The lack of capacity inherent in traditional marine-based salmon farming has made land-based production a long-term growth opportunity for the industry, according to Nordic Aqua Partners Chairman Atle Eide.
Nordic Aqua Partners is building a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) salmon farm in Ningbo, China, with the goal of supplying the Chinese market with fresh, local salmon sold under the PureNordicSalmon brand.
Eide told attendees at the 2024 North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF) in Bergen, Norway, that land-based farming technologies have now proven. He said it is inevitable more players will come into the sector, resulting in larger volumes of salmon coming from land-based production in years to come.
“Traditional salmon farming will still be the most important part of salmon production but will not be able to support the enormous demand for salmon [alone],” he said.
Oslo, Norway-based Nordic Aqua has estimated that through 2040, there will be 5 percent growth in the global consumption of salmon. Eide said the likelihood is this underlying growth will eventually grow much greater, but even at 5 percent, traditional farming technology will not be able to support that demand alone, especially as the industry begins to move away from airfreight as its preferred transportation method.
“I’m 60, so for me, [airfreight] seems to be okay, but for the younger generations, that’s absolutely impossible. It’s not sustainable,” Eide said. “We have the opportunity to replace that huge and ever-growing volume of salmon which are going to be flown into the market by producing locally.”
Nordic Aqua currently has eight batches of salmon in various stages of grow-out in Ningbo, with the ninth batch about to be introduced. Eide said Nordic Aqua Partners will be harvesting the first batch throughout Q2 2024 before moving on to batch two in Q3 2024. The company will harvest around 70 metric tons (MT) of salmon weekly, achieving a monthly supply of around 300 MT.
“We are kind of a baby company compared to [Mowi’s 500,000 MT harvest]; We have 0.8 percent of Mowi,” Eide said. “We are a niche player in a giant market, but we are in the highest-paying market in the world, and we just have to carve out our niches.”
In the 24 months Nordic Aqua has been raising its salmon, its accumulated mortality level has been just 2 percent. Eide said the company has made significant improvements in several biological metrics between its first, second, and third batches. The “moment of truth” will come in April, when the large-scale, continuous harvest of 5.2- to 5.3-kilogram fish will begin, he said.
“The fish look fantastic, the conditions are superb, we have excellent quality with [almost] no mortality, and we will sell the fish into the biggest seafood market in the world by far,” he said. “We are only four hours away from downtown Shanghai, and in Shanghai, there are 14 million people in what’s defined as the ‘middle class,’ so we have a huge market.”
A test harvest conducted over Easter "exceeded expectations in both quality and yield," but the company has decided to "implement some minor adjustments to the water circulation systems that will result in a slight delay of its first harvest until 22 April. The company will reach full scale by May and is committed to meeting its projected harvest volume of 3,400 MT for 2024, it said.
Eide said the Ningbo facility isn’t expected to reach peak production until the Q4 2027, but Nordic Aqua has already invested around EUR 200 million (USD 216.4 million) in the project. With its first stage now complete, the company has projected achieving an annual production total of 4,000 MT of salmon annually. Work on the facility's Phase 2 expansion is well underway, with the first inlay of eggs anticipated in the Q3 2024 and the first harvest from the expansion expected in Q3 2026.
“By the end of 2026, we will have an ongoing harvest of 8,000 MT annually of gutted-weight salmon at around 140 MT a week, and then we will also gradually have the opportunity to develop the market,” Eide said. “We will be a niche player; there is about 100,000 MT of salmon imported into China, so we’ll have about 4 percent, or maybe a little less, as we expect the market to grow.”
Eide said Nordic Aqua Partners is now making preparations for its Phase 3 expansion, with a final decision also expected in Q3 2024 as to whether it will proceed. Currently, the company's plan is to start work on Phase 3 in Q2 2025.
