Salmonopoly: How Norway's Salmafia Control 'Scottish' Salmon - Follow the Salmoney!

Meet Norway's Salmafia who control the majority of 'Scottish' salmon farming. Follow the Salmoney to reveal the Norwegian Salmonopoly! @MowiScotlandLtd @scotseafarms @LeroySeafood @GriegShetland @salmon_scottish @Folketrygdfond @WeAreBenchmark @FerdOwner https://t.co/Kob2OOcz2m pic.twitter.com/bOaZaDHiBW

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) November 17, 2020

Norwegian companies are playing a high risk game of 'Salmonopoly' (a word coined by a 2006 documentary from Wilfried Huismann and Arno Schumann) led by Mowi owner John Fredriksen (Norway's richest man before abandoning his Norwegian citizenship to live in Cyprus and London).

So-called 'Scottish' salmon farming – 99% of which is owned/controlled by six foreign companies – is a sham, scam and a consumer con.

In order to find out who are the key players with a stranglehold on 'Scottish' salmon farming – the Norwegian 'Salmafia' – we need to follow the 'Salmoney'. In February 2010, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published an article on 'Salmon Farming's Power Network':

Tracing who owns salmon farming in Scotland reveals a similar network of Norwegian-owned companies and Norwegian 'Salmoney' which controls in excess of two thirds of 'Scottish' salmon farming.

The salmon farming industry's most powerful players – the 'Salmafia' – are dominated by Norwegian billionaires.

Norway's Salmafia is headed by John Fredriksen: billionaire owner of Mowi – ranked 141 on the Forbes billionaires list with a wealth of $10.1 billion and described by Forbes as a 'Viking Raider'

Norway's Salmafia includes:

Helge Møgster (majority shareholder in Austevoll Seafood which is the majority owner in Leroy – co-owner of Scottish Sea Farms – described by Salmon Business as a "seafood behemoth" and "titan")

Gustav Magnar Witzoe (the youngest Norwegian billionaire due to his stake in SalMar – co-owner of Scottish Sea Farms) and his 'Salmon King' father also named Gustav Witzoe who gifted him his fishy fortune ($3.6 billion according to Forbes)

Johan Andresen (tobacco billionaire owner behind Ferd Capital which is the largest owner of Benchmark – and also shareholder in Scottish Sea Farms co-owner Leroy and shareholder in Grieg Seafood as well as being the Chair of Norway's Council on Ethics which polices ethical and environmental investments of the Government Pension Fund of Norway)

Per Grieg (CEO of Grieg Seafood – named Norway’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018)

The Norwegian Government itself as represented by the Government Pension Fund Norway (controlled by the Norwegian Government's Ministry of Finance and the Minister of Finance Jan Tore Sanner via Folketrygdfondet – the largest shareholder in Bakkafrost which owns The Scottish Salmon Company, second largest shareholder in Mowi, second largest shareholder in Scottish Sea Farms co-owner Leroy, second largest shareholder in Scottish Sea Farms co-owner SalMar and second largest shareholder in Grieg Seafood)

Norway's inside man in Scotland is the Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing.

Fergus Ewing is ‘un-ministerial’, says civil service union @FerretScot https://t.co/QcnZ3I2Jx4 @pcs_union accused @FergusEwingMSP of avoiding FOI law by failing to ensure that 25 meetings with fish farming industry were recorded @FOIScotland @CampaignFoI @TheSoundOfJura @scotgp pic.twitter.com/97edIH4QAu

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) June 5, 2020

In February 2019, Scottish Salmon Watch published a report: "Scottish Scamon: How Foreign Interests Control 99% of 'Scottish' Salmon Farming":

The Ferret reported in February 2019:

As much as 99 per cent of farmed salmon production from Scottish-branded companies is controlled outwith Scotland. Most of the industry is Norwegian, and one major parent company is registered in Jersey, an offshore tax haven.https://t.co/vxzBIgSWYy

— The Ferret (@FerretScot) February 24, 2019

Since 'Scottish Scamon' was published in February 2019, the grip of Norwegian 'Salmoney' on salmon farming in Scotland has tightened with Bakkafrost (a company based in the Faroe Islands whose largest shareholder is the Norwegian Government's Pension Fund/Folketrygdfondet and was registered on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2010) buying The Scottish Salmon Company. Norwegian control over 'Scottish' salmon farming is now in excess of two-thirds (Norwegian-owned companies Mowi, Grieg Seafood and Leroy together account for ca. 65% of salmon farming production in Scotland and The Scottish Salmon Company adds another 16%).

