Bakkafrost

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Founded in 1968 by Hans and Róland Jacobsen, Bakkafrost is a salmon producer based in the Faroe Islands. After building its first processing plant in 1968, Martin Jacobsen joined the company in 1971 alongside his brothers. In 1979, the company began fish farming, being one of the first of its kind in the Faroe Islands. In 1986, Bakkafrost began the production of farmed salmon and smolt. In the same year, Bakkafrost was incorporated as Sp/f Faroe Salmon by Jón Purkhús and Heini Gregersen. However, in 1992, the company was restructured by the Jacobsen brothers. Over time, Bakkafrost grew through a variety of mergers and acquisitions, expanding the company’s farming capacity and market reach. On 26 March 2010, the company was listed on Oslo Børs and broadened its shareholder base. In addition to local Faroese investors, the company is now owned by international investors from all over Europe and the USA.

Today, Bakkafrost is a leading salmon producer that harvests fish from both the Faroe Islands and Scotland. As one of the world’s most vertically integrated salmon farming companies, Bakkafrost is able to provide high quality products through its control of every stage of production. Through its mission of ensuring sustainability at every level of production, providing the highest quality of products to consumers, and creating value to customers, shareholders, and society, Bakkafrost was named one of the world’s best companies by TIME in 2024.

As Bakkafrost looks to the future, the company seeks to continue to develop its core business and focus on aspects of the business that create the most value for customers and shareholders. By continuing to prioritize its core values of provenance, passion, and respect, Bakkafrost is committed to becoming a world-class company in the salmon industry.

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. Through our sustainability strategy, the Healthy Living Plan, which comprises our five Group Sustainability pillars Healthy Business, Healthy People, Healthy Salmon, Healthy Environment and Healthy Communities, we have set ambitious goals and targets to drive sustainable development in the organization.

Through our Sustainability Governance Framework, we ensure that we have the organizational capability to implement measures necessary to achieve our sustainability goals, including integration of sustainability in business strategies and high-level decisions. In addition, the governance framework ensures that we manage sustainability-linked risks in an effective and responsible manner.

Approach

Our mission is to produce healthy world-class salmon. We believe that by investing in the health of our business, our people, our salmon, the environment and the communities in which we operate, we will enable healthy living for millions of people globally.

While the industry benefits from one of the most efficient feed-to-food conversion ratios and relatively low CO2 emissions compared to other sectors, reducing our environmental impact remains a priority. With the longest fully integrated value chain in the salmon industry, we are in an advantageous position to further limit our emissions and have almost total traceability.

Our significant contribution to the Faroese economy, through employment, taxes and returns, means we have a big responsibility to everyone with an invested interest in the company.

Our Healthy Living Plan is the first time we have made a series of public commitments to address our most material economic, social and environmental risks and opportunities.

Goals and Recent Accomplishments

Reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030
Bakkafrost has ordered a fully electric workboat, which does not emit any greenhouse gases and is solely based on electric power from batteries which will be charged during hours with maximal “green” power production.
Low carbon footprint – 0.6g CO2e per 40g typical serving of salmon (GSI average)
Remarkably low feed conversion ratio – 1.2-1.5 (kg)
Efficient use of land – 3.7 m2/100g protein
In 2020, we recycled approximately 60,000 cubic meters of water per hour in our hatcheries, and we provided about 1,900 homes in the Faroe Islands with electricity from biogas production.