An artist's impression of the plant. Image: Marine Harvest.

Green light for MH feed mill

Plans by Marine Harvest to build a new feed mill on Skye have been given the go-ahead by the Highland Council today.

Published Last updated

Construction of the £93 million facility will start by the end of March, and the plant is due to be completed during 2018. It will employ 55 people in a diverse range of permanent jobs and will be one of the most efficient and sustainable fish feed plants globally.

The plant will produce feed for use on the company’s farms in Scotland, Ireland, Norway and the Faroes. They hope to replicate the success of a similar plant, at Bjugn, which caters for their Norwegian operations..

Ben Hadfield, COO of Marine Harvest Feed and MD of MH Scotland.

Ben Hadfield, Chief Operating Officer Feed and Managing Director of Marine Harvest Scotland, said: “I’m delighted with the positive decision from the local authority and even more heartened by the overwhelming support we have had from the local community. We will do our utmost now to ensure that this large construction project is managed in a sensitive way.

“This provides a modern platform for us to further enhance the sustainability of the salmon farming sector.”

By-product plan

Marine Harvest also announced it would start to investigate the business case for the construction of a small scale fish meal and fish oil plant in Scotland as part of a drive to utilise all edible by-products from salmon processing and, at the same time, provide a more sustainable solution for salmon mortality.

Bjorn Erik Flem, Managing Director of Marine Harvest Ingredients, said: “We are seeing rapidly increasing demand for salmon meal and salmon oil in sectors such as pet food and human nutrition, due to the health benefits associated with Omega-3 fish oils. At the same time, we see the current solution for salmon mortality is expensive and not as sustainable as we would like.

“I am confident we can do this better and as we integrate the business in Scotland, we must create an efficient and circular green economy.

“Firstly we can produce fish feed or fish meal/fish oil from salmon by-products such as heads, guts and backbones. Then, in addition, we can generate biogas from salmon mortality in one part of the plant to use as an energy source for the production of the fish meal or oil in another part of the plant.”