Thank you all for spending and sharing this day with us in the Ice Fish Farm team here in Eskifjörður. My name is Asle Rønning, and today I'm a very proud chair of Ice Fish Farm. My day job is to be CEO in Heimstø AS. It's the Måsøval family's holding company. I've been with the family for 11 years, and mainly worked with salmon farming operations in Norway. Måsøval
It was in Laxar, back then with two employees, and planned operations here in Reyðarfjörður. Guðmundur, sitting in the middle here, our current CEO and pioneer as well in Ice Fish Farm since 2012, you will meet him on stage later. And then, we also have Elís from Djúpivogur. He is CEO over a harvesting station there in Djúpivogur, with the... a bit further down south in rural Iceland, I have to say. And you know, every time, Elís picks up the phone and call me, he say, "Asle, this is Elís from Djúpivogur, the next capital of Iceland." So back then, in 2016, we were 30-40 employees, and today, only eight years later, we are close to 200 dedicated employees in our fantastic team.
The journey from 2016, which is my experience, has been like all the years in salmon farming, ups and downs. There are challenges, but if they don't kill you, they make you stronger. Some of the milestones we had, like in 2021, 2022, an ISA outbreak, which took all our stock at sea out. That was a major blow to our operations, a big setback, and also we became pretty broke. But we are learning, and that was the foundation for new production zones, vaccination strategies, and many hundred risk-reducing action points put up by the team in Ice. Then we had the merge of the three companies, Ice, Laxar, and Búlandstindur, which is coming together with a new name today, finally.
To bring all these companies to one group with joint structures, joint management, and planning, was crucial to have the good production model we have today. Then we had the, I would say, a heavy refinancing of the company last year, and I'm glad to see our financial partners. It was a long, long journey negotiating, but with a happy ending. So thank you to Nordea and DNB, who is foreign banks joining us here today, and to Arion and Landsbankinn, so four financial partners. And last also, we had a major equity increase last year. So here we are, 2024, looking to be our first year as a 20,000 tons plus salmon farmer. Then it's starting to look like a business. It's a big milestone to our team.
I'm told that last year, salmon farming was 4% of the total, more than 4% of total Icelandic exports, and we will be a major contributor to that in this year and the years to come. Another milestone, we will be listed in the First North Icelandic Stock Exchange, looking forward, making our company more accessible for Icelandic investors. Then our next milestone, looking a bit ahead, is to reach 30,000 tons yearly production, and we are getting closer and closer, and everything is starting to be ready. So, that will be our next milestone. If I'm so free, I'm looking even further ahead. I'm looking at the geography here in the east coast, the fjords, already dedicated for open cage salmon farming. I see even a bigger potential, a significant bigger potential.
But to achieve this, we need a regulatory framework allowing sustainable and effective production in this area. Today, I'm really proud to be a salmon farmer here in Iceland, and I'm proud to be a part of the Ice team.... In news, in publications, in social media, a lot of people telling us that we should be ashamed farming salmon, both here in Iceland and in other countries as well. I do agree that the industry needs to continuously improve on protecting the nature and animal welfare. However, I will end my introduction by giving you three good reasons why I am proud to be a salmon farmer. Number one: feed the world with, in a sustainable way. Until 2050, we will be 10 billion inhabitants in the world. That's a 25% increase from today.
In the same period, the GDP per capita globally is expected to rise by 50%. These two facts together will increase demand for food between 50% and 60%. Food production is climate challenge number two after the energy sector. Food production stands for approximately 30% of CO2 emissions. Today, we are getting most of our animal proteins from fisheries and land-based farming of animal protein, and we cannot increase the capitalization on the wild fish more, and most of the land suitable for production is already in use. So to CO2 emissions, salmon farming is very competitive. To produce one kilo of poultry or chicken releases 50% more CO2 than one kilo salmon. To produce one kilo pig or bacon releases 100% more.
And salmon is very competitive on feed conversion because it's not spending energy on keeping warm or fighting gravity, because it's in the water. So, number one, I'm proud to be a part of the solution for the future, part of Ice Fish Farm, feeding the world with sustainable food. My reason number two: we are creating competitive and sustainable jobs here in Ice Fish Farm, here in Iceland. We are creating jobs in rural Iceland, as well as in central Iceland, and also outside Iceland. I don't have a lot of statistics for Iceland, but in Norway, for every employee direct in our industry, there are one more employee in supporting industry, in authorities, in educational institutions, and I guess we will have the same here in Iceland. That's very meaningful.
We are also contributing here in Iceland with the taxes from our owners, from employees, and from the ripple effect businesses. I think it's meaningful to contribute to a sustainable and well-functioning society like Iceland. But a lot of investments are still needed to be done here in Iceland to further develop and grow the industry, and this is a global, competitive industry, competing for investments, so I hope that Icelandic politicians are aware of this and keeps in mind that the industry needs competitive conditions going forward. So, number two, creating competitive jobs, supporting the public sector of Iceland is good. Number three is very short: seafood is beneficial to avoid heart diseases, and I'm proud that this entrepreneurial project, called Ice Fish Farm, still, will serve approximately two million healthy meals a week around the world in 2024.
So, my summary will be, I am proud to be a part of the Ice Fish team, and I'm proud to be a salmon farmer here in Iceland. We will feed the world with sustainable food in the years to come. We are creating competitive jobs and contributes to the public sector here in Iceland, and we are serving healthy food to a global market. So before leaving, I have the pleasure to introduce Heiðrún, the CEO of SFS, the seafood union here in Iceland, and she will be our moderator for the rest of the day. Thank you so much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Asle, and thank you, Ice Fish Farm, for giving me the honor of being today's moderator. You know me all too well. I would never pass up a free trip to the invigorating mountain air of the east coast of Iceland. It might actually be a great idea, I was thinking about it, to ship a bit of crisp, clean east coast air along with fresh, flopping salmon to those that are online here, glued to their computer screens far away. They really don't know what they're missing over here. But there's one thing. Here, the locals always boast about the great weather, but I can tell you, I've been here quite often, and I don't think I've ever seen sun here. So the moral of my story is, you need to invite us over again when it's sunny.
But, enough about me. I'm starting to sound like the lawyer that went on a date and talked for hours about himself, and then he turned to his date that was amazingly still there and said, "Well, enough about me, what do you think about me?" But enough about me, enough about the weather in East Coast Iceland, let's get down to business. We have an exciting and informative program ahead of us. Next on stage is Jens Garðar Helgason, Deputy CEO of Ice Fish Farm. Jens was previously the CEO of Laxar Fiskeldi, and he has worked in the seafood industry his whole career. Jens, the floor is yours.
Dear guests, before I start, I have to address this thing about the weather. To create the certain atmosphere of the visit, we decided not to have sun today, but there was sun yesterday and will be sun tomorrow. Welcome to Ice Fish Farm first Capital Markets Day, and welcome to my hometown, Eskifjörður. Ice Fish Farm position as a salmon farming company became unique in Iceland after the merge in 2022 of Ice Fish Farm and Laxar Fiskeldi. We are now the sole operating company in the East Fjords. As many of us know, that merging two companies requires of us to look inwards and together as one team, set the course going forward.
