Atlantic Sapphire has entered into an agreement to lease its facility in Denmark to Maiken Foods, the company announced in a posting to the Oslo Børs.
According to the posting, the Atlantic Sapphire entered a short-term rental agreement with Maiken to facilitate a pilot for Maiken Foods’ fish farming. During the period, Maiken has an option to purchase the facility, which would enable it to set up a land-based salmon farming operation, Atlantic Sapphire said.
Atlantic Sapphire’s “Bluehouse” recirculating aquaculture facility in Denmark was impacted by a fire on 15 September, 2021. At the time, the company said its “full Danish facility” was impacted, and that the damage was substantial. Employees at the RAS facility all made it out safely, but the company said the fish it was raising in the facility at the time were lost.
After the fire, it took until May 2022 for the company to secure a USD 25.5 million (EUR 24.6 million) insurance payout, which it said it reinvested into its larger RAS farm in Miami.
In July 2023, Atlantic Sapphire Co-founder Thue Holm said the company’s demolition was nearing completion, and the company was interested in exploring new opportunities for the site.
“Functional features like smolt production, water intake, storage, buffer tanks, a cooling system, and effluent treatment remain,” Holm wrote in a LinkedIn post. “The site is backed by a 6400 amps power supply and all required permits.”
Holm went on to form a new venture dubbed AquaFounders Capital with former Kingfish Company CEO Ohad Maiman.
Maiken Foods, in a press release posted to its Facebook page, said it plans to create the first land-based fish farm that does not release carbon dioxide. The company said it will utilize solar power for the farm and facility to produce feed, and that it has developed a novel way of producing both salmon and cod in a land-based tank.
The company said it will create a protein-rich biomass via gas fermentation of a microorganism that feeds solely on carbon dioxide. Using CO2 extracted from ammonia excreted by fish, the company said it aims to create “the world's first fully sustainable, carbon-neutral aquaculture system, entirely powered by green energy and without polluting the environment.”
"I have always had a dream to construct and operate an integrated feed and aquaculture farm solely powered by solar energy,” Miaken CEO Arve Gravdal said. “This is a dream come true.”
