Assunção Cristas, the Minister of Agriculture and Sea, has set off on an investment hunt around the world to attract foreign investment for fish farms and gas and oil exploration.
The journey began on Monday in Norway and is scheduled to continue on to Japan, South Korea, Canada and the USA.
Cristas will be presenting what she calls ‘investor-friendly’ legislation, as well as an international tender for 72 offshore fish farms between Algarve and Aveiro.
The areas are already licensed for shellfish farming, but can be expanded to include algae and even fish if required, she added.
“We will start in Norway because it is an international reference when it comes to the economy of the sea,” the minister told Lusa news agency.
Cristas was expected to meet leaders of Marine Harvest, “possibly the biggest aquaculture company in the world”, with high hopes for her bid for their investment.
Norway focuses mostly on salmon and trout, she told reporters, but it may be interested in branching out to other species, such as Portugal’s “corvine, known as the “salmon of the south”.