Anyone for 'Scottish' salmon? Imported as eggs from Norway & Iceland and bankrolled by £££$$€€s in #Norway, #Faroes, #USA, #Denmark & #Belgium
'Exclusively from Scotland' claims @salmon_scottish "Provenance guaranteed" @waitrose @wjhm93 @Folketrygdfond https://t.co/NusyErqUWk pic.twitter.com/H2CZUVJEjD

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) November 13, 2020

Despite Bakkafrost's geographical "mistake" of identifying Sweden not Norway as the source of the money behind Folketrygdfondet it is clear that Bakkafrost's largest shareholder is the Norwegian Government with other investors hiding behind a world's who's who of banks and trusts.

Oops – Bakkafrost wrongly gives #Sweden not #Norway as the origin of Norwegian Government Pension Fund @Folketrygdfond
"This is clearly a mistake from our side – apologies for that. Folketrygdfondet is Norwegian and this will be corrected on our webpage" https://t.co/NusyErqUWk pic.twitter.com/Yq47zE5wMg

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) November 13, 2020

As largest shareholder in Bakkafrost, @Folketrygdfond should surely divest @salmon_scottish or exert influence to end welfare abuse! Norway's Pension Fund demands ethical & environmental investmenthttps://t.co/NusyErqUWk @NorwayMFA @fiskeridir @NFdep @erna_solberg @Stortinget pic.twitter.com/Fcc06y5hPD

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) November 13, 2020

Mowi's list of shareholders is headed by Cyprus-based Geveran Trading ("a company indirectly controlled by trusts established by Mr John Fredriksen for the benefit of his immediate family") with Folketrygdfondet ("a professional investment manager whose main task is to manage the Government Pension Fund Norway on behalf of the Ministry of Finance") in second place followed by a who's who of international banks in Switzerland, Luxembourg, United States, Canada, Belgium and Ireland:

Folketrygdfondet (the Norwegian Government's Pension Fund) is the second largest shareholder in the Norwegian companies Leroy and SalMar – co-owners of Scottish Sea Farms (real name Norskott Havbruk).

The Salmoney behind Grieg Seafood – Scotland's fourth or fifth largest salmon farming company and largest in Shetland – is Norwegian to the core.

The Norwegian 'Salmafia' are the subject of an anti-cartel price fixing investigation – in the European Union, the United States and Canada.

Watch the 2006 documentary 'Salmonopoly' online here

As Ecohustler wrote in July 2020:

The stranglehold of foreign-owned companies over 'Scottish' salmon farming can be seen via the import of salmon eggs (ova). Data published in October 2020 by the Scottish Government's 'Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2019' reveal that 90% of ova used in 'Scottish' salmon farming was imported from foreign sources (Norway, Iceland and Ireland).

Last month, Scottish Salmon Watch disclosed documents obtained from the Scottish Government via Freedom of Information in which the Managing Director of Hendrix Genetics (owner of Landcatch) claimed that "Norwegian interests risk bringing the whole rotten edifice of 'Scottish Salmon' crashing down":

"Norwegian interests risk bringing the whole rotten edifice of 'Scottish Salmon' crashing down" warns @HGSalmonUK to @Feorlean & @FergusEwingMSP https://t.co/7leCLZarz1 @GAA_Advocate @salmonfarming1 @IntraFishNorge @thefishsite @Salmon_Business @GreenerScotland @fiskeridir pic.twitter.com/79CBueZzXB

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) October 1, 2020

In August 2020, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed that imports of Norwegian salmon eggs – banned in May 2019 due to the risk of Infectious Salmon Anaemia – had re-started in April 2020 to be used as 'elite' broodstock for 'Scottish' salmon.

Norwegian Salmon Ova Slip Back Into Scotland (as Infectious Salmon Anaemia plagues salmon farms in Norway) https://t.co/MAShiQlkpw @GreenerScotland @marinescotland @APHAgovuk @DefraGovUK @InfoMattilsynet @FergusEwingMSP @HGSalmonUK @EWNutritionGmbH @WeAreBenchmark @scotseafarms pic.twitter.com/BtzuLNd79Y

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) August 26, 2020

The Ferret reported in February 2020:

Norwegian Salmon Egg Exports Banned Due to Disease Risks https://t.co/rEeHFKqewt @EFTAsecretariat @InfoMattilsynet @marinescotland @fiskeridir @NFdep @WeAreBenchmark @scotseafarms @MowiScotlandLtd @HGSalmonUK @FergusEwingMSP @DefraGovUK @SSPOsays #ISA #Norway #ScottishScamon pic.twitter.com/XmW4SaPYG2

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) February 24, 2020

Data on ova imports over the last decade show how Norwegian interests have overpowered 'Scottish' salmon farming with Iceland stepping into the breach following the Norwegian ban. Data published by the Scottish Government via FOI in September 2020 revealed the following imports of ova since April 2019 (data up to July 2020):

Data disclosed by the Scottish Government via FOI in February 2020 (following a successful appeal by Scottish Salmon Watch to the Scottish Information Commissioner) reveal ova imports prior to April 2019:

The FOI disclosure by the Scottish Government in February 2020 also provided data on ova imports in 2016:

Data on ova imports during 2017 was finally published by the Scottish Government following an appeal by Scottish Salmon Watch in December 2019:

An analysis of the data available since 2016 (i.e. 1 January 2016 to 2 July 2020) reveals that 9 of the 10 highest consignments of imported ova originated from Mowi/Marine Harvest in Norway (Marine Harvest changed their name to Mowi in January 2019 due to "negative consumer perception").

