Join us in China and catch salmon on land

LandbasedAQ's editor-in-chief Pål Mugaas Jensen visited NOAP's facility in Ningbo in June.

China is a powerful country. Geopolitically more powerful than it has been in a long time, but just taking in the size, the people, and the history of this region can take your breath away. China is a country you just have to deal with going forward, whether you like it or not.

Fish farming started on land. Farming carp in earthen ponds began in China perhaps as much as 4,000 years ago. The idea and knowledge were local. It was a success, and according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 30 million tonnes of carp were produced in the world in 2024, of which 20 million tonnes were grown in China. This makes carp by far the largest group of farmed fish in the world.

It took some time for the knowledge of fish farming to reach the West, but a hundred years ago we took the idea seriously, replaced the species and started farming salmonids, also in earthen ponds. It was the start of a technological journey that has today manifested itself as highly advanced production of salmon on land. All the Nordic countries have contributed in different ways to this development, and therefore the name Nordic Aqua Partners symbolises very well what lies behind the pioneering effort that is now taking place a few hours' drive south of Shanghai.

The initial idea and drive for the company came from Ove Nodland, a Norwegian mechanical engineer from Stavanger who moved to the port city of Ningbo in China in 1999. In 2002, he established Ningbo's Nordic Industrial Park, a business community where he helped more than 50 Nordic companies establish themselves in the Chinese market. Due to his long-term work in the region, he has also been appointed an official honorary citizen of Ningbo.

In 2014, Ove Nodland initiated the salmon project. As a resident of China, he saw potential for large future growth and a large market for salmon. China had an appeitite for the fish, but flying fresh salmon from Norway was expensive and resulted in high customs costs and a high carbon footprint. His idea was to produce the salmon locally in China, but on land using well-known, Nordic technology.

Early on in the process, Nodland became acquainted with Ragnar Joensen, a well-known figure in the Nordic aquaculture industry. Joensen already had 25 years of industry experience, including as head of Mowi Norway and global head of technology in the same company. Ove and Ragnar formed the foundation on which the success was built, namely that Ove knew China, and Ragnar knew aquaculture and RAS.

The company was then founded in 2016, and in 2020 it was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with both Skretting and AKVA group as industrial partners on the ownership side.

The company had already secured a location on Gaotang Island in Ningbo's Xiangshan District, strategically located near the giant markets of Shanghai and Hangzhou, and in 2021, the ground was broken.

The first eggs were laid in March 2022, the first commercial harvest of fish was carried out in April 2024 and sold under the Nordic PureAtlantic brand. Now in 2026, production has reached a point where it is steady, in increasing volumes, with good sizes and with a high superior proportion and low mortality.

No other land-based salmon farm in the world, based on RAS technology, is currently close to this.

The new standard bearer

Four years ago, however, everyone went to Florida when talking about land-based salmon in RAS. There they found the leader that everyone followed. Many made the trip across the pond and visited the facility in Homestead, just south of Miami. So did LandbasedAQ and myself. Without going into a thorough analysis of what has gone wrong in Florida, it is easy to see that that facility is no longer the flag carrier for RAS. That is not where investors look when considering whether land-based farming is a place to invest money.

In Norway, several land-based food fish farms have emerged in parallel that have done much better, but are based on either hybrid technology or are pure flow-through facilities. RAS technology has long been successfully established in hatchery farms. It has not been as easy to achieve the totality on land-based food fish farms.

Not until now.

Several stakeholders and analysts LandbasedAQ has spoken to are increasingly pointing to the NOAP facility and saying that if it succeeds there, it is almost only the imagination that sets limits to how this can develop further. Then it will not just be the NOAP facility at Gaotang.

And if you become big in China with its 1.4 billion inhabitants, then you become truly big.

The statistics show that the Chinese have started to get a taste for salmon. In the last year alone, the market volume for Norwegian salmon in China has doubled, and in 2025 the nation imported more than 140,000 tonnes, in addition to the approximately 2,000 tons that were produced locally by NOAP.

I wanted to see this with my own eyes.

The timing is right

In the new and modern administration building at the NOAP facility, Andreas Thorud was there to greet me. In 2024, he was hired as chief executive of NOAP's overall operational activities in China.

He has a nearly 20-year professional career in China behind him and has both been a seafood envoy in the country for the Norwegian Seafood Council, and before that had 10 years of responsibility for Aker BioMarine's operations in China and other central Asian markets. His fluent Mandarin and deep knowledge of Chinese culture are undoubtedly a huge advantage as NOAP now establishes itself as a supplier in competition with imported salmon from Norway, Chile, or other salmon-producing countries.

Thorud says there are two things that are happening simultaneously now.

"Firstly, the Chinese market for salmon is starting to show its potential. Just 3-4 years ago, China was not a large salmon market, [but] it is becoming one, and we can safely say that this is where the Chinese salmon adventure begins," he says.

