Gigante is evaluating its options for acquiring additional fish says CEO.
Fledgling land-based salmon producer Gigante Salmon has announced the postponement of its first harvest at its Rødøy facility until 2025 due to significant challenges encountered during its initial production phase.
The company released 640,000 smolts, averaging around 100 grams each, into its first production unit on Monday. However, it faced substantial mortality during the second delivery.
“We are currently assessing the situation to understand the full extent of the issue,” said a spokesperson on Tuesday.
During its quarterly results presentation on Wednesday, Helge Albertsen, Managing Director of the company, addressed the setbacks. “As we reported in the stock market announcement accompanying today’s quarterly report, the first delivery of approximately 340,000 fish went very well, with the fish adapting well to the new environment. Unfortunately, we experienced significant mortality in the second delivery,” Albertsen said.
Facing a number of questions from the audience relating to the issue, the Gigante exec emphasized the company’s commitment to investigating and addressing the cause of the mortality event: “We hope we have answered questions regarding the extent of the mortality, and we request understanding and patience as we continue our investigation. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” he said.
The company is probing whether the mortality occurred after the smolt were introduced into the pool in the second release. “Determining the extent of the mortality and then removing the dead fish are our immediate priorities,” Albertsen said.
Gigante is also evaluating its options for acquiring additional fish. “We might need to look elsewhere if our usual suppliers don’t have more. These are internal considerations before we can update the market,” he added.
The first pool of the facility, comprising three pools with longitudinal flow tanks, was completed in the last quarter. Despite the reduced number of smolt from the original scheme which called for 1.1 million, the first release was successful, according to the company. However, the recent challenges have led to a revised timeline for production, now anticipated towards the end of Q2 2025.
“Our team is working diligently to identify what went wrong and how we can prevent such incidents in the future,” Albertsen said. “Managing the current situation is our foremost priority before we consider any increase or replacement of the release.”
