Grieg Seafood's new VAP facility at Gardermoen Business Park, the seafood cluster in Oslo Airport City (OAC), was delivered in December 2025.
Photo: Oslo Airport City.
"Q1 2026 was a transitionary quarter for Grieg Seafood, and unfortunately was impacted by biological challenges. Consequently, the financial result is not satisfactory." This is how the Norwegian salmon farming company begins its comments on the quarter, included in the extended trading update released today.
As it anticipated last April, this first quarter under its new operating model, focused solely on operations in Rogaland, Norway, following the divestment of three regions to Cermaq Group—the sale of the operations in Finnmark (Norway), and Newfoundland and British Columbia (Canada) was completed in December—has been challenging.
According to the company, the transition itself has weighed materially on the result, both through one-off costs and through the ramp-up of its new value-added processing (VAP) facility at Gardermoen, but to the expected expenses, they were added those derived from the biological challenges that arose after experiencing delousing issues.
In a global context in which salmon prices fell after global supply increased by 14%, Grieg Seafood's first quarter of the year was characterized by weaker market development than expected, together with higher farming costs. Specifically, the operational EBIT for the now only farming region in Q1 2026 was NOK 4.7 per kg.
These adverse factors were further amplified by the biological challenges recorded by the company after a combination of a warm summer, mechanical treatment against sea lice, and a subsequent prolonged cold period affected the quality of the harvested fish.
As a result, not only was there an increase in mortality, but the proportion of superior quality harvested fell to 59%, compared to 83% obtained in the same quarter of the previous year.
Moreover, the company reported that approximately 1,000 tons were harvested early to optimize price achievement, resulting in a net positive contribution to earnings.
As Grieg Seafood explains in its Q1 2026 extended trading update, another important milestone in the quarter was the entry into production of its new VAP facility at Gardermoen Business Park, the seafood cluster in Oslo Airport City (OAC) that aspires to be Norway's most central hub for processing, distribution, and export of seafood.
A few months behind schedule, with the initial plan targeting summer 2025, the new plant—which had BAADER as its equipment supplier—began operating on January 5 under the management of Oslo Salmon Processing AS, a subsidiary of Grieg.
Previously, in August 2024, the Norwegian salmon company had already announced the appointment of Kristian B. Matthiasson, as Factory Manager of what he then described as "Grieg's state-of-the-art processing plant at Gardermoen."
With an investment of NOK 130 million, the new VAP facility will have an annual processing capacity of 10,000 – 12,000 tonnes (HOG equivalent), with an option of increasing it to 20,000 tonnes later. The project was expected to create between 50 and 60 new jobs.
As mentioned above, the start-up of the facility increased sales costs, impacting the Group's EBIT. Similarly, headquarters costs were high, reflecting extraordinary costs related to the separation of IT from the three divested regions and transformation costs associated with adapting the organization to its new scale, including contract terminations, the legal dispute with Cermaq Group, and other restructuring measures.
Nevertheless, although all extraordinary material costs of this nature were recognized in Q1 2026, Grieg Seafood stated that cost reduction measures are materializing ahead of schedule, with approximately 60% of the NOK 50 million savings target already implemented since H2 2026.
In addition, the company announced the completion of its previously announced capital contribution of NOK 45 million to Årdal Aqua, supporting the continued development of its land-based operations. According to the release, the funds will be used to construct a smolt facility on the site.
However, despite the "not satisfactory" financial result, the company highlighted that during the quarter there were clearly positive signs indicating where the Group is headed after the transition.
Grieg Seafood reported that its post-smolt operations continued to deliver strong operating results during the quarter, further reinforcing the company's strategic focus on post-smolt production. According to the release, post-smolt transferred to sea in Q1 had an average weight of 1.0 kg, while the land-based batch of Årdal Aqua ready for harvest in Q2 2026 has an average weight exceeding 5 kg.
"Despite a challenging start to the year, operational performance improved toward the end of Q1 2026, with positive developments in both production and mortality observed going into Q2 2026," Grieg's release reads.
"We expect a gradual recovery through the remainder of the year, supported by cost initiatives and increased efficiency across farming and downstream activities as the ramp-up of the VAP facility is completed," it continues.
The company also said that, at the beginning of Q2 2026, harvesting was paused to build biomass and fully utilize the MAB. Thus, by mid-May, optimal biomass had already been reached at sea.
Finally, the Norwegian salmon farming company said that, in the context described above, decisive actions have been initiated to strengthen operational execution and minimize the risk of situations similar to those experienced during this quarter.
Thus, although the long-term cost target of NOK 60 per kg is unchanged, as a result of weaker performance in Q1, it has had to revise and add new elements to its 2026 guidance.
The first change is in the guided harvest volume, which is revised from 31,000 tons to 30,000 tons for 2026. For Q2, Grieg Seafood forecasts a harvest volume of 5,200 tons, concentrated towards the end of the quarter.
Likewise, the company anticipates that the total annual farming cost will be approximately NOK 67.0 per kg. It also expects farming costs to remain high in Q2 2026 but to improve through the year and reach normalized levels in 2027, in line with the performance of the past three years.