Within the two companies, there were different ways of doing things, a different culture, but as a one unified company, we needed to find our common path, a new vision for us all. One year ago, the management decided to start work on what defines us as a new, unified company. All employees were included in the work because together, as a team, we will come to a better conclusion. In our work, we looked inwards, and literally, we looked around us. We are salmon farmers in the Icelandic East Fjords, with their high, snowy mountains, winter nine months a year, and the pristine cold fjords. Some say that we live on the edge of the inhabitable world. On that, we strongly disagree. This is our environment, and exactly this environment gives us the possibility to farm superior quality salmon.
With all the fresh water with your profile, we are also blessed not to have to deal with the salmon lice. But we also looked into our common heritage, the heritage of the communities we are operating in. My family has lived here in Eskifjörður for six generations, and for hundreds of years, our ancestors have been utilizing both the land and the fjords in a responsible and sustainable way. We have farmed the land, and fishing has been the lifeline of these communities and still is. These communities have also made great sacrifices. Many young men never returned home from sea. Two of those were my grandfathers, great-grandfathers. And now, a new generation has seen a new possibility to utilize the fjords in a responsible and sustainable way.
We care deeply about the environment, and we are always ready to participate in fair dialogue about the industry and its path forward. But the debate must be fair, based on facts, science, and common sense. Salmon farming in the East Fjords is a new pillar for our communities and is contributing for the future economic growth, both for the region and Iceland as a whole. Our purpose is to sustainably grow premium salmon in the East Fjords of Iceland. We are proud of our heritage, and we are molded by the environment we live in. And that is why our vision is care for salmon and heritage. The welfare of our salmon and our employees is our priority.
With the best available equipment, skilled and professional team, and our constant strive of doing better today than we did yesterday, we can be proud of our operations and high-quality salmon. With heritage, we mean that we will farm our fjords in a responsible and sustainable way, just like our forefathers did before us. It also underlines our commitment to be part of the communities we are operating in. Dear guests, I present to you the new name of the company. Thank you.
... [Foreign language]
Wow, that looks very promising. An interesting brand with clear purpose and values. And it certainly helps when you have a company with a good story to tell. You know, the story is what's important. You know, the brand, the name, is the icing on the cake. But if you have a good story, then you definitely have a good brand. But come to think of it, I can right away see another positive aspect of this new brand, the strong Icelandic name, Kaldvik. It won't be as difficult for foreigners to pronounce as, for example, our active volcanoes, Eyjafjallajökull or Sundhnúkagígar. Kaldvik is therefore a smart choice, a simple choice. Now, on to the next presentation. Guðmundur Gíslason, the Founder and CEO of Ice Fish Farm, or more accurately now, Kaldvik, will now take the stage. Guðmundur will provide further insight into the company's operations.
Guðmundur, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Heiðrún, honored to be here today and see how many of you coming over and experience the fjords and see later on the fish. As you were discussing about the weather, and just to catch up on that, I remember the day when I came here first in May 2012. Then it was shiny, and it was really bright. It just caught my heart, and that's when it all began, in May 2012. So, I'm honored to present the operations, how it is at the moment, and where we are going forward. As mentioned, we have been here now for 12 years. There was farming previously in the fjords, but we started off in 2012.
More precise, actually, we are, like, 175, but still growing, and of that is 25% women, and that's important to have the diversity. They are working in all departments of our operations, both on sea and in smolt and office and all over. So it's not just men, like some people have mentioned. We've touched on the key pillars of our operations, and it's, like, really unique to have the sole operating experience in the east. There are no other neighbor that we need to worry about, and that gives us also the flexibility, and we could, back in 2022, build up production zones that will enhance the biosecurity going forward.
The superior smolts, we are aiming at around 7-8 million smolts and using the uniqueness of Iceland, having plenty of fresh water, both hot and cold, in the ground that we drill for. And all this make it possible to reach the dream, 30,000 tons going forward, and possibly further when we have reached that. And this has all been done with latest equipment and training of people and the knowledge how we have been surviving here in Iceland with living with the sea and the weather, it can change fast. So in general, we are ready, and the East Coast is divided into quite good fjords, and we have operations currently in four fjords, and we are waiting for the application that we put in 2014 in Seyðisfjörður.
And we believe that is being processed at the moment, and we will start to soon farming there when we receive it. And then we have a fjord called Mjóeyri, that's in the middle there, and that has not been issued yet, but it's likely to be done later on. Again, on the uniqueness of the sole operator, and that's really a key, and on top of that, we have the biggest license portfolio in Iceland. Therefore, we can achieve more volume than others, and therefore higher economics of scale. No sea lice, and it's a fantastic situation. And there are, for example, areas in Norway and other places that have never been sea lice, so it's not like unique.
But, we've been trying to find them, and we have never needed to treat for it, so that's a huge operational item, as some farmers, they get up to around 10% of their cost per kilo for lice treatments. The value chain, we have put up and built up fantastic smolt facilities, both on Land North and Land South. So Land North is in Þorlákshöfn, where there has been farming on land for several years, and we have good quality of seawater and facility to bring the smolt from the tanks down to the wellboat and ship it over to the fjords. And then on the north, we have a fantastic freshwater there. We get the water from the lava.
It's not a open river, it's groundwater, and they are up to about 10 degrees, and that's perfect for the salmon. Then the zones, as I mentioned, the fjords, we have 6 production zones and fourteen sites that go up to 17 when we reach the license for Seyðisfjörður. And the harvesting station in Djúpivogur, we are capable of harvesting around 30,000 tons. This slide is a little bit complicated, but on the top you can see the harvesting profile. We started harvesting in 2018, and it's gone up, up, up, and then we had to drop in 2021 due to the ISA virus.
So, but due to our production zones and the amount of fjords we have, we were able to put out a new generation in 2022, and we finished harvesting the spring one this spring. And now we are starting on the autumn of 2022, and we have currently around 8 million fish in the sea, so we are quite confident of reaching about 21,500 tons this year. And if we convert that to the meals, so that's the columns down there, it's about 100 million meals that we aim to produce this year. The smolt is really a key, and when we started up, we had limited resources on smolt, and it was all about getting the fish into the sea and prove that the fish can survive there.
So the focus was really all the nice equipment and all the, strong cages and barges were put in the sea. Then in the last four years, we've been, focusing more on the smolt, and we started building up, Kópasker and Rifós quite heavily in 2020 after the, launch, to the market, and we got some more capital. Then we have a huge facility in the Land South. As you see, the size of the fish, the average sizes, has been growing, and we had a step down in 2023, and that is mainly due to we are more, we are grading or, or we wanted high-quality smolts to be put out, not just the quantity. The license volume is quite big.
We have 6,000 tons of land license, MAB license. Currently, we are only utilizing around 2,000 ton of that for a short period in the spring. So we will have abundance of area and access to build more on land going forward. Boston Consulting Group did a study on Iceland, what are the possibilities on land? And it was done for the Ministry of Fisheries in Iceland and issued last year. And they were really, really amazed how big the possibility is here in Iceland. We had been quite far behind Faroes, Norway, and Scotland, and Ireland. They all are producing more than us and have started much earlier.
