Bodø, Norway-based land-based salmon farming company Gigante Salmon harvested its first-ever batch of salmon in Q2 2025, which brought with it the company’s first ever quarter with revenue.
Gigante Salmon is building a land-based salmon farm with a projected production capacity of up to 16,000 metric tons (MT) of head-on gutted (HOG) salmon annually. Its production facility is divided into three basins, of which two are currently operational and a third will be finalized in Q4 2025.
"The facility is operating fully in line with our expectations: two of the planned three production basins are now in use, and, in May, the trial production was harvested,” Gigante Salmon CEO Kjell Lorentsen said in a release. “We are on the verge of completing an incredible aquaculture facility."
The company said the first harvest was a success, with a total of 694 MT of HOG salmon, “which was somewhat higher than we had expected.” Of that harvest total, 91 percent achieved a superior grade, with an average round weight per fish of 3.83 kilograms.
“An initial harvest of that weight and quality is something of an achievement,” Lorentsen said.
Gigante Salmon said that the first harvest also lead to some design changes for its basins, as a lining covering the partitions in the basin it harvested the salmon from caused issues during the process.
“The design has since been changed, and basins B and C will have cast partitions,” Gigante Salmon said.
The company said its first harvest was processed by Salten N950, and sold by Fram Seafood and Polar Quality. As a result of the first sale, Gigante Salmon generated revenue for the first time.
The company saw revenue of NOK 44.6 million (USD 4.4 million, EUR 3.8 million) in the quarter, and posted total operating expenses of NOK 48.2 million (USD 4.8 million, EUR 4.1 million).
The operating expenses were significantly higher than the NOK 1 million (USD 99,000, EUR 85,000) posted in Q2 2024, largely because of operating costs associated with the sale of the harvested fish.
The overall result was a loss of NOK 3.5 million (USD 347,000, EUR 297,000) in the quarter, which after further factors such as tax ended in a net loss of NOK 2.9 million (USD 287,000, EUR 246,000).
The company said it wants to strengthen its working capital financing so that it can delay the start of its winter 2025/2026 harvested from October to December.
“Waiting means larger fish at the time of harvesting, and prices at that time are also expected to be higher,” Gigante Salmon said. “Furthermore, the company wants to implement improvements to the facility, based on experiences from the first production cycle, that help optimize conditions for the fish.”
The company said it secured a NOK 50 million (USD 4.9 million, EUR 4.2 million) from Gigante Havbruk to help finance the project, which it said is in the final phase of construction. It projects that it will achieve 16,000 MT of HOG salmon production by 2028.
