Generation Z Japanese fish farmer Yuta Iijima holding one of the fish at Proximar's facility in Oyama. The company remains on track for its first harvest in September.
Photo: Proximar Seafood.
In the production update for Q2 2024 published today, Proximar Seafood announced its first sales agreement is in force. Moreover, the company reported that biomass at the end of this second quarter has more than tripled that at the end of Q1 2024. The first harvest of Japan-produced Atlantic salmon remains on track for September 2024.
In its last results presentation, Proximar already announced it had intensified its commercial and marketing activities with its partner Marubeni to be ready for the first harvest in September. Those efforts have paid off and the land-based salmon producer in Japan announced today it has reached its first sales agreement, securing a fixed price per kilogram for a large part of the harvested volumes by 2024.
Although it has not made the price public, the company has stressed it is in line with its expectations and benchmark and reflects a price premium compared to the cost of Atlantic salmon imported from Norway. Proximar has also said it expects the sales agreement to cover approximately one-third of expected harvest volumes by 2024.
"We are very excited to conclude the commercial discussions on our first sales agreement, achieving a sales price according to our expectations for a significant part of our 2024 harvesting volume. This is a big milestone for us and demonstrates our business model and significant cost advantage," said Joachim Nielsen, CEO of Proximar Seafood.
"We are also very excited about the customer being a high-end chain with focus on seafood. This also represents a large value for us in terms of branding and marketing. We are very pleased with the efforts from Marubeni in the sales work, which is clearly demonstrated through the reached agreement," he added.
According to the release, Marubeni - the exclusive distributor of the land-based salmon producer in Japan following the agreement reached in 2022 - is experiencing strong interest in Proximar's fish, and several other discussions are underway.
The salmon sample provided to the customer in June for tasting and quality control received a very positive response.
Photo: Proximar Seafood.
In this update for Q2 2024, Proximar also highlighted that the good growth of its fish is helping the company to meet its plan to achieve its first harvest of Atlantic salmon in September 2024. Not even the incident in February, when a tank breach at its grow-out facility resulted in the loss of approximately 50,000 fish, has kept the company from that goal.
Thus, standing biomass - which had evolved from 39.8 metric tons at the end of Q4 2023 to 111.9 tons at the end of Q1 2024 and 188 tons in mid-May - reached 360 tons at the end of Q2 2024. This is more than triple the level recorded at the end of the previous quarter.
"We are very pleased to see the positive development in our biomass continuing through the second quarter of 2024. The water quality remains good which again is reflected in our growth curves. We continue to see low natural mortality. Our first batch is above 3.25 kg on average, and we remain on track for first harvest in September," Joachim Nielsen explained.
The company currently has 15 lots and approximately 1.6 million individuals in production. The long-term target harvest level for Proximar is 5,300 tons (HOG) per year in Phase 1.
In June, Japan's first producer of Atlantic salmon provided a sample fish of approximately 4.8 kg to the customer for tasting and quality verification. "We continue to do sample testing for quality and taste, and both internal and external feedback is very positive," said Proximar's CEO.
Proximar Seafood is a Norwegian land-based farming company building and operating Japan's first large-scale Atlantic salmon farm in Oyama, at the foot of Mount Fuji. This strategic location guarantees high-quality groundwater used for farming and places it close to a major fish market, offering cost and carbon footprint advantages, as the fresh salmon is harvested the same day it is distributed. The company inserted its first batch of eggs in October 2022 and plans its first harvest in September 2024.