So we are a little bit late coming in, and therefore, we have the advantage of having more technology, better equipment, et cetera. So in general, this report says, "Okay, we were farming around 40,000-50,000 tons last year, and we have the license in total Iceland, about 100,000, and the goal should be then to go grow." They see possibilities to go up all the way to 200,000 tons. We'll be somewhere in between. We'll take it step by step, and we are looking forward to that. This is our product. This is our salmon. It's a beautiful silver salmon with color of strong meat. It's been with us for almost three years.
It takes about 10-15 months on land, and with the bigger smolts, we can reduce the time in sea from about 13 months down to about 12 months. So it's a huge win to have bigger smolts going in, and it lowers the risk and et cetera. But this is what our customer love, and these are our unique selling points. We have higher omega-3 than others, and that's mostly due to the cold sea and the slow growth, and the fish needs to build up high amount of fat and energy to go through the winters. We have Whole Foods certification. When we started the company back in 2012, we had the goal to reach Whole Foods. We managed that in 2018, so...
But we have maintained all the standards and worked towards them. So it takes time to build up a brand, like Asle said, and the reputation and the acceptance of a good product. We have also AquaGAP certification, that is certified sustainable certification. So we are tracing everything that we do. We're not using chemicals. We're not using any hormones. We take bottom samples of the seabed to see if they have recovered after the last farming session. So no chemicals, and this is a clean product. And we're talking about carbon footprint, and the smolt stations are using electricity from, you know, river dams or hydro, geothermal electricity.
Then we pump out the lukewarm water from the ground that is perfect for the salmon. Even though we live in Iceland, it is usually really cold, and the sea is cold. We even have, yeah, one of the biggest investment in the harvesting station was a big machine to cool the fish down, and we cool it down to -1, around that level, and that really extends the shelf life for our fish. As we transport the fish, for example, to Europe, it takes aboutfour days, compared to our competition in Norway, where it takes one day. So we need to do more to keep the fish even fresher into the stores. So the buyer really enjoys extended shelf life, and with this technique that was designed by Icelandic company, we are reaching those levels.
We are not using any copper on the nets. We clean them with high-pressure pumps and natural coloring in the feed, so it's not a synthetic feed. And we are really proud, and you can see how beautiful it is. And like Jens mentioned, we have it in our genes to handle fish, and that's the crucial part. We get people to work with us. They have been working either in processing or on sea. They know how to knot the knots and operate fluently on our vessels. And then again, these are really hard for everybody else to copy: pan of fat, coloring in the feed, and superior grade and firm texture. It's a really good product.
And then again, the access to the markets is crucial, and marketing a brand into retailers and big stores, you need certifications. We are now attaining the ASC certification, hopefully beginning of second half of this year. And as we had already Whole Foods certification, it was not too much of a hassle to go through it. So the team in quality has a full-time job to get all of this, and this is built into our structure of farming, that we follow the regulations, and that has really been successful. Then where are we? We are middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and where are the markets? It's USA, it's Europe, and then it's Asia.
If you look straight down on Iceland and look where our neighbors are, we're pretty much in the middle. We are using vessels, so to USA, and that's possible due to the methods we are handling in the harvesting station to chill down the fish quite well. That extends the shelf life, so we can send the boat fish with a boat and container to USA, and reaching that market at a, yeah, better price. It's, it's cheaper to fly, uh, to have the boat instead of flying. Then we are looking also at Asia, where we have, like, two-thirds of the population, and, uh, direct flights are most likely to become reality soon, and to fly the fish over there to, to a population, uh, that's, yeah, enormous, and the middle class is growing there, uh, really strong.
And then going up back again and, you know, it's all to the details, the initiatives, the important small things to make this happen. And the key, just to name a few, I've already mentioned some of them, and there are several. The list is long. The main focus has been to improve the infrastructure and operations. We are alone here. There is nobody. It's not like in Norway, where you can call this guy and this guy, and there are many companies who support it, so we need to do everything our own. And we've brought in fish welfare expertise to look at and analyze how the fish is doing from egg to harvest.
We've discovered many, many things that is possible to improve, and a lot of those items have already been implemented. And just the routines to reduce biological risk, we see a big difference even on the smolt that we're putting out this year. It started two weeks ago from the east, from Kópasker, and the fish is now in Fáskrúðsfjörður eating well, and really happy fish. Then the R&D strategy has given us new vaccines. We took a sample from the sea here around us, and also on the south, where we have the post-smolt facilities, and found items there that we could fit into a new vaccine, and that was implemented now in September last year. So all the fish that is going in the sea this year has the new vaccine.
And then ISA vaccine was started over one year ago, so part of the fish that is from 23 generation has ISA vaccination. And then all, again, the documentation, follow-up, and how do we do it better, and what is the best to lead us in the right direction? Those are the items that we are looking at the moment. Again, to the licenses, so we are really proud there, and we have a good portfolio to go on further growth going forward. We are waiting for the license in Seyðisfjörður, and then we reach around 53.8 thousand tons. And then we still have capacity in the fjords to increase. The fjord, Fáskrúðsfjörður and Reyðarfjörður, we still have 4,000-8,000 tons total there possible to get.
Then the Mjóeyri, which we estimate around 8,000 tons, could be more, could be less. But then in total, the East Coast can be around 72,000 tons. And just to grab it, it's 28,000 fish at speed in Djúpivogur, and that brings us up to around 500,000 meals per day. And here we can see the smolt facility we have in Reyðarfjörður. We built up the two houses there in the middle in 2020, and then we are building up a new one called G House. It's a middle station that you have, like, 10- to 40-gram fish, and that's one step further in the all-in-out strategy, and also possible for more volume to farm more fish. Then the smolt facility in Kópasker.
There we have built the first house of... out of possible four, so we can produce more salmon there. We have quite warm sea there, about eight-13 degrees, that is drilled down just by the coastline. This is where the, I would say, the crack through Iceland is leaving the country. So it enters in the, in the Reykjanes and, and then leaves in, in Kópasker. And so we are- that's the reason we have those stations in those areas. The management team, we've been so lucky to have a good team and... Yeah, like Asle mentioned earlier, it started just a few of us, and now we have a team to take care of things.
It's been a fun ride for me, and been occupied on this for the last 12 years. To hand over all of responsibilities to qualified people has been really enjoyable, and my work with Jens Helgason since we merged in 2022 and earlier with through the association and such. But the uncommon knowledge and you're from here in Eskifjörður, know the pulse of the area, and have been a great support in the company and going forward. Róbert joined the team in 2020, right after we had listed the company, so he jumped right into a listed company, but had extensive education and experience in the financial world.
Kjartan Lindbøl, he came over in 2018, previously worked in NRS in Norway, far up, much further than here, it's up in Finnmark, and they have a quite similar temperature profile as Iceland. So we thought, "Okay, let's get Kjartan over. He knows how to, and can teach us how to handle the fish." And he's certainly done that and we really see a professionalism and the work attitude and the team. It's over 60 people at the moment, I imagine. When you entered, there were eight guys, so well done. And Þórarinn, who's our land manager south, he's been over 35 years handling smolt and helped us building up Reyðarfjörður and Kópasker in 2020 and 2022.