"At the same time, our story begins, and NOAP begins to show its potential. With the production we are now able to manage, and with the fish sizes we are able to produce, we can also safely say: We are starting to achieve this here. We are achieving on land here in China what is achieved in the sea in Norway," he adds.

His main conclusion is that the timing is very right, in terms of time, place, and product.

"Most Chinese have now heard of salmon, so we no longer need to teach them about the product from scratch. But not many people still eat salmon. We need to change that."

Chinese brands are selling

As mentioned before, the NOAP facility is located just over three hours' drive south of Shanghai. Cities with a population of over one million such as Hangzhou and, not least, Ningbo are even closer. The location means NOAP can reach around 100 million relatively affluent consumers within five hours of distribution and around 800 million consumers within 12 hours.

"In recent years, coastal China has had the greatest growth in purchasing power. For example, Hangzhou is considered the AI capital and can be reached relatively quickly by car," says Thorud.

He also highlights megatrends that point in the right direction for locally produced salmon.

"Traditionally, the mindset has been that imported goods are expensive and of high quality. But this is changing. Take the automotive industry and the rise of electric cars. The European automotive industry has not kept up with this. Now, for the first time, we are seeing Chinese brands going global. In wine production, they have taken technology and culture from Europe and put a Chinese touch on it. And we see it with our salmon. People here are proud of the product and are more than happy to buy local rather than imported."

Big fish sell

Historically, China has been a market for large fish, and consumers are therefore used to large sizes.

Thorud says that the average weight of the fish NOAP delivered in Q4 was 4.4 kg.

"We are proud of that, but we will go even further. The goal is to get closer to 7 kg live weight."

And it is not just habit that makes big fish desirable. Much of the processing is manual, which also means that the yield is better with larger fish. And whether the fish is sold in grocery stores or you have it delivered to your door – which has become very common with many types of goods in China – it is consumed raw. In this case, fish with a high fat percentage and clear marbling is an advantage. In addition, characteristics such as freshness and food safety are emphasised.

The result is that big fish with a good reputation fetch more per kilo.

"We saw in Q1 2026 that we were paid 13% better for 5-plus fish compared to the week-by-week average export price from Norway. Here we see potential for greater premium as our product becomes even more known to end channels," Thorud says.

China as a salmon market

China has gone from being a promising but somewhat uneven salmon market to becoming one of the clearest growth drivers for Norwegian salmon. 2025 in particular stands out.

In 2025, the Chinese market for Atlantic salmon was about 137,000 tonnes, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council's country profile for China. Norway then had a market share of 53%, ahead of Chile with 17% and Australia with 12%. The Seafood Council also writes that Norwegian salmon has a strong position among Chinese consumers, and that sales are increasingly moving towards home consumption, online shopping, and home delivery.

For Norwegian salmon, 2025 was a very strong year for China. Norway exported salmon to China for NOK 8.1 billion, up 59% from the previous year. The volume ended at 90,906 tonnes, which was 99% higher than in 2024. The Seafood Council's China envoy Sigmund Bjørgo explained the growth was a combination of a sharp increase in Chinese salmon consumption and Norway gaining market share. New sales channels and better distribution in smaller Chinese cities also contributed.

It is also worth noting that the total market grew, not just the Norwegian share. Through November 2025, China had imported 48% more salmon than the previous year, from all salmon-producing countries. During the same period, Norway's market share increased from 41% to 57%, according to the Seafood Council.

The Seafood Council points to several drivers behind the growth: increased online shopping, better distribution channels, a stronger position in smaller cities and increased salmon consumption. In 2025, China became the market with the greatest value growth for Norwegian seafood in total, with an increase of NOK 2.9 billion, or 31%, to NOK 12.3 billion. The country thus went from being Norway's sixth largest seafood market in 2024 to the third largest in 2025.

Moving towards profitability

The NOAP facility has been developed in phases. Phase 1 is now fully operational, phase 1 is not yet fully completed but parts are in use, and phase 3 has not yet been formally adopted.

"We have learned a lot from the construction and commissioning of phase 1, which we have taken with us into phase 2. Working closely with technology supplier AKVA group – which has established its own office in Ningbo – we have optimised costs and made improvements. That is why we are proud to report in the Q1 report that phase 2 will be completed under budget," says Thorud.

A final investment decision for phase 3 will be made later this year, but Thorud says that several things have already been started, so that they will be well-positioned if it gets the green light. And NOAP already has strong support from local authorities, who in September last year also entered the ownership of Nordic Aqua Ningbo with RMB 300 million (approximately NOK 420m) which gave them an ownership stake of 20%. Should the company decide to go ahead with phase 3, the first fish are expected to reach the market from here as early as 2029.

In the Q1 report from NOAP, it was reported that March was the first month with a positive operating result. For stock market-sensitive reasons, Thorud cannot comment on developments in Q2 until that quarter's report is out, but it would hardly be surprising if the good development has continued.

"This year it will be important for us to prove the project on the bottom line. We have already proven that we have mastered the production technology. We can't do anything about the general salmon prices, but we can control the costs, that's up to us," he says.