Billund Aquaculture: “Good operational management is key to RAS success”

Billund Aquaculture: “Good operational management is key to RAS success”

During the webinar held last week, a panel of land-based aquaculture experts discussed the future of the sector and how RAS technology may revolutionize the salmon and seafood supply chain in general.

Billund Aquaculture co-hosted the webinar “The new blue revolution? The future of land-based salmon” held on Tuesday, August 18th, in which it had an active participation.

The activity was organized by IntraFish, a specialized news provider, as part of a series of live webinars. Our company was represented by our COO and Business and Development Manager, Bjarne Hald Olsen, who opened the event by stating that we have been part of the RAS movement for more than 36 years. "It has been a long journey, which is now exploding," he said.

Globally, Billund Aquaculture today has over 55% of the land-based salmon market share, confirming our leading position in the industry.

Hald Olsen believes that proven technology is no guarantee of success in the growth of RAS, and that qualified personnel is the cornerstone of good management. In addition, a number of parameters such as a good production plan, tank hydraulics, water quality (bio-filters), comprehensive solutions, and so on, must be considered. "The bigger the fish, the more sensitive it is to water quality," he said.

Also, he estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon will be produced by 2030 with this type of system. This figure contrasts with the 800,000 metric tons predicted by Rabobank, he added, mainly because of the time it takes to get the facilities up and running and because there is currently not enough smolt to support some of the more optimistic forecasts.

Olsen stressed that good operational management by trained staff is the key to success in achieving this ten-year goal. He also mentioned other relevant aspects, such as site selection, availability of the main supplies, further development in genetics and fish feed and artificial intelligence.

During the rest of the webinar, the executives answered the questions asked by the participants of the event.