Who's he trying to fool? HB Grandi's marketing man attempts to deny links with whaling

I am amazed at what we Northerners would call the brass nerve of Brynjólfur Eyjólfsson, marketing director of HB Grandi, Iceland‘s leading fish company, in his assertion earlier this week that „we have nothing to do with whale hunting.“

This is an incredible – and blatantly untrue – statement to make about a company which is chaired by notorious whaler, Kristjan Loftsson, who also owns  Hvalur hf, Iceland‘s only fin whaling company. Hvalur has killed 111 endangered fin whales since June 17th and is likely to slaughter several dozen more before the season ends.

The links between HB Grandi and whaling are longstanding and overt. The company has played an active role in Iceland’s whaling industry, both promoting whaling and allowing its facilities to be used for processing fin whale meat for the export market.

In a 2007 interview printed in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid, Kristjan Loftsson declared: “Anyone who follows the business scene in Iceland knows that Vogun, a subsidiary company of Hvalur hf, bought the largest part of Grandi in 1988 and has been the largest shareholder ever since.”

Hardly an armslength relationship.

Warners Fish Merchants in the UK is the main supplier of Grandi fish to the fish and chip industry and other catering outlets. See our campaign pages for more details.