Proximar's Japanese land-based farmed salmon, Fuji Atlantic Salmon, showcased at a food exhibition in Tokyo at the end of 2025.
Photo: Proximar Seafood.
Proximar Seafood's first quarter can be summarized as making good progress. The Norwegian land-based salmon producer operating in Japan presented its Q1 2026 operational update, in which it talks about both positive operational momentum and biological performance, as well as continued progress on short-term financing.
In addition, during this quarter, the company also announced an appointment to strengthen its operational leadership as it transitions from its initial production phase to stable, large-scale commercial operations. Thus, effective March 25, 2026, Proximar appointed Martin Vestergaard as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Regarding its production update, during Q1 2026, Proximar harvested 697 tons of head-on gutted (HOG) salmon, compared to 339 HOG tons in Q4 2025, representing a 105.6% increase over the previous quarter. Thus, the company's total harvest since it began harvesting in September 2024 now exceeds 2,000 HOG tons.
The land-based salmon producer also said that, in this first quarter, biological indicators remained strong, with a 95.4% superior grade in the quarter and a 98.9% survival rate in the grow-out phase.
During this Q1 2026, Proximar also harvested the last fish from mixed batches affected by previous production interruptions that showed a lower proportion of higher grade, which affected the average harvest weights, which stood at approximately 2.25 kg HOG in the quarter.
Affected by these low average harvest weights, the average net selling price achieved in the first quarter was approximately 54 NOK/kg. For fish above 3 kg HOG, the average price rose to approximately 75 NOK/kg, a price that Proximar said was "largely impacted by unpredictable supply and challenging sales planning during the period, combined with a weakened Japanese Yen."
However, the company noted that the growth performance of the remaining production continues to show positive trends. Thus, as of March 31, 2026, standing biomass was 1,880 metric tons, compared to 1,949 metric tons as of December 31, 2025. Including the harvested biomass of 840 metric tons LW (Live Weight), the gross biomass growth for the quarter was 771 metric tons.
Martin Vestergaard, the newly appointed COO of Proximar Seafood.
Currently, Proximar has 23 batches and approximately 2.1 million healthy salmon in production at its farm in Oyama, Japan, at the foot of Mount Fuji. Precisely to oversee day-to-day operations at the farm and work to ensure continued improvements in technical and biological performance, just before the close of the first quarter, the land-based farming company announced the appointment of Martin Vestergaard as its new COO.
With more than 20 years of experience in fish farming and RAS operations, including 12 years with Aquapri in Denmark and subsequent farm management roles in Switzerland, most recently at Swissfish and Valperca SA, Proximar said his appointment strengthens its operational leadership as the company moves from its initial production phase into stable, full-scale commercial operations.
"Martin has spent his career building and running RAS operations with a strong focus on biological and operational performance, and we are very pleased to have him onboard," Proximar's CEO, Joachim Nielsen, said commenting on the appointment.
"Proximar has established a unique position as Japan's first producer of locally farmed Atlantic salmon and is now moving into a phase of stable operations and increasing harvest volumes. Moving forward, Martin will play a key role in realizing the company's full potential," he added.
"I am very pleased to be joining Proximar at this exciting stage of the company's development," said, for his part, the new COO. "The company has come a long way since its inception and has built a strong operational foundation, and I look forward to working with the team to deliver consistent, high-quality production results going forward," he added.
Vestergaard took over from Dharma Rajeswaran, who had served as Chief Operating Officer since January 2022. Rajeswaran, whom Nielsen thanked for his "significant contributions" to the development of the operations and organization, remains at the company in the role of Farming Advisor.
Finally, regarding financing, Proximar explained that the aforementioned lower average harvest weight in the first quarter negatively impacted cash flow during the period. To address this, the company has initiated several discussions with financial institutions in Japan and has received a loan offer of 300 million yen (approximately NOK 18 million) from a regional bank, on market terms, although disbursement of the loan is subject to approval by the banks in the company's existing syndicate.
At the end of March, the company also received a final insurance payment of 357 million yen (approximately NOK 22 million) related to revenue losses stemming from biofilter incidents in 2024, which forced it to lower its harvest forecast. According to the company's stock exchange release, these proceeds cover short-term working capital needs for its Japanese operations.
In connection with that revised harvest plan, Proximar Seafood requested a waiver from its syndicated banking group regarding an agreement related to average two-month sales volumes for the first quarter of 2026. According to the company, the banking group has shown its support and discussions on the waiver and its terms are progressing constructively, so it expects a positive outcome.
The company also reported that, as it announced in February, it is continuing discussions with regional banks regarding potential additional credit lines to cover other short-term financing needs related to debt service and the refinancing of a group-level shareholder loan. Proximar now stated that it is receiving positive interest from potential lenders.
The company, which ended 2025 with a standing biomass of close to 2,000 tons, improved biological performance and stable operations, then assured that this provides a solid foundation for gradually increasing harvest weights and price achievement from the second quarter of 2026 onwards.