We have now closed our financial year and as we move towards the end of 2023, I want to look back at this year’s highlights, changes in our teams’ structure, and events we participated in.
Firstly, my role has changed twice this year, on the 1st of June I started as Head of Genetics following four years in Commercial Director roles at Benchmark. Then as part of our continuous effort to improve our customer focus, on the 1st of July, Benchmark brought together our Health and Genetics salmon activities under one leadership, and I became Head of Salmon, Health and Genetics.
Focus on Salmon
Benchmark continued to streamline the business throughout 2023, making the strategic decision to sell and reorganise the other species within the portfolio, this has allowed my team to be focused on our Salmon offering.
Now with one contact point for our entire product portfolio for Salmon and our teams working together as ‘One Benchmark’ we have a strong and experienced team. The changes are already allowing us to have closer dialogues with our customers; lessons learned are being shared across the full commercial team, and we are recognising synergies, and ensuring best practices for the optimal use of our products. We know from our customers that they are seeing the benefits of our improved collaborations and strengthened engagement. It seems like the proper time to look a bit deeper at our 2023 highlights to summarise a few of our successes throughout the year.
Record sales year for our salmon ova
We are celebrating a year of record sales, with our Salmon Genetics team selling over 335 million ova, split between our producers in Norway, Iceland, and Chile. These numbers include the export of more than 70 million ova from Iceland to Norway partly due to a demand in the market for off-season eggs exceeding the national supply abilities. Our new incubation centre in Iceland has contributed a lot this year, exporting to more than 30 countries worldwide enabled by unique biosecurity standards.
Biosecurity and security of supply still areas of highest focus
The sanitary status of our production facilities is a high focus area for Benchmark in all markets, and in Chile, we obtained the WOAH disease-free compartment status for our two facilities in May this year. This is the most demanding standard in the world regarding biosecurity and Benchmark now has three of in total six of WOAH disease-free compartments for salmonids worldwide.
In October, Benchmark Genetics Norway was granted two new broodstock licenses by the Department of Fisheries which will further support all-year-round supply of eggs from Salten to our Norwegian customers. The additional broodstock capacity enlarges the selection pool in our genetics programme, reduces operational risk by having broodstock volume at different sites, and supports the future potential expansion of our production of ova in Salten.
Expansion of R&D and management teams
In testament to Benchmark’s strong position, we have several new employees who joined us this year. Berta Contreras our new General Manager in Chile, and in Iceland our new General Manager, Benedikt Hálfdanarson. Both join Benchmark with a wealth of knowledge and experience and are well-connected across the industry. We have also expanded our R&D teams in reproductive technologies in Edinburgh, Bergen and Reykjavik and our technical genetics services team in Bergen to maintain our leading global position in aquaculture genetics.
Launch of Mypages in BreedControl to improve customer insights
In November, Benchmark launched a customer portal, MyPages, where essential information related to contracts and egg supply is available. The system provides an integrated ova survey, giving our customers the opportunity to give direct feedback on the egg deliveries, and to anonymously benchmark their production performance against other producers. The positive feedback received so far indicates that this is a functionality that our customers appreciate and will be utilizing to optimize their production going forward.
Uptake in the use of our sea lice medicines
For Health, we have continued to work closely with our global customers, supporting them throughout 2023 to tackle sea lice. As our customers look to a gentle and effective treatment option, we have seen an increased use of Salmosan® Vet in their toolbox, across all markets and for Purisan® in Chile. This year, we even saw the first use in Iceland.
In Canada, the label change extending the bath duration to 3 hours and the regulatory change to increase the number of treatments allowed in a year has proven to be an important improvement for producers to meet their treatment needs. It’s incredibly gratifying that we have a product development team that contributes to breathing new life into an established solution.
I am pleased to share there has been an increased uptake of Ectosan® Vet in Norway, with a growing number of customers that have used the new product since its launch in 2021. We continue to receive exclusively positive feedback from our customers who have used it.
The number of different circumstances this product is used in has also expanded in tandem with the number of new customers, no situation is ever exactly the same in biology. We have seen a higher interest in cases where the fish health and welfare status could be considered challenging. The focus on fish welfare is continuously increasing, which is also reflected in the public discourse currently. It is crucial that the industry have access to and utilise methods that preserve good fish health and welfare, while combating the sea lice. The industry should not underestimate and overlook medicinal treatments in the toolbox.
2023 also marked the important signing of an agreement with MMC First Process AS and Salt Ship Design AS. By combining all parties’ expertise, technologies, and know-how we are working to advance the current CleanTreat® system, to be able to provide our customers with an integrated treatment water purification system built on board their wellboats.
More time spent with our customers
This year, our Salmon team have been present at many events and conferences as speakers or attendees across the world. It is great to see so many of the team being recognised as experts in their field and being invited to speak at prominent meeting places.
The list is long, but to mention a couple of event highlights, there is of course AquaNor which was an important event for us. Our stand was busy every day; it was encouraging speaking and collaborating with so many of our customers and partners, it’s going to be an exciting new year for our industry! I was extremely proud of Katrine Eliassen, Broodstock Coordinator in our Genetics facility in Salten, who was nominated for the Fish Welfare Award being presented during AquaNor.
We also marked our first international Open House event in our Bergen office, hosted during the North Atlantic Seafood Forum. After the day spent at the conference, we opened the doors for delegates to join us after hours for some food and drinks. This was a huge success, which we have now vowed to make a tradition. So, we look forward to seeing everyone again in March 2024.
To wrap up I want to thank our customers. We only have success if our customers have success! Meaning that we need all kinds of feedback, good and bad. Transparency and honest feedback are what can help us to provide the best products and services. In February we will again send out our yearly customer satisfaction survey for both our Genetics and Health customers and we encourage every receiver to give their feedback. This is how we can provide the best for our customers.
As we look forward to 2024, we want to continue to be an important contributor to the Salmon Industry. Times are challenging as producers, and the public, are keeping an extra eye on fish welfare, survival, and sustainability. For our part, our aim remains to provide an effective tool for sea lice management that improves fish welfare, whilst protecting the environment. My view is that even though the aquaculture industry has in the past emphasised non-medical treatment, fish welfare needs to be the focus.
My last word is to watch out for the launch of our new optimised salmon ova product portfolio in January. Our genetics team has been working hard to enhance and reveal our renowned high-performing products with greater selection pressure on key traits associated with growth and disease resistance.
I appreciate the hard work and dedication of our entire Salmon team throughout the year. Thank you, and I hope you have a great festive break.
