Strengthening its established position as the Faroe Islands’ top pelagic port even as aquaculture increases in importance, the Port of Fuglafjørður extends its stretch of deepwater quay—as harbor development nearby moves toward completion.
Among Faroese ports and business clusters, Fuglafjørður stands out in terms of economic output and with regard to tonnage throughput. As the country’s leading port of call for several ship types, most notably pelagic fishing vessels, Fuglafjørður has seen continuous growth in business activities over the past couple of decades, supported by massive harbor development.
Alongside significant development taking place in connection with the ongoing expansion of Bakkafrost-owned fishmeal, marine oil and feed processing facility Havsbrún, 80 meters of new deepwater quay was completed earlier this year (2026) at Enni, the area between the Bunker Terminal and the headquarters of fishing gear company Vónin.
Extending the continuous stretch of quay from the Cold Store Terminal to 410m—with depths alongside ranging from 12 to 15m—the new quayside also includes an area designated for an industrial building. Constructed on behalf of fishing company Framherji, the new quay is the result of close collaboration between Framherji, Havsbrún, cold storage facility Bergfrost and Fuglafjørður’s port authority.
“We have had several large construction projects around this whole area, including the expansion of Havsbrún’s and Bergfrost’s neighboring storage tunnels,” said port director Rólant Højsted. “They needed more storage space while Framherji needed more docking space. So the rock excavated from the tunnels was used for harbor land reclamation.”
In total, the Port of Fuglafjørður now has about 1.7 kilometers of quay with depths alongside ranging from 6 to 15m; once Havsbrún’s current harbor development is completed, expectedly later this year, the total length of quay will measure more than 2km.
“We’ve seen a whole lot of development in recent years,” Mr. Højsted noted.
“This new Enni deepwater quay adds functionality to this particular area. It effectively frees up docking space for the Cold Store Terminal, the Pelagos Terminal, and the Bunker Terminal, plus making life more convenient for Vónin and their clients. For us it’s essentially a matter of providing appropriate docking time and space for each vessel calling at the port. So now we have 410m of continuous deepwater quay, which means more port functions and operations can be carried out simultaneously. This saves valuable time and increases efficiency for everyone.”
The total number of port calls received by Fuglafjørður has remained stable for years at around 1,000 per year, mainly pelagic fishing vessels, reefers, freezer trawlers, bulk carriers, and tankers; many of the vessels are Faroese yet a sizable proportion are foreign.
Handling high volumes
The port offers an impressive array of services, the core of it originating in the mid 1960s when Havsbrún was established as a fishmeal and marine oil factory, with engineering firms and business-to-business service providers popping up alongside.
Over time, the factory expanded into feed manufacturing as the port evolved with a thriving business environment. Today the port features, for example, an advanced freezing plant for pelagic fish, a huge underground cold storage facility for fish products, a top international fishing gear developer and manufacturer, a bunkering facility, a mechanical engineering and repair shop for fish processing machinery, an electrical engineering firm serving the international aquaculture industry, a leading aquaculture infrastructure provider, and more, including ship chandlers and maritime suppliers.
“We have the capacity to produce and handle large volumes,” Mr. Højsted noted. “At the same time, we have a number of smaller and specialized developers, producers and service providers. Fuglafjørður is considered a leading international port for the pelagic fish industry, which is very much linked with the aquaculture industry—the salmon feed produced here consists to a large extent of marine sources of nutrients.”
Many of the pelagic fishing vessels calling at the port land their catch to Havsbrún for industrial reduction or to Pelagos for direct human consumption. The total tonnage of raw fish received varies from year to year, between around 300,000 and up to almost 600,000 tonnes, depending on factors such as catch quotas and market conditions.
With more than 100,000 tonnes of salmon feed produced in Fuglafjørður on a yearly basis—indeed set to increase at that—the bulk carrier traffic to and from the port is considerable.
Then there is substantial traffic with reefer ships and freezer trawlers loading or unloading frozen fish products to the Bergfrost cold store, which stores an annual 100,000 tonnes or so.
“We have several sources of ship traffic,” Mr. Højsted added. “The pelagic fish industry is the main source, and the aquaculture business has become a major one. For example, we have regular deliveries from here to Faroese fish farms as well as to fish farms in Scotland.”
