Almost every second salmon that Mowi slaughtered in the first week of April had major injuries and wounds. – We take the fish’s welfare very seriously, says Mowi.
48.7 percent of the fish that salmon producer Mowi slaughtered in week 14 was classified as production fish, the lowest quality grade for salmon approved as human food, writes Intrafish.
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Section manager Lise Rokkones in the Norwegian Food Safety Authority refers to the level as “very high”.
– It is worrying that so many fish have poor welfare. We must assume that fish that are slaughtered with large open wounds have had poor welfare for some time before they were slaughtered. Mowi and other breeders must work preventively to reverse the negative development we have seen in recent years, she writes in an email to Intrafish.
In general, around 90 percent of Norwegian fish is classified as superior, the highest standard. The worst fish, production fish, cannot be exported out of Norway until it is misdirected.
Mowi’s communications director Ola Hjetland writes in an e-mail to the website that Mowi has been open about a high proportion of production fish in the first quarter due to an abnormally high incidence of pearl sea bream and winter sores, as well as a cold winter.
– The Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s figure also shows that Mowi has been below the average every other year since 2018. We take the welfare of the fish very seriously, and it is of course very frustrating for Mowi and the employees when unexpected events such as huge quantities of pearl normanets occur, writes Hjetland.
The communications director has been presented with the comments from Rokkenes in the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, but has not responded directly to them, according to Intrafish.
According to Intrafish, the unusually large distribution of pearl salmon has affected a number of salmon farmers along large parts of the coast this winter.
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