Gigante's salmon are approaching three kilos

Gigante Salmon AS is a land-based salmon farming company building its first flow-through facility at Lille Indre Rosøy in Rødøy municipality, Nordland county, Norway. The farm will comprise three large pools excavated into the bedrock. The pools will be lined and divided into raceways. Pool 3 has been completed and is stocked with a test batch of fish.

The company today reported that during the fourth quarter of last year, significant progress was made in the construction of the two remaining production pools, while the biomass in Pool 2 is showing good growth. 

"The company is on track for full production capacity from 2026, with a gradual ramp-up to 16,000 tonnes HOG (head on gutted) annually from 2028," Gigante Salmon wrote in its Q4 2024 report.

Concrete progess

Chief executive Kjell Lorentsen  said: "It has now been a year since we started the trial production, the fish are showing good growth and are now approaching an average weight of three kilograms." He added that he is looking forward to starting harvesting during the second quarter of 2025.

From Q4 2024, the company reports the following main points:

• The trial fish have an average weight of 2700 grams, on schedule for planned harvest starting in Q2 2025
• Sea cable fully established and connected to shore power
• All risers/seawater intakes completed
• Drainage channels fully cast

"2025 is an important year for Gigante Salmon, where the facility is fully developed and we scale up production. The facility is designed with a focus on fish welfare and economic efficiency, and we make daily progress, strengthening our readiness for the full-capacity launch from 2026,"" said Lorentsen.

Delayed due to weather

Gigante Salmon the farm site is in an area with favourable sea temperatures and is a short distance from an aquaculture cluster with access to infrastructure and expertise.

The company reported last week that due to extended periods of bad weather, it has not been possible to complete the surface cladding on the floor in Pool 2 in Q4 2024, and completion is therefore delayed. This has also somewhat affected the progress in Pool 1.

Gigante pointed out that delays normally lead to increased costs.

Costs within financing

"The company's assessment of the total project costs is that they will increase slightly from the estimate in the Q3 report, but remain within established financing. The construction of production pool 2 is expected to be completed during the 1st quarter, while production pool 1 will be completed during the summer of 2025."

The company expects to harvest approximately 550 gutted weight tonnes in Q2 2025. During Q3, it plans to stock 2.2 million smolts.  Gigante Salmon had 160,852 fish in the facility at the end of Q2 2024. Two batches of 640,000 smolts were stocked at the end of January last year, but only 160,000 survived for a variety of reasons.

Gigante's long-term plan is to raise smolts to around a kilo in Pool 3, then transfer them to the production pools for grow-out.