Yeah, that was Fannar, sorry. And, Þórarinn, he is Toti and land managers south. And he was CEO of Ísþór, that we owned from 2015 to 2022 and sold it then, and built up a lot of good practices in Ísþór. And now he's joined us again in Laxabraut or Land South. Elís, our harvesting manager, he has been with me and the team since 2014. We started up the harvesting station after the changes of cod and things like that. So we were, like, diving into the whole cold swimming pool and putting up a team to harvest the salmon, and some remarkable package.
Viðar, who joined the team in 2022 during the ISA disaster, and the, his knowledge in, in, and he's like a PhD in this field, and helped us greatly, in that. And then we, you know, went through those changes, and we've kept him here, and, and we really appreciate your, input, analyzing the, the... Doing R&D research and, and, and things to improve the quality of our work. And, and it's really enjoyable to have this team together. And then the guys who have supported us with, money, that is needed to build something great.
In the beginning, in 2012, it was not many that wanted to put in money and, and, had to go, for example, to my father, who's here with us, and, really helped us in some difficult spots we are in. But then gradually, we managed to prove that we have success, we have fantastic product. The fish is going through the winter and et cetera. So then we got guys from Norway, as they both had money and also, knowledge, and great interest of building up an infrastructure here in Iceland. Then we listed the company back in 2020, and that was, yeah, during the COVID, and I thought this would never happen, but actually teams came and all that.
And we had to like four or five x booking of what we were asking for, so that was a huge success. Then a little bit later, we merged the companies, and that was a, yeah, challenge and also opportunity. And then, like Asle said, we needed to refinance and restructure due to the difficulties from ISA. And there are not many companies, yeah, that survived of such an endurance, and the strong shareholder base certainly kept us going. And that is a crucial thing in all business, and especially farming, that you need to continue. And it's a journey. You have some ups and downs, and that's why we have, yeah, now, today, listing the company in Iceland.
We see that there's a great interest for salmon farming in Iceland by investors and Icelanders, and to really be able to sell and attain interest from the locals and the people here is important for the company to take part and please take part in the company. It's a great vision. It's a great project. It's a future, and we really are working our full speed ahead. But what are we doing? You know, are we killing the wild salmon? No. We have put out several initiatives to protect the wild salmon, and just to name one of them, the first of them is that we're putting out larger salmon. A larger salmon has less possibilities to survive in the wilderness, in the sea, if it escapes.
We have bought stronger nets, and that's industry standard. So, that is, like, the best way to prevent any escapes. We have high surveillance of our equipment, with cameras, daily routines, and other factors that we see when we are feeding, and et cetera. We just received new AI cameras that analyze the fish daily and give us a report how it's doing. And then Iceland is a unique farming nation with risk assessment, evaluating how many tons we can produce versus the risk for the wild salmon. And that is crucial, as we don't want to have any influence in the rivers, as we want to keep the fish in the cages and bring it to our customers.
I'm proud to say that, you know, we have not had an incident of escapes after we started on salmon. We had an escape on the trout earlier. That was that we are not using today. And the history of no escapes are important to us, and we wanna keep it like that. Zero tolerance for escapes. Then again, going into. We are so proud of all the improvements, and that's the key to success, is the small things, which are really important going forward. And then the cameras, just to mention that we are a high-tech company. We are doing a lot of research and also using the latest technology to improve our operations and keep track of what's happening.
And this AI inspection that they are using a learning algorithm to evaluate what's happening in the cage. So it takes over 20,000-30,000 pictures of the fish per day, and you can see if there's something happening. Are they getting wounds after a storm? Are they getting mature? Are they growing? Are they growing fast or slow, or what's happening? And this really gives the farmer a better indication what's happening at the cage. So these kind of improvements are really fun. And also to mention others like automatic feeding, that if we have these cameras turned up and then the feed is coming down to evaluate how much the fish is eating, and then giving them until they are satisfied.
And then contribution by our farming, and, and, Asle went through many of those points, and, and want to repeat them a little bit. That's the healthy part of it. It's, it's, it's one of the superfoods. Give your kids salmon. It's good for the brain, it's good for the heart. And regarding the capabilities of producing more protein in the world is getting limited. In the Blue Revolution, we are entering the seas. We, we want to utilize the seas to produce proteins. And the competitive jobs, oh, my God, when we started, we were just a few guys, and my vision then was to export something, produce something, get something out of the country, export.
This was just after the financial crisis, and, you know, we need to do something. Really proud of, you know, creating jobs, creating, good economy, make a new pillar of the Icelandic industry. So with all the plans as we want them to be, and excellent and all that, 100,000 tons, 150,000 tons of salmon is... We have to be patient and take it milestone by milestone, but that will be the fourth pillar of the Icelandic industry. Going forward, again, the 30,000-ton, optimize the land production. We have plenty of space there. We have adjustments, in the regulation, which we really, really, like, and as we have mostly done most of them, these production zones and others. So we are ahead of the regulations, in this part.
And then the marketing of our salmon, to get it to the customer and the right customers that is willing to pay and at a premium level, as our fish certainly deserves a good price. And that, again, then will be more profitable for the company, and in total, to invest and keep ongoing and on a successful way. Thank you for listening and hand over to Heiðrún. Thank you.
Thank you, Guðmundur. As I said before, it's great that you are backing a new, fresh brand with a great story. I think it's an exceptional story that this company has. And it's also good to see. It's almost like, you know, when you're a kid and you fall, and you need to stand up again and dust yourself off, and that's definitely what happened with the ISA virus. And to see the production going down to 4,000, and then estimated 21,500 this year, it's just an amazing story. Well done. Well, at meetings like this, where we have a wide range of topics and a lot of information that are being covered, it's important to ensure two things: that guests get oxygen and strong coffees in their veins.
Those who are online, they also now have time to change out of their pajamas and into some decent work clothes. So let's take a short break and resume at 11:00 A.M., when we will hear from three important stakeholders in aquaculture here in East Iceland. See you soon. ... Well, folks, let's keep the ball rolling. We probably all know what the main mission is: sustainable export growth is the foundation of economic prosperity and improved living standards in any country. Iceland has come a long way. Just think back to the 1970s, when fishing was practically Iceland's sole export industry. Since then, we've been on a quest to diversify our exports. Aluminum products and tourism joined the fray, and now aquaculture. Though still in its early stages, as you've probably heard, it has become a promising new export pillar.
To ensure continued growth and value creation in the industry, we need stable and predictable rules. It's sort of like football: the game doesn't work without clear rules and a firm referee. Now, I'm not saying our next speaker is akin to a football referee, but he does represent the authorities who craft the rules and ensure they're followed. Kolbeinn Árnason is the Director General for the Department of Food in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries. He will talk about the legislation and regulations related to aquaculture in Iceland, and of course, the bill that is now being discussed in Parliament. So get ready for some regulatory insights with a side of Icelandic flair.
