Czech and Slovak visit to Denmark

A group of Czech and Slovak fish farmers and aquaculture students and teachers from the Mendel University in Brno visited the BioMar factory in Denmark and four Danish fish farms at the end of April. They got a thorough glance of the vide range of challenges for modern aquaculture.

The participants showed big interest in Danish trout farming and the discussions during the visits touched upon an a variety of themes including environmental requirements from local authorities, different forms of ownership of fish farms, availability of water resources, prevention of fish diseases, as well as the benefits of investing in new fish farming technology. It was clear from the discussions that conditions for fish farming differs very much across Europe and while a lot of inspiration can be obtained by looking across borders, not everything can be applied locally.

Feeding sea trout farm in As Vig

The Czech and Slovak guests got during their three day stay the opportunity to visit both marine and land farms. First stop was Horsens Fjord where the group visited the marine farm in As Vig and the fish slaughter house in Snaptun. Later, visits to Hallundbæk Trout Farm, Kærhede Fish Farm, and Vester Isen Trout Farm provided opportunities to see different types and sizes of modern outdoor recirculation farms and to get informed about the reasons why Danish fish farmers chose to invest in this new technology.

At the BioMar factory in Brande the group got an insight into how feed is produced and heard about the future perspectives for the development of fish feed. Last stop was at the BioMar Research Centre in Hirtshals, where the group got a first-hand impression of the multitude of possibilities and challenges connected with a well functioning research centre devoted to modern aquaculture.

The programme of the study tour was organized in cooperation between the University in Brno and BioMar A/S. We would like to thank all participants and people involved in the organisation as well as everybody at the farms visited for their hospitality and time.