions had been answered, and were surprised that we were rejected. Regardless: These are things we want to, and will, solve," says Lorentzen.
This is the second time the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has rejected Helgeland Miljøfisk's application. On 30 April 2024, the NFSA's appeals unit overturned the rejection and sent it to the NFSA's Northern Region for reconsideration. The current rejection is the outcome of this process.

New requirements
-"We have changed the conditions on which the initial rejection was based, and they have now been approved.
This time, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority justifies the rejection by saying that not enough has been done to prevent infection into the facility, or enough to prevent infection between tanks and departments. "This is all solvable," says Lorentzen.
Helgeland Miljøfisk is currently awaiting a response to its application to establish a facility on Toftøya from the State Administrator in Nordland. In order for the company to be granted a licence, both the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the State Administrator must give the green light.
- That's where we're going," says CEO Sten Roald Lorentzen of Helgeland Miljøfisk.

Helgeland Miljøfisk is owned by Aquaculture Innovation, which in turn is owned by Torghatten Aqua. The companies are headquartered at Toft in Brønnøysund. The deadline for appealing the Norwegian Food Safety Authority's decision is three weeks.

Contact information:
CEO of Helgeland Miljøfisk and Aquaculture Innovation:

Sten Roald Lorentzen Tel: 911 99 321.

Director of Investor Relations and Communication at Torghatten Aqua:

Stig Tore Laugen Tel: 916 00 217.