Thank you, Heiðrún. Ladies and gentlemen, to start off, congratulations with the new name. Sounds promising. As Heiðrún said, I'm going to speak to the legislation in Iceland currently, but mainly focus on the policy reforms that have been ongoing within the ministry, and the bill she mentioned as well, that's now before Parliament. Before I get into this, I need to underline that what I'm going through here is based on the bill. What happens in Parliament remains to be seen. Parliament is in session, hopefully until the mid of June, end of June, so we are hoping that this progresses, but politics is something that you can't predict, especially in Iceland, in the current climate. So let's go.
When the new government came in, came into play in 2021, there was one of their aim to set up a clear set of rules for the industry. As Heiðrún said as well, the main goal has to be that an industry that's growing, an industry that's supposed to work, an industry that is supposed to gain balance, has a clear set of rules to play by. When I came to office in 2021, my evaluation of the situation was that that was not the case. That's the current legislation. So a need- a change was needed, and that's what we have been trying to do for the past three years.
In addition to that, our governmental functionings, such as surveillance, monitoring, and research, was extremely weak, and that's also something the government is responsible for, and that's something we've aimed at strengthening in the past years. The aim of this whole thing is to create an industry that's sustainable in the broadest sense: economically sustainable, environmentally sustainable, and socially sustainable. What it says here is that we're trying to balance the environment and the industry's vision. I don't think these are conflicting things. These are completely aligned issues. There is nobody I would dare to say that has environmentally sound than those that are relying on the environment to actually do their business. So we don't see this as opposing things, but completely aligned things. So what have we done? We tried to approach this in a professional manner.
We got the National Audit Office to review the situation as was. To no surprise to those that had stepped into the industry at that point in time, there was a lot of room for improvement. 21 notes that the National Audit Office said we could actually fix, and those were both on the legislative field, but also on the practical field with monitoring and surveillance. We got then Boston Consulting Group to do an analysis of what was the potential of aquaculture in Iceland, and what were the ways to achieve that potential. In 2023, Boston Consulting Group issued their report, and on these two documents, we have based our policy framework that I referred to earlier, and the bill that's now before Parliament. So what did Boston Consulting Group say when it came to analyzing the impact of aquaculture in Iceland?
As you can see, from an environmental, economic, and social standpoint, most of the impacts are positive. Dark green is extremely positive, light green, positive, but we have two things that we need to flag, we need to be aware of, need to take care of. That's biodiversity and ecosystems, and then conflict of economic, economic interest and ideologies. That's exactly what we're facing now when debating the current bill: ideologies, economic interests, but also the environmental impact of the industry. So what do we need to balance these things? Boston Consulting Group was clear, and that's once more underlining the importance of clear rules, effective governance, ensuring that an industry had the incentives to actually invest into a relatively fast-growing industry, and the level of predictability and effectiveness of governance is something that will then govern how comfortable people are to invest into the industry.
So our is to ensure that these rules and this governance is, sufficient enough to get you guys to actually show up and start investing, and start producing, start developing an industry that is sustainable from all the three perspectives that I discussed earlier. Now, Guðmundur went through the potential growth with respect to the already issued licenses. We have two main, functions in, in, in managing the capacity or, or the production in Iceland from a, from, from a government standpoint, from, from a scientific standpoint. The Marine Research Institute issues, number one, a carrying capacity number, which is the environmental load, each single fjord can take, and the maximum number in Iceland is, 144,000 tons.
We then have risk assessment that is supposed to control the risk to the wild salmon stocks, and that is now at the number of 106,000 tons. What has actually hampered us to get to the 106,000 tons is what Guðmundur referred to earlier, and that is capacity of the industry. It's not that we need more licenses, smolt capacity, access to skill and labor, access to funding is what hampers us from growing to the production of 40,000 tons that we have today, to the 106,000 tons. We can also see that this is not a risk-free industry because we haven't grown for the past 3 years. When I came into office, I thought we were almost at the 19,000 tons at today's level, but we had the ISA outbreak here.
We've had a lice catastrophe in the west. We've had lack of infrastructure, both on the smolt capacity side, but also on the production side on the other end, that has prohibited us from actually putting out viable smolts and reacting sensibly to the challenges that we have met. So growth has not been to the level that we had hoped. But as music to my ears, I listened to Guðmundur talking about the new facilities. We see the same happening in the west, that we are, by capacity, we're funding the industry to actually fit the clothes that we've made for it, and hopefully, we can see this happen in the next years. And I think this is very much in line with the predictions that Guðmundur went through earlier....
I would like to underline, though, that the columns are all representing fertile salmon, and there is a potential to actually go up to 150,000 tons without any new licenses if there is the scientific development we're hoping for, and production of infertile salmon can be achieved. So the possibility to grow is enormous. Now, what are we doing to achieve this? Number one, this would not be done to achieve growth; this would be done to achieve protection of the wild salmon. There is a suggestion in the bill to actually legislate conservation zones in Iceland that would prohibit salmon farming in the biggest part of the coastline. So the only areas that would be open are those that are open now in the Westfjords and here in the East Fjords.
We have the biggest bulk of this already in conservation areas, but those are not done by legislation, and we are adding to the conservation areas, Eyjafjörður and Öxarfjörður, that are named up there, so we're adding to this. So we are limited to, number one, the Westf jords, and number two, what we're discussing here, the East Fjords. How do we think we can actually get to terms with managing the companies, making sure that they are actually achieving sustainability on the environmental side? Simple: assigning individual responsibility. What Norway has learned, what the Faroes have learned, is that mixed or joint responsibilities lead to a race to the bottom. What we want to do is to set up a rule that makes one farmer responsible for one fjord, one biosecurity area. This is extremely important in the Westf jords.
The new company is lucky enough to be alone in the East Fjords and responsible enough to have already set up the big biosecurity zones by themselves following the ISA outbreak. So the new rules are already in force here voluntarily. Makes our job a lot easier. When we assign the responsibility, it comes with a stick, and it comes with a carrot. We put in a limit on mortality, and we put in a limit on lice. If you exceed this limit on either mortality or lice, your license will be lowered. So you can get up to 3%-5% reduction in your license if you exceed these milestones. If you, however, are under a certain limit, your production limits can increase, so you are the master of your fate.
You can actually, if you do well, get added production licenses, and you can increase your production. This also applies in an area like this, when it comes to carrying capacity, as you are controlling the environmental impact of your operations. So better operations, lesser pollution, more licensing production, more production licenses. Again, in the East Fjords, when we talk about risk assessment, that is the risk of salmon escaping, mixing with the wild population, this company is very much the master of its own destination. Because the risk assessment, as the Marine Research Institute issues it, it today, it's split into two: to the Westf jords and to the East Fjords.
And if your history is as good as it's been, and your escapes are as low as they have been, going into the future, in all likelihood, the risk assessment can grow. But again, it's up to you guys, because your risk is created in the north and east part of Iceland, and if there is no pollution of farmed salmon there, there's no reason for you not to be able to actually exceed what you're doing now. These are the things that we do to punish you or actually awarding you with something new. What we're trying to do as well is to create operational flexibility, which is new from what we're doing today. Today, you have a license for a certain production, and that's limited to a site.
