Averøy, Nordmøre, Norway-based Nordic Halibut AS produced 140 metric tons (MT) of its head-on gutted (HOG) farmed-raised Atlantic halibut in Q1 2022, an increase of 41 percent year-on-year.
Nordic Halibut also achieved record revenues of more than NOK 18.6 million (USD 1.9 million, EUR 1.8 million) in Q1, with its average sales price reaching NOK 134.40 (USD 13.87, EUR 13.11) per kilo, which was 17 percent more than in Q1 2021. The average harvest weight of its fish in the three-month period was 5.7 kilograms.
According to the company’s Q1 2022 report, thriving market conditions have contributed to rising demand and high price levels into 2022.
The company is maintaining a harvest guidance of 600 MT HOG halibut for the full-year 2022, and said its biological performance and business development is progressing according to its business plan, with expected harvests of 4,500 MT HOG fish in 2026 and 9,000 MT HOG in 2030. To this end, the company has taken its new grow-out location at Grønset into production “with promising signs and significant scale potential.”
The Grønset contains a dozen 160-meter cages, which are fully-sized halibut grow-out sites, and represent a considerable scale-up capacity for Nordic Halibut compared to the 120-meter cages previously installed at the site. For halibut production, the 160-meter cages doubles biomass capacity in each cage, Nordic Halibut said.
Nordic Halibut said its current infrastructure and capacity at its production facilities at Midsund, Askøy, and Averøy are, after investments during 2021 and 2022, able to produce one million juveniles annually, which it said is enough to produce 4,500 MT of halibut.
The company said that its planned volume ramp-up and growth between 2026 and 2030 will have a significant impact on production costs and results, with its EBITDA expected to turn positive during 2023.
An EBIT cost of NOK 67.00 (USD 6.91, EUR 6.53) per kilogram will remain when it reaches 4,500 MT HOG production volumes, it said.
For the full-year 2021, Nordic Halibut harvested 573 MT of fish.
The company is backed by two of Norway’s largest shipping magnates and is seeking growth to help it enter “a new era in halibut farming.”
Photo courtesy of Nordic Halibut
