Africa's first large-scale offshore salmon farm near Lüderitz is accelerating procurement of specialist mooring equipment, including UV-stabilised ropes and grid systems. SADC procurement teams must prepare for rising demand across cage mooring, floating pen deployment, and hatchery infrastructure.

Commercial Fishing 2 July 2026 • 5 min read

Namibia's aquaculture sector is entering a critical expansion phase. African Aquaculture Company has been granted permits to produce 51,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon annually across three offshore sites near Lüderitz, with hatchery commissioning scheduled for Q1 2026. This single project will drive demand for tens of thousands of metres of mooring rope, cage anchoring systems, and structural fibres across the SADC region.

The Namibian salmon project takes shape

African Aquaculture, led by former Andfjord Salmon CFO Helge Krøgenes, has been granted permits to establish offshore farms capable of producing 51,000 tonnes of salmon a year across three zones near Lüderitz. Upgrades to the existing hatchery facility in Fizantakraal are underway, with the first batch of smolt scheduled to be stocked during Q1 2026. The Namibia licence locations have depths of roughly 90 to 120 metres and year-round water temperatures between 10°C and 16°C, conditions described as optimal for salmon farming. Alongside AAC, another operator has been granted a licence for a 35,000-tonne site further offshore, while a major oil company has applied for a 10,000-tonne licence further south. Within 10 years, Namibia is projected to reach a total aquaculture production of around 150,000 tonnes.

AKVA Group contract confirms mooring and cage equipment demand

African Aquaculture has partnered with Norwegian technology firm AKVA Group, which will supply five floating pens including mooring, feeding systems, cameras, and digital monitoring solutions. The first smolt are scheduled to be stocked in 2026, with the first harvest planned for later that year. This initial phase of five pens represents only the proof-of-concept deployment. Full-scale production at the three licensed sites will require substantially more cage units, each requiring discrete mooring grids, anchor chains, synthetic fibre ropes, and subsurface buoyancy systems. The project is expected to create jobs, strengthen food security, and open new export markets as Namibia moves toward a more diversified and resilient economy.

Mooring system specifications for offshore salmon cages

Offshore aquaculture mooring systems are not standardised commodity purchases. Mooring systems are required to hold cages against the forces generated by wind, currents and waves, and to allow the fish cages and nets the best chance of survival. The mooring system for a fish farm consists of anchors, anchor chains, ropes and buoys, in addition to several mooring components like shackles, connection plates, and chain connection links, which need to be assembled together, correctly specified and installed, with physical and operational compatibility. For the cool, moderate-energy environment of Lüderitz (depth 90-120m, current-driven), designers will typically specify either polypropylene or similar material ropes for cultivation systems, or hybrid chain-and-fibre configurations for deeper subsurface grids. Mooring ropes developed specifically for aquaculture grid mooring systems must exhibit high cyclic loading tolerance, low stretch, and high breaking load characteristics. These ropes are made from blended high-tenacity UV-stabilised polymers to give high break load and high abrasion resistance. In the aquaculture sector, reliability is defined by how a rope manages the FACTs: Fatigue, Abrasion, Creep, and Temperature.

Material standards and regulatory drivers in SADC

Emerging aquaculture farms across South Africa and Namibia are increasingly aligned with international certification frameworks. The most widely recognised eco-labels in the seafood industry include the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for wild-caught fish and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) for farmed seafood. The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is the gold standard among third-party certification programs for the aquaculture industry, with certification assuring buyers, retailers, and consumers that farmed fish and seafood were raised and handled in conformance with strict requirements for environmental and social responsibility. While ASC certification focuses primarily on feed sourcing, water quality, and fish welfare, the underlying mooring and cage infrastructure must be specified to withstand documented environmental loads and minimise entanglement risk to marine life. Increased boat traffic and aquaculture infrastructure such as nets and ropes pose entanglement risks to seals, whales, dolphins, and seabirds. This regulatory pressure means procurement teams must specify ropes with documented breaking loads, UV test data, and abrasion-resistance certifications.

What aquaculture mooring procurement looks like in practice

Over many years, leading suppliers have built strong reputations for robustly made moorings, with customers around the world relying on expertise to design, specify, assemble and manage installation of multi-node grid systems proven to stand strong in extreme marine environments. The procurement process for a Namibian salmon farm will typically begin 8-12 months before cage deployment, starting with site-specific hydrodynamic modelling. Engineers will calculate expected current speeds, wave heights, and storm surge scenarios at each licensed site, then work backwards to determine the number of anchors, diameter and material composition of mooring lines, buoyancy requirements, and spare-parts inventories. Ropes should not be attached directly to sea anchors, but connected via a section of chain, which increases the effectiveness of the mooring system and improves the holding power of existing anchors by reducing the angle between the mooring line and anchor and by increasing energy-absorbing properties, with chain necessary on the anchor end due to high abrasion forces against synthetic fibre ropes. Operational procurements also include annual replacement of wear items, spare mooring lines, buoy repairs, and underwater inspections using remote-operated vehicles.

About the Author
	Andre Klynsmith Co-Shareholder · Technology & Operations Andre's expertise spans technology, e-commerce, AI integration, and industrial procurement systems, driving Marine Ropes' digital transformation across Southern Africa. salesdesk@marine-ropes.com | marine-ropes.com