Manufacturing fish meal and fish oil

Havsbrún has been manufacturing fish meal and fish oil since 1966. The factory's home base is Fuglafjørður on Eysturoy island.

Originally, the fish processing plant was built to utilize the stocks of herring which were abdundant in the North Atlantic during the 1950s and 60s.

As the stocks of herring declined during the 1970s the Faroese fishing fleet sought new opportunities to adapt, enabling Havsbrún to continue developing and expanding.

These developments, resulting in diversifications into other areas of fish processing, have been almost continuous since the inception of the fish-meal plant in 1966.

At the present time, the main sources for the fish meal production are made up of Norwegian pout stocks which can be caught around the islands, the capelin in the Arctic seas and the blue whiting in the seas around the Faroes and west of the British Isles.

At present, the main market for this production is Western Europe.

Due to its high content of proteins with an extremely well-balanced composition of amino acids, fish meal is a highly regarded ingredient of compounded feeds for poultry and pigs, etc. Fish meal constitutes about 2-8% of these feeds.

The fish oil is exported as raw oil for use in refineries and as an ingredient of various products such as margarine.

Havsbrún's factory in Fuglafjørður, Eysturoy.

From Havsbrún's fish-processing plant.

A view of Fuglafjørður, home base of Havsbrún.

In 1981, Havsbrún started a small-scale production of feeds for salmonides, which depend heavily on feeds with a very high proportion (70-80%) of their ingredients derived from fish (proteins and oil). In 1988, a new feed plant was built solely with this production in mind, and as a result, a substantial part of the fish meal is now processed further into high-quality fish feeds for the domestic market as well as for export.

In 1992 Havsbrún entered the field of processing and freezing pelagic fish, notably mackerel and herring. The main markets for these products are in the Far East and Eastern Europe.

In addition to the ability to penetrate several areas of the fishing industry, Havsbrún also has a tradition of staying abreast of developments in technical and managerial areas. Energy saving, and environmental and quality control have always been a big issue at Havsbrún and the company takes pride in taking advantage of all progress in these areas.

P/E Havsbrún is owned by organizations affiliated to the Faroese fishing industry. The average turnover during 1992-1994 was DKK 220 million.

Havsbrún employs 90 people and the Managing Director is Mr. Bergur Poulsen.