Cost development and understanding the driving forces behind it. Scientific end report

Summary

This report summarizes three years of analyses of cost trends in Norwegian salmon farming, as well as analyses of the driving forces behind cost trends. Previous reports have focused on cost trends in competitor countries, smolt costs, capital tied up in the industry, feed costs and the effects of the lice problems in the industry. The main feature of the development is that costs in Norway continue to increase, but to a lesser extent than in recent years. Costs in competitor countries are also rising. Norwegian producers are still among the most efficient, but Chile has now returned to its position as the most efficient producer country, following a significant improvement in biological results, while the Faroe Islands have weakened their cost position after facing greater challenges with lice and disease. Scotland and Canada have the highest costs, but while the increase has been moderate in Canada in recent years, it has been very large in Scotland.