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Jun 11, 2024 (newstodate): With the lifting of the strike cooling down all activities at the Faroe Islands for almost a month, the country's seafood exports are soon up and running again.
   This evening will thus see the Bakkafrost-driven cargo carrier FarCargo back in the air, heading for Dublin with salmon cargo for onward carriage on Aer Lingus flights to the USA.
   -If it were not for the strike, we were planning for up to six or eight weekly flights out of the Faroe Islands, says Regin Jakobsen, Bakkafrost CEO.
   -We can deliver fresh salmon by air to China or the USA within 24 hours after the fish has left the Faroese waters. This means fresh products to the market with little waste, compared to transportation by sea that sees waste up to 43 percent.
   -We started out with a business model based on direct flights to the US market, requiring en-route refueling on Iceland. But this has been changed instead to flights into European hubs such as Dublin and Brussels; we can now fly three times more fresh salmon out of the Faroe Islands cooperating with airline partners such as Aer Lingus, Air China and British Airways for onward carriage.
   Bakkafrost is indeed planning for growth; in 2023, the company produced a total of 52,400 tonnes of salmon products, expecting to grow to 66,000 tonnes in 2024.
   In 2024, Q1 volumes were 14,300 tonnes, slightly down from 11,000 tonnes in Q1/23; in Q2/24 production reached 12,500 tonnes, Q3 will reach 19,000 tonnes and Q4 will rise to 20,000 tonnes.
   Looking further ahead, Bakkafrost plans for 95,000 tonnes in 2026, and up to 110,000 tonnes in 2028.