Søren Mattesen will begin a new job as chief executive of Sashimi Royal from August. Photo: Nordic Aquafarms.

Shellfish veteran is new boss of Danish kingfish grower

Danish yellowtail kingfish producer Sashimi Royal has announced the appointment of Søren Mattesen as its new chief executive.

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Mattesen, who will take up his post on August 1, has spent 16 years as chief executive of Vilsund Blue, a processor of high-quality mussels from the Limfjord in Denmark.

Management changes

On-land fish farmer Nordic Aquafarms took full ownership of Sashimi Royal/Maximus in October last year owner and has been making management changes.

Roger Fredriksen, previously chief executive of Nordic’s Norwegian on-land salmon farm, Fredrikstad Seafoods, has taken on the role of production director Scandinavia and is managing the production at both Fredrikstad and Sashimi Royal/Maximus.

Torben Kristensen from Nordic Aquafarms Technology is in place as interim chief executive of Sashimi Royal/Maximus.

From 600 to 4,000 tonnes

In an announcement about Mattesen’s appointment, Nordic said: “He will come with extensive focus on business development, quality and leadership, and we are looking forward to working with him and rest of the team to take our yellowtail kingfish operations to the next level.”

The company said it had been busy laying the grounds to scale up production at its recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) kingfish facility in Hanstholm, north-west Denmark, from its current volume of 600 tonnes per year.

“Our in-house RAS engineers have already implemented updates of the system using our proprietary technology to improve production capacity. Furthermore, detailed plans for capacity expansion to 4,000 tonnes annual production have been developed,” said Nordic.