Atlantic Sapphire harvested 700 gwt of fish in Q3
On-land salmon farmer Atlantic Sapphire harvested 700 gutted weight tonnes of fish at its Bluehouse recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Florida in the third quarter of 2021, it said in a market update today.
The company sold approximately 60% of the harvested fish, with the remainder held in inventory for new frozen and smoked programmes.
Atlantic Sapphire earned $7 per kilo for head on gutted salmon, which included fish that had to be harvested early because of a shortage of liquid oxygen supply and was sold at non-premium prices. Revenue for superior grade salmon weighing upwards of 3kg was $12 per kilo.
In comparison, the Fish Pool price for HOG salmon in Q3 was $6.4 per kilo.
$225m for phase 2
In an operating update for September, Atlantic Sapphire said the first batches of fish introduced to the RAS continued to show the effects of being exposed to suboptimal conditions, but that batches introduced from mid-2020 would raise the bar on biological performance.
Atlantic Sapphire also laid out its capital expenditure plans for phase 2 of its Florida facility, which will increase capacity from 10,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes.
Phase 2 has a total budget of $225 million, of which $51 million has been committed.
The remaining $174m is currently uncommitted, with most of it likely to be spent in the last three quarters of next year.
Store promotion
On Thursday, south-east US store chain Publix will begin a week-long promotion of fresh Atlantic Sapphire salmon.
“We expect more than 100,000 Floridians to put Bluehouse salmon into their mouths over the next seven days,” said Atlantic Sapphire chief executive Johan Andreassen in a video conference for investors.
Asked if the company planned to rebuild its Denmark salmon RAS, which was recently destroyed by fire, Andreassen said it was too early to give an answer.
