JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Is Israel a salmon farming powerhouse? Are we becoming the “Norway of the Middle East”? It turns out that solutions developed in Israel are addressing the problems plaguing the salmon farming industry in Northern Europe.
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Arutz Sheva spoke with Roni Zusman, CEO of the AquaculTech innovation community, the Israeli Innovation Institute’s biotechnology and aquaculture network.
At the outset, Zusman notes the high and growing demand for salmon in Israel, due in part to the fish’s strong nutritional value, making it highly sought after in restaurants and households alike. Israeli consumption is rising and currently stands at about 60,000 tons per year.
At the same time, salmon farming in Norway is becoming increasingly complicated, as Zusman describes. The fish are raised in fjords — enclosed bays connected to open seas — where high density leads to disease, parasites, and other issues. Water exchange is relatively limited for the needs of the fish, and if that weren’t enough, fish escape from the enclosures into open waters, leads to growing environmental damage as crowding increases.
The result: lower-quality production. Zusman explains that the fish arriving from Norway have lived under relatively poor conditions, which affects their quality. In contrast, Israel, a global leader and one of the pioneers in aquaculture, began developing closed, land-based fish farming systems over 45 years ago, driven both by the country’s small size and by regulatory standards that are even stricter than those in the U.S. and Europe. As a result, Israeli developments are among the most advanced in the world, offering reduced environmental impact and solutions for problems that the world previously overlooked but now recognizes as urgent.
Israeli systems are intelligent, monitored, and water-recycling systems that ensure fish health. Because of strict regulation, only those meeting high thresholds could progress in fish farming. Today, she says, “there’s no reason why a country capable of producing high-quality fish domestically should continue importing expensive, lower-quality fish from countries where environmental costs are high. These are global problems, and we don’t want to create issues elsewhere in the world either.”
“If Israel can produce even a small percentage of what is globally consumed, and do so locally and at high quality, then we’ve already justified building a domestic industry,” Zusman says. “This is exactly how the large companies operating in Israel are thinking.”
Zusman emphasizes that “any solution proven in Israel can conquer the world and serve other countries. What works here will work anywhere else,” underscoring Israel’s global leadership in the field of aquaculture.
“There’s ongoing dialogue with the Norwegians about fish farming and salmon quality, though the platforms developed in Israel have yet to reach full commercial rollout.” That said, Israeli companies are already providing services and technologies to various countries — including Norway.
She also notes the Agriculture Ministry’s awareness of the issue and the strategic plan that was drafted to develop the sector, with particular emphasis on salmon farming. The plan is receiving significant funding as part of Israel’s national food security strategy.