Marine Harvest to lead "Blue Revolution"
Back in September last year (2013), the Managing Director for Marine Harvest Canada initiated a series of blog postings aimed at explaining the new initiative, where his company has embarked on a new vision of “Leading the Blue Revolution”.
Vincent Erenst expressed his personal view as follows:
For many people salmon farming is a new idea and for some of you it may be your first job. For me aquaculture has been a life-long dream that has become reality. Growing up in Holland in the sixties and seventies, concern about the increasing world population and lack of food to feed that population was almost a daily news item. My high school biology teacher painted a dire picture for the year 2000 when the world population would reach 6 billion, up from 4 billion in the early seventies.
It was then clear that land based agriculture could not produce sufficient food and more should come from the oceans. When I finished high school in 1976, world fisheries provided 65 million tons of food but aquaculture a mere 5 million tons. Having a keen interest in everything related to the sea and wanting a career in business, fish farming seemed the right choice. People around me shook their heads as it was an obscure career choice at the time, especially in urbanized Holland. Upon finishing university I had the good fortune to step directly into a job in fish farming and I have been in the business ever since. However, it was not until 2003, when fish farming made the front page of my favorite magazine, The Economist, titled “Blue Revolution, the promise of fish farming”, that I finally felt vindicated; at last fish farming was recognized as an important food producer. In 2012 aquaculture produced the same 65 million tons of food as fishing did in the seventies; a “revolution” is indeed taking place!
The new vision for Marine Harvest “Leading the Blue Revolution”, directs us not only to be part of that revolution but to spearhead it. In Canada we are well prepared to do so; we have the size, the assets, the people, the financial resources and the ambition to sustain further development. In my view, the main drivers for MH Canada to become the true leader of the industry in North America are:
•Genetic improvement of our fish stocks
•Further strengthening of fish health
•Feed development
•Technology development in farm equipment & husbandry
•Market the unique attributes of our fish
•Develop our people to take on new challenges
•Increase the understanding of the public of fish farming
•Grow our business in size
Last week, in the latest of eight segments about this new initiative, Sales Director of Marine Harvest North America- Mr. Ken Taylor- added his voice about “marketing a fantastic protein”;
What a privilege it is to be a part of the Marine Harvest team that takes pride in our vision of “Leading the Blue Revolution”. This exciting vision motivates me and our sales department to continually strive for improvement in our sales operations through communication, excellent customer relations, and living our corporate values.
•Passion: We are excited to be part of a sales team that enjoys selling delicious salmon: one of the world’s tastiest and healthiest proteins. The accomplishment and satisfaction we feel from a well-managed day of sales that meets our customers’ needs, while maximizing our price return to our operations, is something we are very passionate about.
•Change: We are selling into the North American marketplace that can have many influences on supply, demand, and product innovation. It will be important to continually focus on opportunities for growth in existing and new markets, and to look for efficiencies and improvements. We are very excited to re-launch our premium “Sterling” brand!
•Trust: We are proud of our great reputation with our customers. Trust has come from years of good reliable communication and following through with our deliverables in a timely matter. We are honoured that our customers depend on us for consistent quality and continuity of supply all 52 weeks of the year.
•Share: Through our daily interactions with customers, we are able to educate and answer their general farming questions, as well as share with them the trends in our industry. We also work with our wholesale partners to help educate the customer about the great health benefits of our salmon. With our recent certification achievements and future certification goals, we are excited to share information which confirms our focus on sustainable farming and premium product quality.
The Marine Harvest sales department is very proud to do our part in “Leading the Blue Revolution”.
