Nordic Aqua Partners Q4 2025: "clear path to 20,000 tons"

Nordic Aqua Partners (NOAP), China's first commercial-scale RAS Atlantic salmon farm, presented its Q4 2025 results report this week, highlighting "good biological performance and excellent fish health and welfare," as well as the execution of strategic agreements that strengthened its financial platform and provided a "clear path to 20,000 tons."

Specifically, the company highlighted that these strategic agreements materially strengthen the company's capital structure, liquidity and long-term growth platform in China, enhancing execution visibility towards the targeted 20,000 tons annual capacity.

Likewise, during the fourth quarter, the land-based salmon farmer continued to expand its market position and brand equity through a pilot launch with a leading international retail chain in China, and as highlighted by its CEO, Ragnar Joensen, it also carried out the first transfer of fish into Phase 2 grow-out units.

"The successful transfer of fish into the grow-out RAS units for Stage 2 marked a key milestone together with the production for Stage 1 being on full run-rate," he said. "Nordic Aqua is well positioned going into 2026, with high production expecting higher harvesting volumes with higher average weights."

Harvest guidance for 2025 was finally met

With a commercial harvest of 353 tons head-on gutted (HOG) for the quarter, of which 93% were rated as superior and an average weight of 3.3 kg HOG (4.0 kg LW), impacted by biomass optimizations, the average selling price was 5.74 EUR/kg, reflecting low harvest weights.

As previously reported by WeAreAquaculture, to secure a leading position in the growing Chinese high-end salmon market, Nordic Aqua aims to achieve higher average harvest weights, this is, larger fish, which led it to review its production strategy in May last year and, consequently, the optimization of the number of fish in the facilities, which began in Q3 2025, and continued in Q4 2025.

This also led the company to announce a reduction in its harvest forecast for the whole year, but, with a total harvest of 2,026 tonnes in fiscal year 2025 with an average weight of 3.9 kg HOG (4.7 kg LW) and a 97% higher rate—"proving good fish health and biological control"—, Nordic Aqua Partners finally met its harvest guidance for 2025.

Thus, sales in the fourth quarter totalled EUR 2.0 million, with an average selling price of EUR 5.74/kg, slightly higher than the EUR 5.50/kg of the previous quarter. As mentioned, pricing was temporarily affected by lower harvest weights following the biomass optimization initiatives.

Nevertheless, with a biomass production of 1,350 tonnes, resulting from good biological performance and the excellent fish health and welfare, and a total biomass of 3,759 tonnes at the close of the fourth quarter, the company expects that, as harvest sizes increase during 2026, price realization will improve accordingly.

According to Nordic Aqua Partners' Q4 and FY 2025 results release, China imported a record 36,974 tons of fresh Atlantic salmon in the fourth quarter of last year, representing a 57% year-on-year increase, and highlighting the strong demand.

As previously explained, with its strategy of focusing on larger fish, the company expects to meet some of that demand with premium-quality Atlantic salmon, which, in turn, commands premium pricing.

Regarding the financial side, NOAP reported that Q4 operating EBIT was negative at EUR 3.9 million, reflecting those lower harvest volumes, with low weights and higher released costs from stock due to numerous transfers of large fish resulting in low growth in Q2 and Q3 2025. "As volumes scale and unit costs come down, operating profitability is expected to improve," the company stated.

Nordic Aqua also reported that, in December, it signed a 9-year loan agreement with a syndicate of Chinese banks to refinance existing credit lines and future working capital needs.

"Combined with the completion of a co-investment agreement for the Chinese subsidiary Nordic Aqua Ningbo, raising RMB 300 million in new equity, these transactions secure long-term financing, improve liquidity, and establish a robust local financing platform in China," NOAP noted.

China's first commercial-scale RAS Atlantic salmon farm added that all this significantly reduces the risk of the Phase 3 expansion and strengthens the company's ability to execute its long-term growth strategy towards a capacity of 20,000 tons.

Harvest volume for the full year 2026 is expected in the range of 5,000–6,000 tons

Regarding what comes next, Nordic Aqua said that the strong biological performance observed in Q4 2025 has continued into Q1 2026, with high feeding levels, strong fish welfare, and stable operating conditions supporting continued production ramp-up.

Thus, the company stated that larger harvest sizes of approximately 4.5 kg HOG are expected by the first quarter of 2026, with a progressive increase throughout the year, which, as mentioned above, will support better price realization and continued improvement in operating margins. Furthermore, NOAP expects the superior rate to return to approximately 97% from Q1 2026.

Specifically, for the full year 2026, the total expected harvest volume is in the range of 5,000–6,000 tons, which, Nordic Aqua said, represents "a significant step-change in scale and an important milestone towards improved cost efficiency and operating leverage."

With the Phase 2 harvest expected to begin in September 2026, the land-based salmon farmer cautioned that some of the 2026 harvest volume will be concentrated in the second half of the year, so the harvest volume for Q1 is expected to be in the range of 700–900 tons.

Finally, Nordic Aqua Partners also provided an update on the development of its land-based RAS Atlantic salmon farm on Gaotang Island, Ningbo, China. According to the company, construction of Phase 2 is progressing as planned, positioning it to double its annual production capacity to 8,000 tons.

"This expansion, combined with the planned progression toward 20,000 tonnes, reinforces Nordic Aqua's ambition to establish a leading, scalable platform for premium Atlantic salmon production in China," the company claimed in its statement on Q4 2025 results.

NOAP also announced that detailed engineering for Phase 3 will be carried out in 2026, with construction expected to begin after the final investment decision towards the end of the year, with the first harvest targeted for 2029.