Rangárþing ytra and Ásahreppur

Fishing in rivers and lakes, horse meat and potatoes

The district Ásahreppur has diverse nature and moorland with ridges and hills and clustered farms. Agriculture, trade, and services are the primary industries in the area, and the largest breeding ground for graylag geese in Iceland is by the lake Frakkavatn.

Fishing lakes by Landmannaafréttir are a popular place for angling. Thousands of anglers go there every year as the lakes are rich with char and trout. Hella is a young town that was built around agricultural and commercial services. Hella stands by one of the best salmon fishing rivers in the country, Ytri Rangá. There are several food processing plants in Hella:

• Reykjagarður / Holtakjúklingur produces toppings, sausages, cooked products, hot dishes, and frozen and fresh chicken.
• Fiskás is a fish store and processing plant in Hella. Founded in 2010 and working mainly with salmon products, it is between two large salmon rivers, Ytri- and Eystri-Rangá. Fiskás services fishermen and buys fresh fish at fish markets for its fish store.
• Villt og alið is a meat processing company that debones and packs meat from cattle, horses, lambs, and reindeer. It also sells products from the area, for example, pork from the pig farm Korngrís in Laxárdalur.
• Hella slaughterhouse

Around the former farm, Gunnarsholt, there used to be a sandblast. After a great struggle with the sand, Gunnarsholt was deserted in 1925. The state’s sandblast organization Sandgræðslan bought the farm a year later and immediately started fencing and trying to stop sandstorms. In the 1940s, gravel plain and sand had been revegetated, and the area is now the center of reclamation at Gunnarsholt. There are large and flat fields with windbreak belts, and it is possible to rent land for grain cultivation. At Gunnarsholt, there is the first beef cattle farm in Iceland.