Iceland’s Thor Salmon completes first smolt delivery
The Icelandic land-based fish farming company Thor Salmon has delivered around 350,000 smolts with an average weight of 100g to salmon farmer Kaldvik.
The smolts come from the company's land-based hatchery in the coastal town of Torlakshavn on the south coast of Iceland, 50km from Reykjavík.
There are some three million smolts and eggs in the facility, according to the company.
“The smolts look very good, and the equipment works very well,” said Jonatan Thordarson, biological manager and COO of the company. “Our in-house developed SCADA system is among the best in class.”
Developed in stages
The project is being developed in stages, with the goal of gradually scaling up production in the coming years.
The smolt facility is built separately from the planned grow-out facility to enhance biosecurity and fish health throughout production.
The facilities will be located around 300m apart, which will make it possible to pump the smolt directly from freshwater tanks to seawater tanks.
The smolt facility has a capacity of around four million smolt per year, and will supply Thor Salmon's planned food fish facility in line with further development.
Ramping up production
“While we are ramping up production, we will also be able to sell smolt and post-smolt to other players,” Steinthor Palsson, CEO of Thor Salmon, explained earlier to LandbasedAQ.
The production is based on hybrid flow-through technology, where a significant part of the water is recycled at the same time as new freshwater is supplied to the plant, but without any biofilter involved.
The company highlights the access to freshwater and seawater as an important part of the initiative in Torlakshavn. The water is taken from wells near the coastline and filtered naturally through lava formations in the ground.
Under construction
The first phase of the food fish facility, with a planned annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes of salmon, is now under construction.
A total of 14 grow-out tanks are being built with a combined volume of around 52,000 cubic meters. The first tanks are scheduled to be put into operation this autumn, while the first harvest is expected towards the end of 2027.
In the long term, the goal is to build up a total production of 20,000 tonnes of salmon under the current operating permit.
Thor Salmon presented its plans in March at the North Atlantic Seafood Forum in Bergen, where Palsson said that the company wanted to build production gradually.
Build further
“We started in 2022 and are gradually building up production. The first phase is around 5,000 tonnes, and the plan is to use the experience from there as we build further.”
The long-term plan is to reach 40,000 tonnes of production, he added.
The company is mainly owned by private investors and Icelandic capital environments, and the first phase of the project has already been financed.
“We have raised around 30 million euros and have fully financed the first phase of 5,000 tonnes,” Palsson said. “We will work on new financing later this year as we move forward with the next phases.”