--- title: "Cooke to Buy Mowi's Atlantic Canada Salmon Farms for C$225 Million" description: "Canada's Cooke is buying the Atlantic Canadian salmon-farming operations of Mowi — the Norwegian company that's the world's largest salmon producer — for about C$225 million (roughly $158 million). The deal hands Cooke more of its home turf and marks another step in the steady consolidation of farmed salmon." category: "Companies" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies author: "Sofia Marchetti" published: 2026-06-30T13:43:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-30T13:43:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/cooke-to-buy-mowi-s-atlantic-canada-salmon-farms-for-c-225-million tags: ["cooke", "mowi", "salmon", "aquaculture", "companies"] --- # Cooke to Buy Mowi's Atlantic Canada Salmon Farms for C$225 Million Canada's Cooke is buying the Atlantic Canadian salmon-farming operations of Mowi — the Norwegian company that's the world's largest salmon producer — for about C$225 million (roughly $158 million). The deal hands Cooke more of its home turf and marks another step in the steady consolidation of farmed salmon. A deal in the fish pens is reshaping who farms North America's salmon. **Cooke**, the family-owned Canadian seafood giant, has agreed to buy the **Atlantic Canada ("Canada East") salmon-farming operations of Mowi** — the Norwegian company that is the **world's largest salmon producer** — for about **C$225 million (roughly $158 million)**, [Mowi said](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/30/3319372/0/en/Mowi-enters-into-a-Share-Purchase-Agreement-to-divest-its-9k-salmon-farming-operations-in-Canada-East.html). ## What's in the deal The sale covers Mowi's **hatcheries, sea farms and two processing plants** across **New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador**, along with roughly **250 employees**, [Undercurrent News reported](https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2026/06/30/mowi-to-sell-east-canada-salmon-farms-to-cooke/). It's expected to **close in the second half of 2026**, subject to regulatory approval. For Mowi, it's a small slice of output — the Canada East operation produces only around **9,000 tonnes** a year, against company-wide output of roughly **600,000 tonnes** — but the exit comes at a cost: Mowi said it will book a **write-down of about C$140 million** on the sale. ## Why Mowi is selling For **Mowi**, Atlantic Canada had become **non-core.** The region offered no cost edge over its bigger operations in Norway, Scotland, Chile and the Faroe Islands, and the company is concentrating on **higher-return geographies.** (Note the geography: this deal is **Atlantic** Canada. Separately, on Canada's **Pacific** coast in **British Columbia**, the federal government is **phasing out open-net-pen salmon farming** by 2029 — a regulatory squeeze Boursel has tracked, but one that doesn't directly touch these east-coast assets.) ## Why Cooke is buying For **Cooke**, it's a chance to bulk up on **home turf.** Based in Saint John, New Brunswick and already the dominant aquaculture operator in Atlantic Canada, Cooke has grown over four decades — from a tiny family operation into one of the world's largest **family-owned seafood companies**, with operations spanning multiple countries — largely through a long string of **acquisitions.** Folding in Mowi's adjacent sites adds scale, capacity and the chance to wring out **efficiencies** next to its existing farms. ## The bigger picture The deal is a small but telling marker of **consolidation** in global salmon farming. It's a large, capital-intensive protein business that has steadily concentrated into a handful of big players per country — and it's increasingly **shaped by geography and regulation.** Producers are weighing where the rules are stable and the economics work: pressure on **British Columbia's** open-net farms is pushing the Pacific industry to shrink or change, while **Atlantic Canada** remains a comparatively settled base — exactly the turf Cooke is reinforcing. ## Why it matters For the **salmon industry**, it's another step toward fewer, larger operators controlling supply of one of the world's most popular farmed fish. For **Mowi**, it's portfolio housekeeping — shedding a low-margin outpost to focus capital where returns are higher. For **Cooke**, it's a bet that **scale at home** pays off in a cyclical, regulation-sensitive business. And for the broader story Boursel readers follow, it's a reminder that even in a quiet corner like fish farming, the same forces — **consolidation, cost discipline and regulatory risk** — are steadily redrawing the map. Boursel offers no view on either company; the takeaway is that the world's biggest salmon farmer is **handing its Atlantic Canadian pens to its largest local rival.** ## Sources - [Mowi enters into agreement to divest its Canada East salmon farming operations](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/30/3319372/0/en/Mowi-enters-into-a-Share-Purchase-Agreement-to-divest-its-9k-salmon-farming-operations-in-Canada-East.html) - [Mowi to sell east Canada salmon farms to Cooke](https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2026/06/30/mowi-to-sell-east-canada-salmon-farms-to-cooke/)