Profunda completed – AquaGen’s new full-cycle facility for broodstock and egg production
Et fullsyklusanlegg i verdensklasse ble fredag ferdigstilt i Barstadvik i Ørsta kommune. Her skal stamfisk fra laks unnfanges og leve hele livet under tak og under helt optimale forhold.
AquaGen’s full-cycle facility at Profunda in Barstadvik. Foto: BERRE
Profunda completed – AquaGen’s new full-cycle facility for broodstock and egg production
A world-class full-cycle facility was completed on Friday in Barstadvik in Ørsta municipality. Here, broodstock fish from salmon will be conceived and live their entire lives under roof in optimal conditions. An important reason why we have invested in the production of broodstock fish and roe here in Barstadvik is the unique water sources from the mountains in the area. Special geological conditions related to gravel masses and deposits from the ice age mean that the water is filtered in a superb, natural way. This gives Profunda a unique biosecurity and exceptional production conditions.
On 1 July, AquaGen took over the final construction phase of the new land-based facility from Artec Aqua. The construction project has been ongoing since February 2021 and complements Profunda as a full-cycle, land-based egg production facility – from egg to egg. The plant will have a production capacity of up to 80-100 million eggs per year and will be an important part of AquaGen’s total egg production in Norway.
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Since its inception, Profunda has been based on marine groundwater wells with very good water quality and biosecurity. The well capacity has been expanded since AquaGen acquired the facility in 2016, and groundwater wells have also been established for fresh water that also disinfect the water before it enters the production departments. The facility uses a combination of flow-through and reused water and has a highly efficient energy facility to be able to control the development of smolt, broodstock fish and eggs with different water temperatures. Many steps have also been taken to increase production safety at the plant, with redundancy at critical parts of the chain. During the project, the plant has transferred eggs from several year classes of AquaGen’s breeding core and the plant can produce top quality genetic products adapted to both land- and sea-based salmon production. Profunda will also be certified for export of eggs to a number of countries.
Site operator Stian Volle at the new facility at PROFUNDA
“The customers are initially fish farmers in Norway, but we are working on establishing export licenses. The most comprehensive certification program concerns the EU, which has a time frame of two years after the go-ahead from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. We hope that all desired certifications will be in place in 2024, says CEO Nina Santi.
Good cooperation with Artec Aqua
AquaGen has worked closely with turnkey contractor Artec Aqua throughout the project, from sketch to finished processing plant and building. This is the third facility that Artec Aqua has helped to develop for us, after Steigen and Tingvoll. The construction project has gone according to plan both in terms of time and finances. The project and the construction site have been characterized by very good cooperation between the parties involved, in line with our core value “United on the task”.
Press contact
Nina Santi
[email protected] / +47 41 14 81 38
CEO
AquaGen AS