Of 234.7 million salmon ova imported into Scottish salmon farms via 213 consigments since 1 January 2016 (data up to 2 July 2020), 146. 3 million (62%) via 125 consignments were sourced from Norway, 60.2 million (26%) via 60 consignments were sourced from Iceland and 28.2 million (12%) via 28 consignments were sourced from Ireland.

Blog Nov 2020 #19

The list of companies importing the most ova was headed by Mowi Norway followed by Stofnfiskur in Iceland (owned by Norway's Benchmark), AquaGen in Norway (owned by German-based EW Group), Mowi Ireland, Salmobreed in Norway (owned by Norway's Benchmark) and then Grieg Rogaland in Norway.

The list of companies importing ova since 1 January 2016 (data up to 2 July 2020) was headed by Mowi with 41 consignments totaling 74.8 million followed by The Scottish Salmon Company with 45 consignments totaling 37.7 million; Scottish Sea Farms with 30 consignments totaling 36 million; Grieg Seafood with 16 consignments totaling 25 million and Cooke Aquaculture with 24 consignments totaling 16.9 million.

Download collated ova import data (2016 to July 2020) online here

Norwegian-owned Mowi changed their name from Marine Harvest in January 2019 due to "negative consumer perception" despite objections from the Mowinckel family – from which the name Mowi is derived. Norway's Financial Times (Dagens Naringsliv) reported in December 2018:

Even so-called 'Scottish' salmon is derived from foreign sources – mostly from Norway where the risk of the spread of Infectious Salmon Anaemia and Iceland where the risk of the spread of Piscine Reovirus (the causal agent for Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation) is all too real. The Managing Director of Hendrix Genetics Aquaculture (Neil Manchester) admitted to the Scottish Government in 2016 via documents obtained via FOI that the Landcatch strain of 'Scottish' salmon was originally sourced from Norway.

Last month (1 October 2020), Scottish Salmon Watch reported that FOI disclosures deemed commercially sensitive by the Scottish Government revealed that since 2016 Hendrix Genetics has imported over 21 million salmon eggs (ova) from Norway, Iceland and Ireland into their Ormsary Hatchery in Argyll to produce 'Scottish' salmon. Dutch-owned Hendrix Genetics bought Scottish company Landcatch Natural Selection – owned by the Lithgows – in 2010.

Stofnfiskur is a subsidiary of Norwegian-owned Benchmark (the company seeking to use the banned neonicotinoid Imidacloprid in Scottish salmon farming). Benchmark's largest shareholder is Norwegian-owned Ferd Capital – controlled by Norwegian investor and Norway's fifth richest person Johan Henrik Andresen (the Salmoney behind Imidacloprid – which Mowi want to use in Scotland).

Meet the filthy rich Norwegian tobacco billionaire @FerdOwner desperate to 'CleanTreat' parasite-infested pharmed salmon with the toxic neonicotinoid insecticide Imidacloprid (BMK08/Ectosan) @WeAreBenchmark https://t.co/ORQS4EAeDS #Salmoney #Salmonopoly https://t.co/u5aJ4cQ1eS pic.twitter.com/2zh6cxBdeg

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) March 18, 2020

"It's the tasty one," said a cigarette ad for Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik (biggest tobacco company in Norway) @FerdOwner https://t.co/Pv7Npg9mWB "Setting a new standard in environmental care for sea lice bath treatments," claims CleanTreat @WeAreBenchmark #BlowingSmoke #Imidacloprid pic.twitter.com/SE0xCB38FC

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) March 19, 2020

In a colossal conflict of interest, Johan Andresen is also Chair of the Norwegian Government's Council on Ethics which according to its web-site "gives advice on whether investments in financial instruments issued by specified issuers are inconsistent with the Fund’s Ethical Guidelines".

Benchmark's second largest shareholder is Norwegian-owned Kverva who owns salmon farming giant SalMar (which itself co-owns Norskott Havbruk, owner of Scotland's second largest salmon farmer Scottish Sea Farms).

Gustav Witzoe Jr comes in at #4 in the 2020 Forbes World's Youngest Billionaires List – just after Johan Andersen's daughters:

John Fredriksen's twin daughters are now too old as they are in their late 30s to be included in the Forbes World's Youngest Billionaires List but these A-list billionaires look set to be presiding over Mowi when their father retires.

