A 95% superior share wasn't enough to keep full cycle on land
Its salmon reached five kilos and maintained high quality. Nevertheless, production costs mean that Norway's Årdal Aqua has moved away from growing fish to harvest size in a RAS.
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Land-based fish farmer Årdal Aqua will no longer use its production halls to grow salmon up to harvest size. From now on, all capacity in the halls will be used for post-smolts.
This is revealed in the half-year report of Grieg Seafood, which owns 44.44% of Årdal Aqua.
Grieg points out that the costs were too high when producing large fish on land.
“Based on the current cost profile at high average weights, we have shifted our land-based farming production and will utilise all halls for post-smolt, bringing Grieg Seafood’s total land-based smolt capacity to approximately 9,000 tonnes,” writes chief executive Nina Willumsen Grieg in the report.
Cost is too high
The decision comes after Årdal Aqua completed a production cycle in which the salmon were fed to an average weight of over 5 kg on land.
Before harvest, the fish were transferred to the sea for depuration. Grieg Seafood states that this phase was carried out with good results. A total of 610 tonnes were harvested with an average weight of five kilograms and a superior share of 95%.
Grieg highlights good growth even after the fish exceeded two kilos. The company believes that the facility also showed high production efficiency and good results related to fish size and density.
However, the results were not good enough financially.
"Despite strong biological and operational results, the cost of production is still too high to compete with conventional production in open cages," the company writes.
First profit
Årdal Aqua operates a land-based post-smolt facility in Hjelmeland in Rogaland. The facility consists of four production halls and has an annual capacity of 6,000 tonnes of post-smolts.
After production got off the ground last year, sales increased sharply. The accounts for 2025 showed revenues of NOK 337 million and an operating profit of NOK 60 million. The annual profit ended at NOK 9.6 million, which was the company's first profit.
Årdal Aqua is owned by Grieg Seafood Rogaland, Omfar, and Vest Havbruk.
The plant produced around 2,800 tonnes in the first half of the year. For the whole of 2026, production is expected to be around 5,600 tonnes. According to the half-year report, Grieg Seafood has the right to the entire post-smolt production from Årdal Aqua.
Planning a new facility
As LandbasedAQ has previously mentioned, AKVA group has entered into a contract with Årdal Aqua for the design and delivery of a new land-based RAS facility for smolt at the same location.
The contract is worth around NOK 200 million, and the facility will have the capacity to produce six million smolts annually.
Grieg Seafood states in the report that the company participated in a capital increase in Årdal Aqua with NOK 44.5 million. The other owners participated proportionally, so that the ownership shares were maintained.
According to Grieg, the capital injection will be used to initiate construction of the new smolt facility. The goal is to reduce the biological risk.
Grieg's smolt strategy
The conversion at Årdal Aqua is part of Grieg Seafood's focus on larger post-smolts in Rogaland.
In the first half of the year, the company stocked 2.9 million smolts from its own and partly owned facilities. The average weight at launch increased from around 1.1 kilograms in the first half of 2025 to 1.3 kilograms in the same period this year.
Grieg states that the company has more than ten years of experience and data from over 75 post-smolt groups. The groups include fish weighing from 250 grams to five kilograms. The data will be used to further develop the post-smolt strategy.
Grieg Seafood is also a co-owner of Tytlandsvik Aqua, which has an annual post-smolt capacity of 6,000 tonnes. Grieg is entitled to half of this production.
Tytlandsvik Aqua produced around 2,500 tonnes in the first half of the year. For the whole year, production is expected to be around 4,800 tonnes.
Together with the capacity at Årdal Aqua, this gives Grieg Seafood access to around 9,000 tonnes of land-based smolt capacity.