Land-based farmer’s salmon ‘are 40% ahead of net pen fish’
Andfjord reports good growth, very low mortality, and impressive FCR
Andfjord Salmon, which is developing a novel flow-through land-based fish farm on the island of Andøya in western Norway, reported today that biological conditions in its first operational pool are still excellent, leading to high growth, industry-leading survival rate, and an attractive feed conversion ratio.
As of yesterday, 24 May, the average weight of the salmon in the pool at Kvalnes, in the southeast of Andøya, was 3.244 kilos after 11 months of operations. This is 40% ahead of the development stage of salmon farmed in the sea, according to a comparison with feed manufacturer Skretting’s growth table for net pens.
In its report for the first quarter of 2023, Andfjord Salmon said the growth has been achieved with an accumulated feed conversion ratio of 0.95, which means that each fish requires 0.95 kilos of feed to grow 1 kilo.
Monthly mortality of 0.1%
As of yesterday, the accumulated survival rate stood at 97.9%, showing a stable average mortality rate of approximately 0.1% per month.
The company expects to conduct its first harvest at the turn of June/July 2023.
Andfjord Salmon is in the middle of its first production cycle, which means that the company does not yet have income.
The company made an operating loss of NOK 13.9 million (£1.02m) in Q1 2023, compared to a loss of NOK 9.9m in the same quarter last year.
It had a cash balance of NOK 53.5m at the end of Q1, not including unused credit of NOK 25m. The company has sufficient liquidity for the current operating phase.
1,000 tonnes per pool
Andfjord Salmon’s pool is excavated to below sea level, which reduces the energy required to draw sea water from depth and enables the company to produce salmon at what it says is a world-leading low consumption of 1kWh per kilo of salmon produced.
The company has the capacity to produce 1,000 gutted weight tonnes of salmon annually in the pool it currently operates and intends to excavate more pools to increase capacity to 19,000 gwt.
It has long-term plans to build farms at two other locations on Andøya, and to build a second facility at Kvalnes, which would take annual production to 90,000 gwt.
Andfjord Salmon will carry out a capital market update on 13 June 2023, and provide in-depth details about the company's expansion plans, timetable and forward-looking statements for the facility at Kvalnes.
