Commodity pricing has made that not a lucrative business. In British Columbia, the production unit of Marine Harvest this year is currently barely breaking a profit, if not taking a loss. That operating margin is so skinny because of production issues around kudoa and disease, and also, a broad glut of fish, particularly as Chile comes back online, has pushed the current price to below $3 a pound at the Seattle market.
I believe closed containment is a way to escape that conundrum, because kudoa is a massive issue on this coast. For those who don't know, it's a parasite you can't escape. It's in the ocean and it causes the flesh to go mushy and soft very quickly post-harvest or post-cull.
The other issue we need to explore is the true nature of how these companies are orchestrated, because it is $20 a kilo in the marketplace and $6 a kilo at the farm gate, yet these companies globally are making a profit. Like all multinationals, they're usually organized to secure their largest profit margin in the lowest tax jurisdiction, and that then causes us to reflect on how much value we are truly getting for leasing our environment to these companies. That is an important issue we need to look through carefully: the whole value chain and where profits are actually retained.