Mowi sells Atlantic Canada assets to Cooke for £119 million
Salmon farming giant writes off £74m in deal to focus on 'core farming geographies'
Mowi is to sell its salmon farming operations in Atlantic Canada to New Brunswick-headquartered Cooke Inc. for CAD 225 million (£119.4m / NOK 1.573 billion), the companies have announced.
“This is an exciting growth opportunity for our Atlantic Canada operations,” said Glenn Cooke, chief executive of family-owned Cooke. “We look forward to welcoming Mowi Canada East’s 250 employees to Cooke, and to working together to grow the sector and sustainably farm Atlantic salmon for customers in this region and beyond.”
Mowi has operations in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, including freshwater hatchery facilities, sea farming sites and two processing plants. Standing salmon biomass was 9,000 tonnes as of this week.
Writing off £74 million
Norway-headquartered Mowi said it was selling Mowi Canada East on a debt-free basis in order to further improve its farming portfolio and focus even more on core farming geographies.
The transaction will reduce Mowi’s volume guidance for 2026 from 605,000 gutted weight tonnes to 600,000 gwt. In connection with the transaction, Mowi will take a write-down of approximately CAD 140 million (£74m).
In Q3 last year, Mowi Canada East made an operating loss of €34.9m, after a very warm summer and autumn season created difficult environmental conditions including low oxygen levels.
High mortality levels
“These conditions resulted in high mortality at several sites, in addition to early harvesting related to management of the biological pressure with poor price achievement as a consequence,” Mowi said in its Q3 2025 report.
In the following quarter, Canada East made a €13m operating loss as results continued to be severely impacted by elevated sea temperatures.
For the full year, Mowi’s Canadian operations, which comprise Mowi Canada West in British Columbia and Mowi Canada East, made an operating loss of €39.8m (£34.3m / CAD 64.6m) and a financial loss of €151m. In 2024, Mowi made an operating profit of €3.4m in Canada, but a financial loss of €71.3m.
Restoring stability
Speaking to Fish Farm Expert before Christmas, Ben Hadfield, Mowi’s chief operations officer farming for Scotland, Ireland, the Faroes, and Canada East, said: “Canada East has to get back the stability that we had before. We had two or three good years there with really high harvest weights and increasing production, and then we had huge environmental challenges this summer that were difficult to deal with.
“Having said that, Canada is now stable, mortality is back to low levels and it's really just about preventing the same occurrence in summer next year, so we're moving quickly to do that.”
Regulatory approvals
Cooke’s acquisition of Mowi’s Atlantic Canada assets remains subject to due diligence and customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Closing is expected to take place sometime in the second half of 2026 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
“Cooke is committed to growing the sector and continuing to invest in the region’s rural coastal communities,” said the company. “Our immediate objectives will be to stabilise and reinvest in the operations through synergies with our existing farming operations across Atlantic Canada.”
According to information from Kontali Analyse published in Mowi's Salmon Farming Industry Handbook, Cooke produced 60,000 gwt of Atlantic salmon in North America (Canada and Maine in the US) in 2024, and Mowi produced 30,000 gwt. Grieg Seafood, which farmed in British Columbia and in Newfoundland, produced 23,000 gwt and Cermaq, which farmed in BC, produced 9,000 gwt. Cermaq has since bought Grieg's Canadian operations, along with its assets in Finnmark, Norway, for £738m.
Along with its operations in North America, Cooke farms salmon in Scotland (Orkney and Shetland), Chile, and Tasmania, barramundi in northern Australia's Northern Territory, and seabass, sea bream and meagre in the Mediterranean. In March, it agreed a deal to take control of Mediterranean seabass and sea bream farmer Avramar Greece, which has an estimated production capacity of 47,000 tonnes.
