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ABOUT CODFARMINGCOD BOOM The latest issue of “norsk Fiskeoppdrett” (#10, October 2007, www.kyst.no) focused on the development in cod farming and predicted a boom within the coming two years in this relatively new industry. The following extract of just one of the articles offers a brief background for the prediction. THE TABLE IS SET FOR COD Traditionally, the battle for fishing rights has been very hard. In recent history, it should suffice to mention the cod war between UK and Iceland, Canada throwing Portuguese and Spanish vessels out of its national waters when fishing at Grand Banks, as well as Iceland’s demand for fishing rights in what Norway considered Norwegian territorial waters. In 1987 2.1 million ton cod was caught in the North Atlantic. Since then, landings of North Atlantic cod has been reduced by more than 1.2 million tons down to 0.8 million tons in 2006. Iceland has announced a quota reduction in 2007/8 of 30% amounting to 65,000 tons of cod – this equals two years of total volume of cod caught in the Norwegian Lofoten fisheries. In the Barents Sea, quotas seem to remain stable so far. Volumes of cod from the North Atlantic appear to remain relatively stable in the medium-term and the gap between supply and demand has to be filled by aquaculture. THE MARKET Cod is no new species. With a global market of more than a million tons, the cod farmers don’t have to worry about first building the market. In Europe alone, 100,000 tons of fresh cod is sold annually. It is possible to increase this volume considerably with fresh cod and cod products without impacting prices negatively. Once can make a small comparison with the salmon farmers who produced 600 tons in 1974. They had to develop a whole new market for their products, which until then had been a small niche market. The cod farmers come to a table already set. They only need to fill it with good quality products. Extract of article in the publication “norsk FISKEOPPDRETT” Nr. 10, October 2007 (www.kyst.no), by Stein-Ove Hansen, Analyst, Terra Securities (un-official translation by Codfarmers)