Four directors including ex-CEO quit Barramundi Group board

Barramundi Group, which farms in Australia, Singapore, and Brunei, today announced the resignation of four directors.

The Singapore-based company said the resignations of Hans den Bieman, Andreas von Scholten, Marit Solberg, and Sjoeberg Tristan Nenne were effective from today.

Von Scholten was the company’s chief executive from November 2019 until 1 January 2023, when he handed over the role to current CEO James Kwan and joined the board as a director.

Years of experience

Solberg is a well-known name in aquaculture, having held various senior management positions in global salmon farmer Marine Harvest (now Mowi) for more than 30 years, including as chief operating officer for Marine Harvest Scotland, Canada, Ireland and the Faroes. She is also a former chair of cod farmer Norcod, and is a director of Aquacon AS, which wants to build a land-based salmon farm in Maryland in the United States.

Den Bieman is a former Marine Harvest CEO and co-founder of a smolt farm in Chile.

Barramundi Group made an operating loss of 7.8 million Singapore dollars (SGD) – around £4.8 m - in the second half of 2022, and a loss of SGD 17.9m for the full year, it said in a business update in February, when it also announced that it had signed an agreement to sell 75% of its north Australia subsidiary, Marine Produce Australia (MPA), to Northern Territories seafood producer, processor, and distributor Wild Ocean Australia.

30,000-tonne ambition

MPA wants to increase production in the north of Western Australia from 1,600 tonnes a year to 10,000 tonnes, and then 30,000 tonnes.

It has applied for 13 sites spread across the Buccaneer Archipelago but needs both permits and funding, with the first phase expansion requiring a capital expenditure investment of around A$110 million (£64.7 m).

Barramundi Group currently produces around 2,000 tonnes of barramundi (Lates calcarifer) per year and is aiming for 7,000 tonnes by 2026.

After viral disease caused mortality in Singapore last year, it harvested out the site and is stocking a different site with small numbers of fish to trial a new vaccine against Scale Drop Disease Virus.