Norwegian company, Marine Farms ASA, has acquired 12.5 per cent of the shares of the marine fish hatchery Aquaculture Center of the Florida Keys (ACFK), with an obligation to purchase more shares and eventually become 100 per cent owner in some years.

ACFK produce juveniles of cobia and mutton snappers and are the biggest intensive marine hatchery in this part of the United States. Marine Farms ASA will manage the hatchery.

This purchase allows Marine Farms ASA to claim to be the leading supplier of farmed marine fish to the US.

"The American market is undersupplied and the prices are high. The purchase of ACFK makes it possible for us to start farming attractive, high priced marine fish to enable us to cover the market demand ...The same customers will in a few years purchase both marine fish and Atlantic salmon," explains Bjørn Myrseth, managing director of Marine Farms ASA.

Marine Farms ASA has grown considerably over the last years and now operates five hatcheries for marine fish: two for cod in Scotland and Norway; one for sole in Spain; one for sea bream and sea bass in Spain and one for marine tropical fish in Florida, USA.

"Hatcheries are the basis. We are now ready for considerable growth in farming of marine fish over the coming years. It is in this sector of aquaculture that the biggest growth will take place. And we are at the front of this development," continues Bjørn Myrseth.