AquaBounty produced fewer fish and made bigger loss in Q1
Land-based salmon farmer AquaBounty made less revenue and a larger loss in the first quarter of this year than in the same period the year before, it said today.
The company earned US $398,000 from sales of salmon, ova and fry, which was 59% less than the $963,000 made in Q1 2022. Net loss in the first quarter of 2023 was $6.5 million, as compared to $5.1 million in the first quarter of 2022.
AquaBounty grows salmon that inherit a genetic modification made 30 years ago that enables them to grow more quickly than standard Atlantic salmon.
“Our first quarter results were impacted by the need to conduct planned repairs to our Indiana farm,” said chief executive Sylvia Wulf. “The year-over-year revenue decline for the quarter was related to the scheduled downtime needed to make facility repairs.
“Additionally, with the transition of our Prince Edward Island grow-out facility to broodstock maintenance and egg production last August, we no longer are harvesting GE salmon from that farm. Demand for our fish continues to exceed our supply and during March the Indiana farm had its highest monthly harvest output to date.
New farm
“We continue to make progress on the construction of our new farm in Pioneer, Ohio and we encourage our investors to view the pictures and drone footage that we’ve made available on our website to document the farm’s progression.
“The timing for the closing of our bond financing is still expected to be mid-year and we are closely monitoring bond interest rates, project cost estimates, and the general economic environment.
“We are also moving forward in growth areas outside of GE salmon, including expansion of our conventional salmon egg and fry business and potential partnerships in conventional salmon farming outside of North America. I look forward to providing my fellow shareholders with an update in the near future.”
AquaBounty’s cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash totalled $73.8m as of March 31, 2023, as compared to $102.6m as of December 31, 2022.
The company's farm in Indiana has a capacity of 1,200 gutted weight tonnes annually. Its farm will in Ohio will have an annual capacity of 10,000 gutted weight tonnes and is the first of four or five such facilities that AquaBounty intends to build in North America.
The Massachusetts-based company is also looking at joint ventures in Israel and South America.