We are scratching that, and your risk assessment is now transferable between fjords, so you can maximize the utilization of that risk assessment by managing the production cycle within the fjords. And this should open up for a capacity increase again within the licenses that have already been issued. So planning of the utilization can achieve bigger numbers already. Now, for the fun part of discussing taxes, that is an eternal debate within the industry, between government and industry, whether that's here or in the Faroes or in Norway. We have done quite a lot of comparison with our neighboring countries. We have been trying to develop this to take into account the status of the industry.
We have put forward a system that is supposed to measure the revenue of the companies, the average revenue, I have to admit. So we are setting a production cost, an average production cost, with that, the production cost in northern Norway, which is something we think can be achieved here in Iceland. We then create an index for that production cost to develop, and it's a simple index. It takes into account mostly salary costs and feed prices, so it's a simple formulation. So if that cost increases, then the brackets for tax move along with it. So if revenue is equal to or lower than the cost, there will only be minimum taxes, but the taxation will increase as the profits get bigger.
Seven brackets from 1-11%, depending on the price of salmon in the international markets. We got wind of a new approach in the Faroe Islands only a week old, and we did a comparison to that, and that's what we see here. Taxes in Iceland should be lower when profits are lower, but they will get higher as profits increase. In addition to this, we are introducing incentive schemes where you will get discounts of taxes if you invest into environmentally sound ways of doing your business: closed farming, unfertile fish, bigger smolts, shorter time in sea.
So at least from what I heard in the earlier presentations, this company will hit at least some of these these discounts, even if they just continue on the path that they're on. So we are increasing we, we are encouraging environmentally sound methods of doing business. Now, if we do this and do this well, Boston Consulting Group says the sky is the limit. We are now at the ASC's, at the 2021 level still, we're even a bit below it. We can, as I said earlier, grow up to 100,000 tons in traditional aquaculture on the basis of the licenses that we have now. If we use the technology, if we better utilize what we have, we can grow up to almost 150,000 tons without issuing any new licenses.
And if we are progressive, we can almost go up to 250,000 tons. So we have an industry that can grow, but if we fall on our face and do this in the wrong manner, we can also remain where we are, and I would claim we can also actually go even further down than that. So it's up to us as a government to set the rules. It's up to us as a government to create the environment and framework to do this, fund the research, fund the surveillance, and it's up to you guys to then achieve this growth, because this can be the fourth pillar under the Icelandic economy, and I would claim it has all the potential to actually do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Kolbeinn. I didn't expect anything less than an excellent and informative presentation from him. Bill now being discussed in the Icelandic Parliament will conclude... Let me rephrase that. We'll have some adjustments, and then unpredictable legislation. Now, let's move on to our next presentation. Despite aquaculture being a fairly new industry in Iceland, individual aquaculture companies are already an important backbone in the communities where they operate. Not only do they create good and well-paid jobs and contribute to society with taxes and fees, but they are also essential for the growth and prosperity of other local businesses, such as those providing services to aquaculture. And you certainly don't need to trust my word on this matter. Next up is Jóna Árný Þórðardóttir, the main municipality where Kaldvik operates. Jóna, the floor is yours.
... Thank you, Hé ðinn , for the nice introduction. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our home in Fjarðabyggð, and congratulations on a beautiful and insightful capital market day for Kaldvik, here in Eskifjörður. We are just over halfway into our today's program, and already have so much good and interesting information that will benefit us all. I want to use this opportunity to tell you a little bit about our community, and some of you flew in and drove here this morning. You saw that our communities are in a picturesque nature, featuring steep mountains, deep fjords, and lush valleys. Now spring is coming, our mountains are shedding their white caps, and our fields and wildlife are coming out of hibernation.
Spring is actually my favorite season, having been raised as a farmer's daughter here in the valley, on the other side of the mountain here behind us. On the farm, spring is the lambing season, which is always time of hard work, joy for new life, and anticipation for a beautiful and bright summer nights. That is what I hope you feel today: joy and anticipation. As many of you already know, our communities here in the east are driven by diverse economy, one of the strongest in Iceland. As Jens mentioned before, our roots are intertwined with nature, where our inhabitants have, for centuries, made their living by using natural resources responsibly. We fish sustainably, raise our livestock and other produce with care, and produce valuable metal for modern equipment worldwide with green energy.
We invite our guests to become part of our community as our friends while they stay with us, and we encourage them to think outside the circle when they plan their travel. We have actually built a remarkably resilient economy in Fjarðabyggð and in Austurland, East Iceland, with product exports valued about 10 times more per capita than the national average. More than a fifth of the value of exported marine products, both from the fishing and fish farming industries, comes from the east of Iceland, based on the 2022 numbers. We know we are still increasing our production, based on the presentations here before, in the region, so you can see where we're headed. Over a third of our aluminum production comes from the region. This amounts to almost quarter of Iceland's total product exports.
Thus, this part of Iceland, which only has about 3% of the population, accounts for about a quarter of the country's product exports. When we look at services and focus on the tourism industry, we can see that because we're far away from the main flight gate to Iceland, Keflavík, we get fewer visitors during the winter season. Therefore, a lot of capacity is already available for greeting guests, which is the reason why we have been promoting our international airport in Egilsstaðir for direct flights. When we get the right, we will increase the attractiveness for new residents, which will benefit our whole economy. As an island nation in the middle of the Atlantic, our welfare relies on being able to create value in a sustainable way, where the communities thrive. This resilience is the testament to our community's strength and potential for sustainable growth.
We have often been the first for many things here in the east. We're far away from the capital region and have often needed to find our way with a focus on the welfare of our inhabitants. We live from nature, but also with nature, and have had our fair share of natural disasters. But we're a resilient bunch of people, who face nature head-on by building defenses and preparing for the unexpected. We have been here for over a millennium and will continue to be here in the future. This is our home, and we're very proud of it. In 2022, the four municipalities of East Iceland approved their first regional plan for the area from Djúpivogur in the south to Vopnafjörður in the north. This area accounts for about 15% of Iceland's surface. Those that know Icelanders realize that this is quite an accomplishment.
The battle with nature, through the centuries, have generally developed a character within the Icelandic nation, where planning for the future wasn't always our strong suit. You can see this mentality in our Icelandic phrase, "Þetta reddast," which guests often described as the country's motto. It might be interesting for you to know that we managed to use the time during COVID-19, when everybody was in and out of lockdown, to make, discuss, and approve this regional plan. We used COVID-19 to prepare for the future, when we did, in fact, not know what the future would hold. We plowed through various policies, both at a global level, national level, and regional level, and held meeting and consultations online, in Teams, to come to a conclusion on our regional policy.
