Premia Foods files claim against Swedish farm authority

Photo: Ants Liigus / Pärnu Postimees

Overumans Fisk AB, subsidiary of the Premia Foods food group in Sweden, has filed a claim against the Swedish Board of Agriculture in connection with administrative proceedings initiated against it in May 2012 that resulted in the destruction of 17 tons of fish fingerlings.

The claim amounting to 25.5 million Swedish kronor or approximately three million euros is for compensation of damage and loss of profit, Premia Foods, a company listed on the Tallinn stock exchange, said.

The Swedish Board of Agriculture in May 2012 initiated proceedings with regard to fish fingerlings farms operated by Overumans Fisk AB in Holleforsen and Blatjarn, Sweden. In the course of the proceedings it discovered a higher than normal mortality of fish fingerlings and started to investigate its causes.

The agricultural authority has detected an unknown pathogen called «Agent x» allegedly causing the higher than normal mortality of the fish fingerlings. While the nature and origin of «Agent x» are still unclear, the Board of Agriculture has discovered its existence also in other fish farms in Sweden and it cannot be ruled out that the pathogen has existed in Swedish waters for some time, Premia Foods said in its disclosure to the stock exchange.

On May 21, 2012, the Board of Agriculture ruled that all triploid fish held in Blatjarn and Holleforsen, originating from the United States, must be destroyed. On July 30 the same year the authority decided that all rainbow trout from the first and second hatching in 2012 held at the fish farms must be destroyed.

On July 4 and 5, 2013, the Board of Agriculture decided to lift all the aforementioned restrictions and Overumans Fisk AB is entitled to continue its business operations without restrictions.

The reason for filing the claim is that Overumans Fisk AB sees the measures applied in respect of the fish farms operated by it as having been more severe compared to the other fish farms in the same region and therefore disproportional.