Bodø, Norway-based salmon farming company Gigante Salmon secured NOK 100 million (USD 9.9 million, EUR 8.6 million) in additional financing for its land-based facility as construction continues on schedule.
Gigante Salmon said in its Q3 2025 report that the company secured the NOK 100 million in financing from SpareBank1 Nord-Norge, and increased its operating credit to NOK 140 million (USD 13.9 million, EUR 12 million) from NOK 90 million (USD 8.9 million, EUR 7.7 million).
“The financing is intended to strengthen working-capital financing, allowing the winter 2025/2026 harvest to be postponed from October to December,” Gigante Salmon said. “The funding will allow us to gain from the experiences of the first production cycle and make adjustments to the facility that will optimize conditions for the fish.”
The company harvested no salmon in Q3 2025, and as a result posted no income.
“The next harvest will begin towards the end of Q4 2025,” the company said.
The company recently announced it is “ramping up” production at its facility in September and that it was releasing 2.2 million smolts in autumn 2025. The company said it began releasing smolts that month and will continue to release them throughout the season.
Gigante Salmon is building a flow-through salmon farm with a production capacity of up to 16,000 metric tons (MT) of head-on gutted (HOG) salmon annually utilizing a permit granting a maximum allowable biomass of 13,731 MT. The site is divided into three main basins, and as of Q2 2025 two of those basins are in operation. The last is on schedule to be operational in Q2 2026.
“Production basin C is scheduled to be put into operation in April or May, in line with the original plan,” the company said.
The company said work on the third basin is progressing, and that the concrete work has been completed, with the remaining work to be carried out in the Spring.
The company said its standing biomass has been performing well, and Gigante Salmon CEO Kjell Lorentsen said the facility is operating as expected.
“We have been through another summer season without problems with sea lice,” he said. “With two of the planned three production basins in use, we look forward to starting the next harvest towards the end of fourth quarter.”
The company said that in Q3 2025 it accumulated 1,728 MT of standing biomass, with “generation autumn 2024” accounting for 1,510 MT of that biomass at an average weight of 2 kilograms. The remaining biomass of 218 MT is from the large smolt release.
The company harvested its first fish in Q2 2025, and said its facility is “suited for producing high-quality fish.” The harvest had a 91 percent superior rate with a feed conversion rate of 1.1, which the company said helps prove its long-term financial viability.
As part of its ongoing operations, Gigante Salmon said it replaced the tarpaulin liners it used in production basin A and covered the basin with a newer high-quality liner.
“A similar effort will not be necessary for production basins B and C, since these have fixed, cast partitions instead. We have found this to be preferable, and are considering it for production basin A,” the company said.
Source - https://www.seafoodsource.com
