Blue Endeavour pilot pens at Waihinau Bay, Marlborough, NZ, which in the coming months will be towed to the final location of what will become New Zealand's first offshore fish farm.
Photo: New Zealand King Salmon.
New Zealand King Salmon (NZKS) reported its financial performance for the six months ended July 31, 2025, 1HY25 (Sept), a period marked by losses as a result of biological issues that affected the salmon available for harvest and sale, ultimately dragging down the final figures.
Specifically, harvest volume fell by 20%, with 2,691 tons compared to 3,362 tons in 1HY25 (Jan), and with less fish available for commercialization, sales volumes decreased from 3,178 tons in 1HY25 (Jan) to 2,624 tons in 1HY25 (Sept), 17% down. As a result, revenue decreased from NZD 101.7 million in 1HY25 (Jan) to NZD 94.5 million in 1HY25 (Sept), a decrease of 7%.
Pro forma EBITDA for 1HY25 (Sept) was NZD 5.7 million, compared to EBITDA of NZD 13.5 million in 1HY25 (Jan), but the most striking figure of all was the net loss for the period, which reached NZD 20.8 million, compared to a net profit of NZD 6.0 million in H12025 1HY25 (Jan).
The decision to reduce harvest volumes for approximately four months to rebuild biomass after lower-than-expected growth due to warmer water conditions was made in May by the NZKS Board of Directors. In early June, the company also announced that it was halving its profit forecasts for 2026.
This was not the first time that New Zealand King Salmon had been affected by warm water issues, which is why, in the same announcement, the company discussed the tools and strategies it had been developing to support the health and performance of fish in general, but also specifically for these periods.
Commenting now on the results for 1HY25 (Sept), NZKS Chair Mark Dewdney spoke about all these measures and how they are working.
"The half-year results have been impacted by challenging biological performance, with subdued feed outs and slightly elevated mortality impacting our Salmon available for harvest and sale. As a direct result of these impacts the Board made the difficult decision in May to reduce the harvest for FY25 (Sept), to allow our biomass to recover. Pleasingly, feed out rates (and growth rates) are now back on track and biomass is rebuilding well for FY26 (Sept) and FY27 (Sept)," Dewdney said.
"Despite the challenges of this financial period, the Board remain confident that current actions will provide further mitigations to production challenges, and the progression of the company's growth plan will secure a bright future," the New Zealand King Salmon Chair added.
NZKS CEO Carl Carrington, who presented the results alongside outgoing CFO Ben Rodgers and General Manager of Aquaculture Grant Lovell, was equally optimistic when commenting on the results. "The good news is that we have many initiatives already in motion that will help strengthen our core business, and mitigate the future impact of these fish health and performance challenges," he stated.
"These include implementing a summer feed diet which will improve summer performance, improve health and reduce mortality; breeding for resilience, continuing our selective breeding for thermotolerance and summer survival. Kicking off construction of pilot Recirculated Aquaculture Systems (RAS) at Tentburn, which we are very confident will improve smoltification outcomes, reducing early runting," New Zealand King Salmon Chief Executive Officer continued.
The issue of feeding New Zealand's king salmon has become a national topic in the country. Last July, the NZ Government announced its support for a project led by global aquafeed company Skretting to design a feed specifically tailored to the conditions of this species, with an investment of NZD 455,000 from the new Primary Sector Growth Fund.
The initiative is part of the NZ Government's plans to turn aquaculture into an NZD 3 billion industry. To this end, it is not only backing innovation by supporting offshore projects such as Blue Endeavour—New Zealand's first open-sea salmon farm, owned by NZKS—but also passing several regulations to eliminate bureaucracy in the country's aquaculture sector, the latest just two weeks ago.
Precisely, the Blue Endeavour project was key to both NZKS's declining financial results in 1HY25 (Sept) and its good news. According to the report, of the NZD 8.5 million that the company invested in CAPEX during the period, the main expenses included NZD 5.8 million associated with the Blue Endeavour pilot projects, including pens, nets, moorings, service vessel and commencement of work on the RAS pilot.
At the same time, the project's pilot farm continues to progress as planned, and in the coming months, the fish and cages will be moved to the Blue Endeavour site. As mentioned, the initiative has the backing of the NZ Government, which in March announced an investment of NZD 11.72 million as part of a program led by New Zealand King Salmon "to increase production and drive up exports."
"We have a strong focus on executing growth, which can be seen in the progress of our Blue Endeavour open ocean pilot farm, delivery of our service vessel Whekenui, and our purchase of the Cloudy Bay commercial site in Blenheim, to support our future processing needs and volumes," Carl Carrington said now, commenting on the results.
"Our confidence remains around the long-term growth opportunities for NZKS. Our direction of travel has not changed. Rather, the emphasis on certain initiatives has increased, sequencing is shifting in response to new circumstances, and certain investments are accelerating," concluded the CEO of New Zealand King Salmon optimistically.