Newcomer aims to rival AquaGen

Rob Fletcher
Published Last updated

The Dutch firm, which last year completed a deal to become a major shareholder in the world’s largest rainbow trout egg producer, announced the formation Hendrix Genetics Aquaculture AS (HGA) today.

The company will be based in Bergen and will operate a freshwater hatchery and broodstock unit with contracted production sites in order to produce high quality improved eggs with a special focus on resistance to IPN, sea lice, AGD and PD. The company also specialises in quality traits such as conformation, fat type and content, colour and other qualities.

The Norwegian offshoot will draw heavily on the experience of its breeding programmes in Scotland and Chile, as Neil Manchester (pictured above), Managing Director of the HGA Business Unit, told Fish Farming Expert: “We’ve over 30 years’ experience in land-based broodstock in Soctland and over 15 years in Chile (where the construction of an $8 million land-based broodstock plant is nearling completeion) and our genetics team in Stirling will be closely involved, as will Norwegian academics and research institutes,” he says.

Hendrix has over 2,500 employees worldwide and HGA in Norway will be led by CEO Even Søfteland, of CapMare AS, who has a long history of successful operations in breeding and salmon production in Norway.

Søfteland told Kyst.no that: “It's my job to get the company started, I have a lot of experience to get production started.

“We will be an equally large supplier as Aquagen is in Norway. That is the goal. That means we need to have 100 million eggs available on the market. This will mean that Norwegian fish farmers have new opportunities and greater choice.

“The introduction of Hendrix in Norway will secure the delivery of high quality eggs to fish farming companies, and through competition with existing breeders will greatly accelerate the development of the best genetic products for the industry. I look forward to being part of this.”

Søfteland will head up a team that will grow alongside production levels and Manchester envisages a team of “10-20 people within three years,” by which time the first of the first of the company’s Norwegian-produced eggs will be available.

Pedigree

HGA is involved in a number of other activities in aquaculture, including:

  • LNS Genetics: working closely with the Hendrix Genetics’ dedicated Research and Technology Centre, managing internal salmonid breeding programmes and also providing high level genetic support services to a number of external companies’ breeding programmes in different species around the world.

  • Landcatch UK: Scotland-based production of high performing Atlantic salmon eggs and smolts.

  • Troutlodge Inc: USA-based rainbow trout breeding operations, established in 1945, supplying 450 million eyed eggs across some 50 countries and accounting for 30% of the global market.

  • Troutlodge Isle of Man: Daughter company of Troutlodge Inc, producing 60 million eyed trout eggs for the global market

  • Landcatch Troutlodge Chile: Brand new, closed-system freshwater Atlantic salmon broodstock operation producing over 40 million year-round eggs for the Chilean market.

HGA and Landcatch have led the industry for some time in the development of major genes, or QTLs, and genomic selection to help disease resistance. Its ground-breaking work is producing improved eggs to help control the resistance of salmon to Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN), sea lice, amoebic gill disease (AGD) and pancreas disease (PD).

Neil Manchester added: “We are delighted to set up Atlantic salmon breeding operations in Norway. Hendrix Genetics will be the only aquaculture breeding company with land-based nucleus programmes in the three main salmon production regions.

“With linked breeding programmes and egg production in Norway, Chile and the UK, all supported by Hendrix Genetics Research and Technology Centre, we can accelerate the development of our strains of Atlantic salmon to meet the demands of the Norwegian and international market.”

Antoon van den Berg, CEO of Hendrix Genetics BV, said: “Combined with our majority shareholding in Troutlodge, which gives us a 30 per cent global market share in trout eggs, Hendrix Genetics can now truly claim to be a leading global aquaculture breeding company." 

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