The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) recently held its 2024 Annual General Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. This yearly event was co-organized with the Turkish organizations Aegean Exporters Union, Mediterranean Export Union, and Istanbul Exporters Association.
During the event, the 2024 FEAP Award was delivered. The FEAP Award represents the recognition by the federation of the exceptional contribution, by an individual to the development of fish farming in Europe. The person selected to receive this acknowledgment is decided by the previous recipients of the award following the proposals received from national fish farming associations throughout Europe.
The FEAP 2024 Award was presented to Paul Birger Torgnes, who has been involved in aquaculture since the early 1980s. His various business activities have mainly been concentrated on salmon farming, in Norway as well as in Chile, the UK and other countries. He is still active in his family-owned company, producing salmon in Norway, and has also been involved in farming of other species, such as seabass and seabream in Turkey.
With broad experience in commercial activities in many European countries, he also focused his career on promoting and securing the interests of the aquaculture industry in the Norwegian, European and global aquaculture businesses for many years. An active member in national and pan-European organizations, his career as an aquaculture organizations representative brought him to take several key positions such as:
- General secretary of the Norwegian Fish Farmers Association for eight years
- Vice president and other positions at FEAP for approximately 15 years
- President and vice president of the International Salmon Farmers Association (ISFA) for six years
- Chairman/mayor of the Norwegian Seafood Federation for approximately 20 years
- President of the Norwegian Seafood Federation for two years
Check out all award recipients here.
