Hans J Marter

4 October 2006

COD FARMING pioneers Johnson Seafarms are in the process of investing £1.7 million into a massive expansion of its marine hatchery at Sandwick, in Shetland.

The company hopes to be able to produce up to two million juveniles annually once the development has been completed by summer next year.

Johnson Seafarms acquired the Nufish marine hatchery last year as part of their strategy to build a vertically integrated farmed cod production business.

Nufish manager Leslie McEvoy told the annual conference of the British Marine Finfish Association, held in Shetland yesterday (Tuesday) that there was a desperate need to extent premises so that juvenile production could continue to rise.

So far, Nufish has produced 952,000 juveniles this year, more than double as many as over the whole of last year.

Once they have a weight of between 10 and 15 grams, the juveniles are being transferred to nursery sites at Collafirth and Vidlin, before being grown to a size of 5 kilo at five different sites around the isles. Johnson Seafarms also operate their own processing factory, at Scalloway.

Managing director Karol Rzepkowski said: "It is fundamental that we control at least some percentage of the production of our juveniles. This is one of the reasons why we bought Nufish.

"We are expanding the facility to have the capacity of producing two million juveniles for ourselves, every year and, by that same token, to be able to have some kind of juvenile production for anybody else who wants to get into cod farming in Shetland."

Since a management buyout of Johnson Seafarms in March last year, around £35 million have been invested into developing the No Catch organic farmed cod brand.

Mr Rzepkowski went on to say that the company was looking at an annual production of 8,000 tonnes, and would also look into diversifying into other new species with a view to market those under the same successful brand.

Johnson Seafarms currently employs 96 people.