I think, actually, the term and mentality of Þetta reddast helped us make this plan, which is, in fact, a little bit upside down. As I said, the municipalities approved the regional plan for 2022- 2044 in October 2022. This plan emphasizes our vision for a development of the communities and the economic and fiscal environment in the region. At the same time, the state finalized the coastal plan was confirmed in March 2023. Again, we're the first region in Iceland to have both approved regional plan and approved coastal plan to guide us. The vision in the plans is that thriving communities are best based on sustainability, and everybody has a role to play for that future vision to come to fruition. The state is working on new legislation, framework, and the necessary infrastructure for monitoring.
The companies are investing their infrastructure, developing their employee base, producing quality products for the market, and participating in various ways to strengthen the community in which they operate in, as we heard from Mr. Lyle, and Skaara, and Guðmundur. Working on strengthening its infrastructure, such as encouraging the housing market with various measures, building new service buildings, as we can see here in Eskifjörður at the kindergarten, renovating older service buildings, expanding the harbor facilities, developing public transport, and so on and so on. Our vision for 2044 is ambitious, but we know we have the right bones and a unique way to become an economic powerhouse, with the quality of life and sustainability as our cornerstones. We already excel in key sectors, attract investments, and have good foundation to drive innovation. To make our vision actionable categories: outstanding home, area of opportunities, strong society, and lifelong adventure.
The four pillars of sustainability connect each category to other. We transformed the classic third social pillar into two, emphasizing the value of culture and community in our region's sustainability. We connected United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with our local strategy, which is based in part on the national policy, acknowledging that there are many dimensions to successfully developing a strong community. Outstanding home is about our ambitions for both the built and natural environment, how we see our infrastructure development, where our core strengths are, and opportunities for future development. The area of opportunities form a framework for our economic drivers. Our core industries are cornerstones of our communities. New industries introduced to the region help diversify and strengthen our core, and provide an additional base for innovation, knowledge, and research for future economic development.
A strong society is about building a cohesive and diverse community of people who have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and lead a healthy lives in health-promoting environment. Lifelong adventure promotes flourishing cultural life and good conditions for artistic creation and sports, so that the region will continue to be an exciting place to live, work, and visit. I want to dwell a little bit on the area of opportunities and our regional food production and value creation policy, since it connects directly to today's topic. Before we move on, it's really important to recognize, like on my sheep farm in Skógarstaður, those who keep animals for food production must prioritize the animals' welfare, implement best practices to minimize stress, and promote optimal growth.
Furthermore, our fjords are ecosystems and are not just a resource for salmon farming, but also a part of our heritage and the lifeblood of our communities in so many ways, as Jens went through before. We emphasize that all operate with responsible stewardship and minimize environmental impact. We want to strive to strike a balance between economic prosperity and ecological responsibility. With everybody practicing their role, we can ensure that our fjords remain vibrant, our fish thrive, and our community prosper. Now, back to our policy. The core of it is that the cultivation and now acquisition of raw material for food production should respect the resources used in a sustainable and responsible manner. I want to go over some of the main points of this policy.
Using raw materials from the sea, water, and land should be based on knowledge about the respective ecosystem and function, depending on its condition. Fish farming will be limited to fjords where we have settlements. We have fjords in East Iceland where there is no settlements, such as Fjarðarfjörður, Hellisfjörður, and Loðmundarfjörður. This emphasis, among other things, is also included in our approved coastal zone planning. We encourage organic fish farming with corresponding certification, ensuring the best tracking technology is used, counteract the possible negative effects of fish farming on the biosphere. Responsible management and efficient monitoring are the characteristics of fish farming in the east of Iceland, which ensures the quality of the products and prevents possible negative effects on the biosphere.
Jobs related to the production, processing, monitoring, and research should be local, so that the value creation supports other regional development. The local communities should get directly part of the state's proceeds from the fish farming to strengthen their infrastructure. Coastal planning and master plan will coordinate the land use and interest on the borders of land and coastal areas. With our regional plan, we have formed a unique and a progressive framework for working together. As a community, we face the same global challenges and trends as everybody else, but we must act locally to strengthen our community in the long run. To do that, we must continue working on every level and continue to think progressively for the region. But why does this matter, and how does it relate to Kaldvik? The company has been a part of our community from the start.
The owners and employees share our values of working responsibly in cooperation with the community to produce a valuable, sought-after product. With this new industry growing here in Austurland, new investments and service industries are emerging. I want to take a few examples of that. Our transportation and logistic industry has grown, with more produce being produced in the region. The region has the fastest shipping connections to Europe in the whole of Iceland. Mjóeyri is the largest import-export harbor outside of the capital region, and we also have a weekly service from Smyril Line in Seyðisfjörður. We see an opportunity, hopefully in the near future, for Isavia to extend the runway of our international airport in Egilsstaðir by 400 meters, so we could actually fly our produce directly with cargo planes from the region, similar to the development of... at our neighbors in Vágar in Faroe Islands.
How cool would that be? Our netting industry has also grown, with investments in new net lots. A new service center is being developed for fish farming bags, and local companies are offering various technical services at sea and on land. Various maintenance and repair services are rendered by local companies, and the new industry has been a valuable addition to a customer base of the aluminum, fishing, and tourism industries. Among other things, one company is now developing a specific area where net cages can be assembled and repaired. Just a small example on local companies seeing the opportunities to expand their services. There is a lot of technology related to salmon farm management, such as monitoring the net cages, feeding barges, and other facilities with cameras and other optimization equipment.
Now, more service companies in the area offer setup and maintenance of equipment and related software and connections. We have a diving company here in Fjarðabyggð, which we did not have before. In addition to serving the salmon industry, we now have this service available for other diving work, which is valuable to our community with this many harbors and large fishing fleet. With increased numbers of service boats, related to the industry, there is a greater need for boats and safety equipment. One exciting new development is that a study program in navigation will be offered for the first time in our local high school this fall. Further education developments are being worked on, and hopefully will come to fruition soon. We have more research and monitoring positions in the region, with independent and government institutions specialized in research and related to environment assessment connected to the industry.
These positions are really valuable, too. They strengthen our ambition for innovation and development across industries as a base for further regional business development. Kaldvik has also participated in discussions developing other opportunities in the region that are part of our regional plan, such as the development of production of green fuel in East Iceland. The byproducts from that production could be the basis for more innovation. Who knows? Yes, there are truly exciting times ahead for Fjarðabyggð and for Austurland. As you can see from these few examples, introducing a new industry committed to sustainable, that cares about the environment and the community, strengthens our social and economic fabric. It participates in weaving a stronger community for us all. The potential for further economic growth in Fjarðabyggð and Austurland is substantial.
Further investments in our economy and infrastructure, particularly in transport and connectivity, will unlock new opportunities in all sectors. In conclusion, East Iceland's robust economic activities and potential for future growth make it a cornerstone in Iceland's economy. Austurland is Iceland's economic powerhouse. Investing in this region promises substantial return for the local community and Iceland as a whole. Thank you, and let's continue the day with joy and enthusiasm.