Cecilie Fredriksen already sits on the Board of Directors of Mowi.

Salmon Business reported in September 2019:

AquaGen has been owned by the German company EW Group since 2013 when Mowi/Marine Harvest and Cermaq sold their stakes. In 2011, The New York Times fingered AquaGen in Norway as the likely source of the ISA outbreak in Chile following a scientific paper published in the Archives of Virology.

"A virulent variant of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) virus has been detected in broodfish from a Norwegian sea site operated by AquaGen, which supplies many of the eggs used in Scottish salmon farming," reported Fish Farming Expert in July 2017.

"We have found another solution. We lost the one export permit to Scotland and found another solution this year with a partner that delivers to Scotland," AquaGen’s Nina Santi told SalmonBusiness in January 2018. "We’ll be back with deliveries to Scotland in mid-2018."

AquaGen chairman Odd Magne Rødseth, speaking to Fish Farming Expert in November 2017, said "the move to start egg production in Scotland would help serve the Scottish industry better and was also a precautionary measure against any ban on the import of eggs. “You never know whether will find some reason to close the border,” he said (predicting the ban on ova imports from Norway in May 2019). A few months before the ban on exports of ova from Norway due to Infectious Salmon Anaemia, Insider reported in March 2019:

In August 2020, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed that AquaGen had resumed importing 'elite' ova from Norway for use as 'Scottish' broodstock following the ban in 2019 even though ISA continued to plague Norwegian salmon farms.

Norwegian Salmon Ova Slip Back Into Scotland (as Infectious Salmon Anaemia plagues salmon farms in Norway) https://t.co/MAShiQlkpw @GreenerScotland @marinescotland @APHAgovuk @DefraGovUK @InfoMattilsynet @FergusEwingMSP @HGSalmonUK @EWNutritionGmbH @WeAreBenchmark @scotseafarms pic.twitter.com/BtzuLNd79Y

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) August 26, 2020

Salmon farming companies started flooding Scotland with foreign-sourced salmon eggs (ova) decades ago. FOI data disclosed by the Scottish Government in November 2018 reveal how the genetic integrity of 'Scottish' salmon has been eroded by ova imports from Norway, Iceland and Ireland.

A paper published in the journal Aquaculture in 2016 graphically illustrated how imported ova had flooded salmon farms in Scotland since the late 1990s.

In view of the foreign nature of 'Scottish' salmon farming, it is little wonder that claims by The Scottish Salmon Company and the supermarket Waitrose with respect to 'Native Hebridean Salmon' have been called into question:

It is obvious that foreign investors are abusing Scotland's high quality reputation and iconic history of wild Atlantic salmon to make money. The Q3 2020 presentation of The Scottish Salmon Companu included reference to the "strategic rationale" of Scotland including the claim that it is a region characterised by "high quality salmon from Scottish Provenance priced at a premium" (i.e. foreign companies like Bakkafrost can exploit Scotland's image to make more profits):

In appropriating the good name of Scottish salmon, foreign-owned companies have turned Salmo salar (the Latin name for Atlantic salmon – the leaper) into a leper.

Salmo domesticus has turned Salmo salar – the Leaper – into a leper. Salmon farming is a pariah not a panacea pic.twitter.com/UCfhXT0HhR

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) September 16, 2019

In view of the ongoing Viking invasion it may already be too late to save truly Scottish salmon. The Sunday Times reported in March 2013:

Since 2013 even more farmed salmon have escaped from Scotland's foreign-owned salmon farms with Norwegian-owned Mowi responsible for two mass escapes in 2020 totaling over 120,000 fish – that's over twice the entire 'wild' catch of salmon in Scotland in 2019!

Official Scottish Government figures show Mowi has recovered zero out of 48,834 escapees (i.e. 0%!) @MowiScotlandLtd https://t.co/3hMTYTQb9V
How much will @GreenerScotland fine Mowi for failing to recapture escapees? @fms_scotland @FergusEwingMSP @strathearnrose £0.00? #Mowi pic.twitter.com/hzHpfYKhX7

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) October 9, 2020

When did @MowiScotlandLtd apply to @GreenerScotland for "authorisation for the emergency use of nets to affect recapture"? @marinescotland @fms_scotland There's 48,834 escapees to catch – that's more than Scotland's entire rod catch of wild salmon for 2019 (reported as 47,515)! pic.twitter.com/tQDIMngkYL

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) August 28, 2020

This Xmas, Easter and every day of the year please boycott 'Scottish' salmon. If you need more evidence please follow Inside Scottish Salmon Feedlots on Facebook.

Ocean advocate Katie Tunn on the Isle of Skye spells out her ten reasons to boycott Scottish salmon: