Cleaner fish producer files for bankruptcy with $2 million in debt.
Clean Fish Group, a Norwegian producer of lumpfish and ballan wrasse for use as cleaner fish in salmon farming, has filed for bankruptcy with liabilities of nearly $2 million.
The bankruptcy was confirmed in a ruling from Agder District Court. The company had four employees at the time of filing.
Clean Fish Group had for several years focused on the production of ballan wrasse, a species used as a biological delousing agent in Atlantic salmon farming.
In a statement reported by Fædrelandsvennen, the company said: “The start-up and development of production of this species has proven far more demanding than expected, based on previous analyses from research and consultancy environments within aquaculture.”
According to Fædrelandsvennen, Clean Fish Group had in recent months been engaged in serious negotiations with several parties, including actors in food fish production, with the aim of securing continued operations.
“In light of the company’s total debt obligations, these processes have unfortunately not succeeded,” the company said.
The company cited limited access to juvenile fish, as well as the bankruptcy of a supplier two years ago, as contributing factors behind the collapse.