Norwegian company Bio Marine is setting up production in Lithuania of lice skirts for the aquaculture industry, with a recycling collaboration with Nofir alongside this new venture.
The necessary experience and competence in producing skirts have recently been acquired by collaborating with Svein Brudeseth Tveiten, who is heading the new company, Bio Marine Baltic, at Siauliai in Lithuania. Production manager Kaitana Juškevičienė and technical manager Domas Juškevičius have also been taken on, each of them with more than ten years of experience in producing lice skirts in Norway.
Also based in Lithuania, recycling company Nofir is a major player in handling end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear, providing an opportunity for the two companies to collaborate.
‘It’s a unique opportunity to also offer a more sustainable alternative. Through recycling and reuse, our sea lice skirts will be one of the most sustainable options for the industry, which is very concerned about making good choices, including when choosing equipment,’ Bio Marine marketing manager Nils Hovden, commenting that companies such as Mowi have a goal of 100% material recycling.
He said that one of Bio Marine’s goals is to engineer equipment that can more easily be recycled, while also making use of recycled materials. At the same time, it’s important that recycled materials are as good as new.
‘Of course that’s also the most important requirement in this industry, that equipment maintains the same high and critical quality even if it is to be reused,’ he said.
‘The new production plant is based on many years of experience,’ said Svein Tveiten.
‘This will be a facility just as I have always wanted in terms of production. Today, you have to operate both rationally and efficiently to compete. We are setting up a smart production with high capacity.’
Focusing on lice skirts is part of Bio Marine’s long-term strategy, which aims to deliver complete systems for cage environments, such as screening using skirts, systems for circulation, oxygen addition, and environmental monitoring.
