Stolt Sea Farm is a branch of the shipowning group Stolt-Nielsen S.A., a multinational Luxembourg company. Its development began in Norway in the 1970s, as the supplier of young salmon.

As part of its policy of diversification, in 1983 the group acquired marine hatcheries in Spain and France. Soon it was the leader in European production of clam and oyster seed, prawn postlarvae and turbot, gilthead sea bream and sea bass juveniles. And then the turbot production began.

Stolt Sea Farm began to produce salmon in the United States, Canada and Norway after acquiring several ongrowing farms. Meanwhile, investigations began into the halibut.

In the early 1990s, Stolt Sea Farm determinedly concentrated its efforts on producing Prodemar turbot, with the purchase of a ongrowing farm in Portugal and several farms in Galicia. Production capacity rose to some 1,200 tonnes per year. These years also saw investment in salmon, with ongrowing activities beginning in Chile and production starting in Scotland.

1999 saw the inauguration in Spain – in Lira (Carnota) – of what at the time was the largest turbot production farm in the world. Prodemar turbot production capacity was already surpassing 2,000 tonnes.

The new millennium brought the acquisition of La Couronne, N.V., in Belgium, a company specialising in the processing and smoking of fish. At the same time, tuna ongrowing activity began through the acquisition of Australian Bluefin Pty. Ltd.

Always concerned about developing new products, Stolt Sea Farm’s R+D departments started studying sole in Spain and cod in Norway.

The Stolt Sea Farm Group thus developed into the company with the widest range of marine species in production, including cod, sturgeon, halibut, tuna, sole, turbot, salmon, tilapia and marine trout.

In 2004 Nutreco Holding, B.V. and Stolt-Nielsen S.A. agreed to merge most of their marine cultivation production activities regarding cod, sturgeon, halibut, salmon, tilapia and marine trout, a move which led to the creation of indisputably the world’s leading aquaculture company.

Sole and turbot production remained the property of Stolt-Nielsen S.A., making up the new Stolt Sea Farm Group, with production centres in Australia, Spain, France and Portugal, and its central headquarters in Spain.

Also in 2004, in Cape Vilán-Camariñas (Spain), Stolt Sea Farm inaugurated another marine flatfish farm which surpasses even Lira-Carnota in terms of size, to become the largest in the world. The company invested €17 million in this new facility.

Turbot production capacity now increased to more than 4,000 tonnes a year.

In 2006, in line with its diversification policy, the group acquired the leading American caviar production company, Sterling Caviar.

At the same time, the group’s tuna activity was sold as part of a strategy to concentrate on land cultivation species (turbot, sole, sturgeon), which are characterised by technical-biological complexity, long production cycles and final markets with excellent prospects.