Water responsibility across our value chain

Did you know?

In 2025, Bakkafrost recirculated 98.6% of all the water used in our hatcheries.

Water is the foundation of everything we do. The fjords and lochs around our marine farms, and the freshwater that flows through our hatcheries, come from the same sources used by surrounding communities, ecosystems and wildlife. Through recirculation, we reuse up to 98.6% of this water, helping to minimise our overall impact. How we treat water shapes the nature and food systems future generations will inherit.

The environments we operate in are both productive and sensitive. Changes in water temperature, rainfall patterns and nutrient balance can affect fish health, local biodiversity and surrounding communities. Managing water responsibly is therefore central to how we operate.

Our commitments to managing water-related impacts and risks, preventing pollution and reducing effluents are set out in our Environmental Management policy and Freshwater Use Policy, and extended into our supply chain through our Feed Policy Statement and Procurement and Resource Management Policy. All our policies can be found here.

Through our double materiality assessment, water has been recognised as material across both our own operations and our value chain. Our CEO is responsible for sustainability performance, while the Board of Directors oversees significant environmental impacts and risks, including those related to water, as described in our Sustainability Governance Framework.

This work is also recognised externally: in CDP's 2025 Water Security assessment, Bakkafrost was awarded an A- score.

Targets and investments

We hold ourselves accountable through measurable targets, including a water recirculation rate above 97% across all hatcheries, regular monitoring of key parameters in discharged water through structured sampling programmes, and a biological Feed Conversion Ratio below 1.083 by 2026 — reducing the water embedded in our feed supply chain. Progress is reported each year in our Integrated Annual Report.

These targets are backed by real investment. Across our hatcheries, we are transitioning to Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), widely recognised as best available technology for water efficiency in hatcheries. At our Applecross hatchery in Scotland, a £2.5 million project is under development to convert aquaculture sludge into biochar and natural fertiliser. And at our biogas plant FÖRKA, biological side-streams are processed into renewable energy, heat and natural fertiliser for Faroese farmers, reducing nutrient discharge to the surrounding aquatic environment.

Managing environmental impacts and incidents

When something does not go as planned, our environmental management system, certified according to ISO 14001, guides us through clear procedures to understand the cause, take corrective action, and apply what we learn.

 
If an environmental or effluent-related situation arises at one of our sites, we take immediate corrective action, investigate the root cause, and inform the relevant environmental authorities in line with regulatory requirements.

Our approach is further supported by aquaculture certification standards such as ASC and Global G.A.P., which include requirements on water quality, monitoring and environmental impact.

Caring for water is part of how we work every day, across our hatcheries, farms and feed facilities.