Approval for conversion of development licenses for the Ocean Farm 1 project
SalMar's subsidiary Ocean Farming AS has been granted its eight development
licenses converted into ordinary fish production licenses. The Norwegian
Directorate of Fisheries informed the company of its decision in a letter dated
7(th) of July 2020.

This means that the eight licenses the company was granted on 26 February 2016
for the realization of its offshore fish farming facility (Ocean Farm 1) can now
be included in its ordinary production, within the framework and regulations
governing maximum allowable biomass (MAB).

In its decision, the Directorate of Fisheries points out that Ocean Farming has
provided comprehensive and thourough documentation showing that the performance
criteria and thus the conditions for conversion have been fulfilled. The
experience gained through the project has been described and reported to the
Directorate of Fisheries, most recently in the form of a final report and a
separate report on the development of the project in the first half of 2020.
These reports are publicly available. In this way, the knowledge deriving from
the project will benefit the entire aquaculture sector, as required by the
regulations underpinning the development license scheme.

SalMar is proud that we have completed a project that we believe to be a
groundbreaking step towards the development of an even more sustainable
aquaculture sector. The project was founded on a unique, interdisciplinary
partnership between Norwegian and international organizations at the forefront
of aquaculture production, offshore technology, and relevant scientific
research. By completing this project, SalMar has contributed to the realization
of the public authorities' objectives for the development license scheme,
namely, to resolve important environmental and spatial challenges affecting the
industry. SalMar has now invested approx. NOK 1 billion in the design and
development of Ocean Farm 1, with over 50 per cent of this amount spent on
services and equipment from Norwegian knowledge companies. The Ocean Farm
project would have been impossible to realize without the development license
scheme, which the government introduced in 2015 and which has had broad cross-
party support in the Norwegian parliament. In this way, the Norwegian
authorities, together with the industry, have triggered technological
breakthroughs that will strengthen Norway's position as a leader in new
technology that can contribute to sustainable growth in the aquaculture
industry.

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