SalMar ASA

SalMar was founded in February 1991 following the acquisition of a licence for the production of farmed salmon and a whitefish harvesting/processing plant from a company that had gone into liquidation. These events took place during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the Norwegian aquaculture industry, which subsequently also led to the collapse of the fish farmers’ own sales organisation (Fiskeoppdretternes Salgslag AL) in November that same year. It was precisely this company’s failure, and the so-called salmon mountain, that helped lay the foundations for the secondary processing operations which are a cornerstone of the SalMar story. Up until then the vast majority of Norwegian salmon had been exported as fresh or frozen round gutted fish. This was the start of a major restructuring of the Norwegian aquaculture sector, which gradually led to a substantial increase in its level of industrialisation.