Iceland Arctic char farmer files for bankrupcty
Land-based Arctic char producer Matorka has filed for bankruptcy with the District Court of Reykjanes, Iceland.
Matorka operates a hybrid recirculation / flow-through facility in the Grindavik area on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, where a key advantage in the past has been that the water it extracts from boreholes in the volcanic rock is warmed by lava to almost 10°C, perfect for Arctic char.
That natural advantage changed in 2023 when earthquakes occurred that were linked to volcanic eruptions that forced the evacuation of the nearby town of Grindavik.
Water quality problems
Three or four of the company’s 12 large grow-out tanks were damaged, and it has now emerged that the earthquakes also caused changes in water quality that resulted in repeated infections in the company’s fish, managing director Christo du Plessis told IntraFish website in a statement today.
Earlier this year, the company’s management and veterinarians concluded that harvesting the fish, emptying and disinfecting all tanks was the best solution. But although this measure was successful, the required steps had a very serious impact on the company’s cash flow, the statement said.
€2.7m fundraise
In April the company said it had raised €2.7 million in a private placement fully subscribed by existing shareholders, reported on PitchBook website to be Netherlands-based sustainable aquaculture investor Aqua-Spark; Columbia Ventures, a private equity firm based in the town of Vancouver, Washington State; and Kvika Framtak, a private equity firm based in Reykjavik, Iceland.
“I am eternally grateful for our shareholders for their ongoing support. This raise enables us to continue on our path of improving infrastructure and increasing production,” du Plessis said in a post on LinkedIn at the time.
But in his statement to IntraFish, du Plessis explained that Matorka had now filed for bankruptcy with the welfare of the fish in mind, and that it was hoped that operations could continue through a timely sale of the company’s assets.
Attorney FriĂ°björn EirĂkur GarĂ°arsson, of AX Law in KĂłpavogur, just south of Reykjavik, has been appointed as the administrator of the estate.
