Organic cod farm goes belly up

LERWICK, Scotland, April 12 (UPI) -- No Catch, the world's first organic cod farm, closed in Scotland after losing about $80 million, a spokesman said.

The cod farm in the Shetland Islands region of Scotland closed after a bank decided to cut its losses after learning the business failed to make a profit last year,The Daily Telegraph reported.

The company's administrator, Grant Thornton, said he has sold the business to two Norwegian owned companies, which will instead produce organic salmon.

The farm's remaining 3,400 tons of organic cod are being sold off at less than a tenth of the price its first fish were sold for in stores, the newspaper said.

"There is no doubt the cod looked superb but the cost of producing it was prohibitive. This was a business which was 20 million pounds ($40 million) behind where it was meant to be," said Daniel Smith, an administrator brought in by the bank.

"They underestimated the feed costs, they didn't have a good handle on the growth rates of the cod or the amount of mortality after spawning."