Review Article
Arnar Bjarnason, Soffia Karen
Abstract
Iceland has for a long time been renowned for its rich fishing grounds and prolific fisheries sector. Salmon sea fish farming in Iceland, as we know it today, is however a relatively young industry which goes back only few years. It has however, already experienced strong growth in investment, production, exports revenue and is a provider of employment in rural areas in Iceland. Operating licences issued for salmon farming in sea cages in Iceland, amount in total to less than 60 thousand tons. The four biggest companies in the industry which control nearly all of the operating licences issued in Iceland, are majority owned or fully owned by Norwegian investors and existing companies in the Norwegian salmon industry. With one or two exceptions, for some reason, companies in the Icelandic fisheries and fish processing sector, do not participate as investors and shareholders in the build-up of the salmon sea fish farming industry in Iceland, and therefore, have not added salmon into their fish production.