AquaBounty sold salmon worth $783,000 last year
On-land salmon farmer AquaBounty made improved revenue of US $783,000 on harvested salmon last year, including $340,900 in 91 tonnes of its faster growing genetically engineered (GE) AquAdvantage salmon harvested in the last quarter.
Sales of non-GE eggs and fry increased to $76,700 in the fourth quarter and totalled $391,800 for the full year.
The company’s total revenue for 2021 was $1.17 million, compared to $128,000 for the year before. However, both operating expenses and its net loss increased compared to 2020.
Operating expenses amounted to $23.3m (2020: $16.4m), due to increased staffing, production expenses and third-party processing and transportation costs at the farms, as well as increases in corporate and marketing expenses.
Net loss for the year was $22.3m ($16.4m).
Production increase
“The fourth quarter of 2021 was highlighted by the continued ramp up of commercial production with the harvest and sale of our proprietary GE salmon at our Albany, Indiana and Prince Edward Island, Canada farms,” said chief executive Sylvia Wulf.
“During the quarter we harvested 91 tonnes of salmon, an 8% improvement over the third quarter, enabled by production capacity improvements and the hiring of additional staff.
“Commercial interest in our nutritious salmon, which is free of antibiotics and other contaminants, has been impressive and we continue to receive orders for the entire output from our farms.”
Breaking ground in Ohio
Wulf said pre-construction work had started on its 10,000-tonnes-per-year GE salmon farm at Pioneer, Ohio. This included construction of roadways and on-site energy infrastructure.
“We will soon be announcing an official ground-breaking ceremony and expect construction to commence in early spring. Our timeline for stocking our salmon eggs is still on track to occur in late 2023,” said Wulf.
“As we have mentioned previously, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has been extremely supportive of our Ohio farm and last November, its Board approved the issuance of up to $300m in tax-exempt and taxable bonds to support our project. We expect to complete the bond placement process in the next three months with Wells Fargo Corporate and Investment Banking as our underwriter.
“Looking ahead, we are focused on continuing our momentum in increasing our harvest output, onboarding more new customers and growing our revenue. We are excited about commencing construction on our Ohio farm which is planned to generate roughly eight times the output capacity of our Indiana farm.”
