OSLO: Marine Harvest is prepared to reduce its production in Norway, if this becomes biologically necessary, said Ole Eirik Leroy, the company’s chairman.
We have done this in Canada, in Chile, in Ireland and in Scotland. We are definitely prepared to do this in Norway,” Leroy said, during the North Atlantic Seafood Forum on March 4 in Bergen, Norway.
The company is “in this business for profit, not for volume growth at any price”, he said. “We are in this business to create sustainable business in the long run, so we have to make it responsible in the short term.”
In fact, issues with sea lice the industry is fighting will regulate growth and even force people to reduce production, if required, he said.
Marine Harvest is “extremely concerned” about the biological conditions in salmon farming regions worldwide, said Leroy.
A big focus of this is on solving the issues with sea lice, which Leroy dubbed the “mother of all diseases” for the farmed salmon sector.
We have nearly 90 different projects where we are involved in research institutes all over the world. Two thirds are based on solving the sea lice issue,” he said.
