Producer makes mark in Rome
The head of Cermaq has just returned from the 2016 Global Forum in Rome – a gathering of business leaders from the world’s largest companies and members of the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people.
Cermaq’s presence at the event was due to the company’s support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the producer is focusing on SDG 14, Life below water.
“Over these days I have had the unique opportunity to talk with global influencers over the benefits of aquaculture and the enormous potential for technology transfer to other species and regions,” says Cermaq’s CEO, Geir Molvik.
As the global population heads towards 9 billion people, the OECD estimates that by 2050 the world’s demand for water will grow by 55%. How global companies can contribute to efforts to conserve and more efficiently use water supplies, was one of the challenges presented at the event by Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation
“Farmed salmon has a very small ecological footprint compared to agriculture, and we must continue to grow the volumes of this climate friendly food production in the regions natural conditions for salmon farming are suited, recognizing that salmon is healthy food and that replacing meat with seafood is good for health as well as climate,” Molvik observed.
Today, only 7% of global protein consumption comes from seafood, although the oceans cover 70% of the earth’s surface. According to Cermaq, there is a large potential for transfer of the technologies used in salmon farming to help fuel aquaculture growth in general.
