Production data: Harvested earlier with fewer fish lost 

Stim AS, which markets SuperSmolt Feed Only, reports this.

The analysis is based on a substantial dataset comprising no fewer than 320 million smolts.

According to the company, the dataset is so extensive because Chilean salmon farming has far more detailed reporting requirements than Norwegian farmers, including data that can be linked to the smoltification method.

In a report prepared by consulting firm Aquabench in Puerto Montt, cages stocked from January 2023 onwards in the Los Lagos and Aysén regions have been assessed.

The report, dated February 2026, covers 259 SuperSmolt cages at 28 different sites.

The SuperSmolt cages – hereafter referred to as specialised-feed cages – have also been compared with two control groups: cages in the same companies that were not smoltified in the same way, and cages in the rest of the industry. At its largest, the comparison includes more than 4,000 cages and over 320 million smolts.

Lower mortality

After four months at sea, the specialised-feed cages had a mortality rate of 1.02%, according to the report, compared with 1.53% and 1.65% in the two other groups.

At seven months, the picture was the same; mortality remained lowest in the specialised feed pens. In addition, the median weight was now 2,055 grams in the SSFO pens, compared with 1,781 and 1,874 grams in the other groups.

At harvest, cumulative mortality in the specialised feed pens ended at 5.69%, compared with 8.6% and 8.3% respectively in the control groups.

Earlier harvest

The report also concludes that fish fed the specialised feed reach harvest earlier.

Around 51% of the pens had been harvested in month 13 after stocking, and 74% in month 14. The corresponding proportions were 17% and 41% in the same companies without specialised feed, and 28% and 52% in the rest of the industry.

The harvest weight in the specialised feed group was 4,975 grams, roughly the same as in the “non-fed” group and somewhat lower than in the rest of the industry. Nevertheless, Aquabench points out that a large proportion of SSFO pens combine a shorter time to harvest with a harvest weight above 4,500 grams.

The report also describes more consistent performance between pens. In the principal component analysis (PCA), the specialised feed pens cluster more closely, with higher growth, better feed efficiency and lower mortality.

The value of data

"In markets outside Chile there is a lot of internal production statistics, but it is much harder to extract comparable figures for the whole industry where smoltification method is a separate, traceable variable. That is why this kind of cross-sectional analysis is more complicated at home, even though smolt quality is just as relevant," says STIMs Chief Sales Officer Jørn Hanssen.

He argues that Chilean reporting has real value, with regular production and health reporting to the authority Sernapesca and years of pen-level reporting from much of the industry to Aquabench.

With reservations

"Taken together, this becomes incredibly useful and valuable data that can form part of the decision-making basis for fish farmers. Here, we have followed hundreds of thousands of fish over four months, seven months and all the way through to harvest. We see the same pattern: the special-feed smolt get off to a faster start, there are fewer underperformers, and the cycle is shortened. That is exactly what good smoltification should deliver," Hanssen says.

He stresses that the report must not be read as a controlled trial.

"Aquabench has conducted a retrospective analysis, not a randomised trial. But when the SSFO cages outperform both neighbouring cages within the same company and the rest of the industry in terms of mortality and time to harvest, that is a strong signal," he says.

The report is limited to fish with a stocking weight of less than 600 grams.

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