... Thank you very much, Jóna, for a highly engaging presentation. It's so rewarding, actually, to see the energy and foresight present in this close-knit aquaculture and fishing community. It certainly shows that we are doing things right and sensibly. Now, on to the final presentation of the day. Aquaculture has many advocates, but we also have the skeptics, and it's only natural to have skeptics when building an industry that the public has little knowledge about. For those of us working in this industry, it should therefore be welcomed that there are people that want to engage in dialogue with us. And on that matter, we sometimes hear that only foreign entities own and benefit from the development of aquaculture here in Iceland. This, of course, is not true. Icelandic entities have increasingly become major shareholders in aquaculture companies. One of these Icelandic investors is next up.
Einar Sigurðsson is a board member of Kaldvik, as well as the Chairman of the Board of Ísfélag, one of the largest shareholders in Kaldvik. Einar has worked in the seafood industry his whole career and is also the CEO of the family holding company. Einar, the floor is yours.
Thank you, and it's good to be here with you guys. Ísfélag is the oldest company in Iceland still operating, founded 1901. I didn't start my career at that year, but came in a bit later. Just a little bit about the Ísfélag for those that don't know us very well. We are operating in three areas in Iceland. We have four pelagic vessels. We have four regular trawlers, one longliner, and one freezer trawlers. We have been investing a lot over the last few years, both on land and sea, and I think it's fair to say that we are very diversified seafood company here in Iceland, and we went through public listing in the last December, and with been great success.
Now, there are three listed companies in the Icelandic seafood companies in the Icelandic Stock Exchange. Just for the key numbers, for 2023, we have a revenue of around $230 million, EBITDA around $80 million, and net interest-bearing debt around $100 million, and profit or was around $45 million. And we have a very experienced and capable management, and I think it's fair to say that we are among the most diversified Icelandic seafood companies. We looked into the salmon farming industry for a while before we invested. We think this is just the early stages of the industry. New industry is rising, and it is, and it already is, and also in Iceland.
I took those numbers from the Boston Consulting Group report that was done for the Ministry of the... Also from work that McKinsey did for the SFS, where they were mapping up what potential lies ahead if we are sensible and if we are careful in our operation. I think if we look at the. Somebody smaller than me was here before me. Might be headroom. So I think we are gonna take the production from a minimum 40,000 tons to 100,000 tons, and I think even 100,000 tons will create three very strong companies, one here in the East Fjords and two in the west. I predict that all eventually there will only be one in the west.
Those companies will be among the biggest companies in the Icelandic countryside, and we should, both as a industry and as investors, to celebrate that. But we need to aim high. Kolbeinn showed, those pictures in his presentation, and this is all true. These are the potential of the industry in the future, and his people in the ministry need to keep in mind. That is to make sure that, the regulation at, at this time, that we don't get in the same trap that we had in the energy sector in Iceland, where we have endless of opportunities for renewable energy, but somehow the regulation framework has made it difficult to reach those potentials. We need to have a regulation environment that supports these pictures and this future.
This is a very ambitious, but at the same time, very normal for Iceland to seek and get those numbers in the next 10 years. And I think after that, we are able to stop looking at something that we call base case, and we should look at the progressive. We should always look at the progressive. That is how you build a society with a vibrant economy and a strong tax base. But why Kaldvik? Just to... I will go to this one. This is easier to look at. We think all three listed Icelandic salmon farming companies are good companies and has a great value. We looked at all three of them. What we saw in Kaldvik was that it is the only rodeo in town.
This is the only company here in the East Fjords. There is a great potential to reach relatively fast full utilization of the licenses. If we compare, because it's all in the numbers, it's not only that industry has to have a bright future, the companies in the industry also have to have it. If you compare it to the Norwegian salmon farmers, that I also think they are relatively cheap also, if you want to buy shares in Norway. Both the Norwegian krona is cheap and the salmon farming companies.
But I think when you look at the underlying, potential in the Icelandic, listed companies, and especially this one, we were in no doubt when we invested in this process, and we will continue to support the company, and I guess in the future we will invest even more. Of course, when you buy shares, there's always a risk involved, and that has been felt by this industry for, in a few cases, both in the West and also here in the East. But we are at the early stages of the industry, and we have to keep in mind that so we are behind Faroe Islands and Norway, and we cannot adjust our regulations or the tax system to what we have seen there, because the heavy investments lies ahead. In those challenges, this industry needs time to build up.
We have looked at this industry. It's a young industry, even though if you look at the year 2022, Arnarlax was investors, was bigger in revenues than the both two biggest traditional seafood companies in Iceland. In early stages of the industry, we are already there. You can just imagine what will lie ahead of us if the industry is able to be allowed to grow and invest. The industry is also have to put in a lot of effort, that we have not done as much as we can. We need to be transparent, we need to actively participate in discussion about the industry, and we also need to fight and explain to the politicians what is possible. And this is a difficult task, and it will be...
is an everyday task for the management of this company and all of those that operate in the industry. We are fighting against heavy criticism. That is that it is mostly factless criticism based on feelings and emotions rather than hard facts and science. And this is the job ahead, to present the industry as it is and as it can be, and fight emotions with facts and science. I think in that perspective, everybody has to participate, not only those that are operating in the daily jobs, also the local politicians, the people living in the areas, and also those that support the general building of and investments in Iceland and want to see further growth in the Icelandic economy and more diversified economy. This is a start of a journey.
It will not be, like I said, without challenges. We have all seen the news when mishaps happen, and they will possibly happen again in some ways. To address that, we need to address it right away with facts, with transparency, and explaining what we are doing and the impact of what we are doing, both for the Icelandic countryside and the Icelandic economy. To those that have to put a regulatory framework around this industry and all others, we have to state the importance that the regulatory is not too heavy on a young industry, and the tax burden is not too heavy, because there are going to be investments. There are going to be quite a few years until we reach the scalability to be compared to the nations around us.
That has to be taken into account when those that sit in the parliament make a framework for this industry, like every other industry. I compare the discussion about the salmon farming to the seafood industry, where we had had this discussion for years, and compare that to other industries like technical industries and so on. It's little bit surprising that jobs on the countryside don't count as much as the jobs in Reykjavík. That is something that we need to change. First of all, and finally, I want to thank you guys for being all here. I think it's a great—we have a great company here. There's a strong shareholder base, both the Icelandic one, Ísfélag hf., one of two of finest Icelandic seafood companies, Eskja and Skinney-Þinganes are investors.
The founder, Guðmundur, and his family are large investors here. Måsøval
Måsøval owning 45 is heavy. I always need my reading glasses now. Well, thank you, Einar, for giving us a glimpse into the shareholders' thoughts and showing us the advantages of having a diverse group of shareholders, both foreign and locals. Now, dear attendees and friends, we've reached the end of our session today. I hope the meeting has provided you with some insight into the opportunities that we, as Icelanders, and of course, Kaldvik, have at our disposal. The company's mission, along with that of all its stakeholders, is to ensure prosperous long-term value creation in harmony with both nature and society. Now, I may not be unbiased, but I can confidently say that there's little doubt in my mind that we will succeed in our efforts. Well, on behalf of Kaldvik, thank you for joining us here in not-so-sunny Eskifjörður.
And thank you to those that are online for joining us. We hope to see you all in the near future, and sunny Eskifjörður one day. Have a wonderful day. Thank you.