With first harvest imminent, Andfjord Salmon secures financing to grow land-based production

Norwegian land-based Atlantic salmon farmer Andfjord Salmon announced it will progress with build-out plans that will enable an increase in total production volume at its Kvalnes site, on the island of Andøya, to 40,000 metric tons (MT) head-on gutted (HOG) over the next seven years. 

The company, which has developed a farming system based on flow-through technology that it said capitalizes on the natural advantage of its access to oxygen-rich Gulf Stream seawater, has also secured commitment for a NOK 700 million (USD 64.8 million, EUR 59.9 million) bank loan to expand Kvalnes’s operations.

Giving a capital markets update on 13 June, Andfjord Salmon CEO Martin Rasmussen said the company’s strategy has always been to use its first pool to prove the company’s patented technology and the biological performance before progressing with the next stage of construction.

Rasmussen said in March 2023 the first production cycle has been successful and the company “couldn’t have had a better start,” with good fish health and welfare, strong growth, low energy consumption of 1 kwh per kilogram salmon produced, and a survival rate of 97.8 percent, together with an accumulated feed-conversion ratio (FCR) of 0.96.

“This proves that it works,” he said.

Andfjord released the first smolt of around 120 grams in June 2022, and Kvalnes’s first harvest – expected to be around 800 MT (700 MT) HOG – will begin in …

Photo courtesy of Andfjord Salmon