A new well-boat contract has been announced by The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) as part of its long-term focus on increasing harvest capacity to provide the finest, fresh sea-loch salmon to customers across the globe.
The brand new, live-haul well-boat includes the very latest onboard equipment and technology and will be introduced to the company’s South region, which covers the Argyll & Bute area. It comes as part of a new partnership with Norwegian based company, Sølvtrans, which is the world’s largest well-boat company for the transport of live salmon and trout.
The 1800 tonne boat, which has been named the Ronja Supporter, is currently being fitted out by Sølvtrans and will be operational by the beginning of 2017 on a long term lease. It will join its sister vessel, the Ronja Viking, which supports SSC’s harvesting processes in the company’s North region across the Hebrides.
The Ronja Supporter has been built specifically to operate in the Southern region. It is almost double the size of its sister vessel, offering excellent fuel efficiency plus state-of-the-art technology including an onboard fish grading system and high-speed counting scanner.
The new well-boat will allow the company to have three ships continually at sea from the start of next year. The live-haul well-boat will also enable SSC to increase its current pre-rigor filleting, which dovetails the future growth and export strategies of the business and ensures the delivery of premium quality fish to customers round the globe.
Craig Anderson, managing director at The Scottish Salmon Company, said: “This important partnership will support our long-term aim to increase volumes and achieve balanced year round production, as well as our ambitions to further increase our exports.
“We believe that the live-haul process produces a better fish-quality and this investment signals our commitment to produce the finest quality, sea loch Scottish salmon.”
