SalMar ASA

Environmental & Social Information • Jul 8, 2020

Approval for conversion of development licenses for the Ocean Farm 1 project

Approval for conversion of development licenses for the Ocean Farm 1 project

SalMar's subsidiary Ocean Farming AS has been granted its eight development

licenses converted into ordinary fish production licenses. The Norwegian

Directorate of Fisheries informed the company of its decision in a letter dated

7(th) of July 2020.

This means that the eight licenses the company was granted on 26 February 2016

for the realization of its offshore fish farming facility (Ocean Farm 1) can now

be included in its ordinary production, within the framework and regulations

governing maximum allowable biomass (MAB).

In its decision, the Directorate of Fisheries points out that Ocean Farming has

provided comprehensive and thourough documentation showing that the performance

criteria and thus the conditions for conversion have been fulfilled. The

experience gained through the project has been described and reported to the

Directorate of Fisheries, most recently in the form of a final report and a

separate report on the development of the project in the first half of 2020.

These reports are publicly available. In this way, the knowledge deriving from

the project will benefit the entire aquaculture sector, as required by the

regulations underpinning the development license scheme.

SalMar is proud that we have completed a project that we believe to be a

groundbreaking step towards the development of an even more sustainable

aquaculture sector. The project was founded on a unique, interdisciplinary

partnership between Norwegian and international organizations at the forefront

of aquaculture production, offshore technology, and relevant scientific

research. By completing this project, SalMar has contributed to the realization

of the public authorities' objectives for the development license scheme,

namely, to resolve important environmental and spatial challenges affecting the

industry. SalMar has now invested approx. NOK 1 billion in the design and

development of Ocean Farm 1, with over 50 per cent of this amount spent on

services and equipment from Norwegian knowledge companies. The Ocean Farm

project would have been impossible to realize without the development license

scheme, which the government introduced in 2015 and which has had broad cross-

party support in the Norwegian parliament. In this way, the Norwegian

authorities, together with the industry, have triggered technological

breakthroughs that will strengthen Norway's position as a leader in new

technology that can contribute to sustainable growth in the aquaculture

industry.

Conversion of these licenses will not affect the operation of Ocean Farm 1,

which is currently approaching the end of its second production cycle. The

positive operational experiences gained during the first two productions cycles

will pave the way for Ocean Farm 1 to become an important production unit in

SalMar's overall fish farming operations going forward. SalMar has already

launched a project to investigate the financial and technical conditions

necessary to build additional units with a similar design to Ocean Farm 1 for

deployment in more exposed positions within the area of application of the

Norwegian Planning and Building Act. Our experiences from Ocean Farm 1 reinforce

SalMar's firm belief in offshore farming.

Gustav Witzøe

CEO SalMar ASA

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section

5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.