Søren Mattesen new CEO of Sashimi Royal

May 19, 2021

Since October 2020 Sashimi Royal and Maximus, the Yellowtail Kingfish operation in Denmark, has been wholly owned subsidiaries of Nordic Aquafarms Group, and we have been busy laying the grounds for further development and scaling of the production of this amazing product. Our in-house RAS engineers have already implemented updates of the system using our proprietary technology to improve production capacity. Furthermore, detailed plans for capacity expansion to 4,000MT annual production has been developed.

Roger Fredriksen has been promoted to Production Director Scandinavia and is managing the production at both Fredrikstad Seafoods and Sashimi Royal/Maximus while Torben Kristensen from Nordic Aquafarms Technology is in place as interim CEO of Sashimi Royal/Maximus.

1st of August we will welcome the new CEO of Sashimi Royal and Maximus, Søren Mattesen. Søren has vast experience as a leader in the seafood/food production industry after 16 years as CEO of Vilsund Blue, a processor of high-quality mussels from the Limfjord in Denmark. He will come with extensive focus on business development, quality and leadership, and we are looking forward to working with him and rest of the team to take our Yellowtail Kingfish operations to the next level. Welcome to the team Søren!

Fredrikstad Seafoods – strong biological performance from the first generations of land-raised salmon

April 28, 2021

Fredrikstad Seafoods has successfully harvested salmon on a weekly basis for almost a year now. We have learned a lot and gained a lot (of biomass and experience)! Since production-start we have ramped up production step-by-step while also testing capacity-limits in both production and processing. During the first 10 months of harvesting we have sold more than 650 tonns (320 tonns in Q1 2021) with less than 5% downgrades, +90% superior, average size of ~4,5 kg gutted weight (~4,9kg in Q1 2021) and with consistent and very high quality. Mortalities has been low, we see no sign of early maturation and we have had no incidents with loss of fish. It seems like fish are thriving (on land) at the shores of the river Glomma!

Next week we are welcoming another 150.000 smolts in the facility, while another 150.000 are moving in later in the year and we are by that laying the grounds for continuous harvest week-in and week-out going forward. The production team, under steady command of Roger Fredriksen has done a tremendous job, always keeping “fish first” and focusing on getting better and better every day!

Nordic Aquafarms strengthens its position within Yellowtail Kingfish by acquiring remaining shares in Sashimi Royal and Maximus

September 16, 2020

Nordic Aquafarms, a leading player in land-based aquaculture, has entered into an agreement with Sustainable Seafood Invest (SSI) regarding the acquisition of 50% of the shares in Maximus A/S and 32.5% of the shares in Sashimi Royal A/S, making both companies fully owned subsidiaries of Nordic Aquafarms AS. – We have had an exciting journey together with SSI in developing this fantastic product, says Group CEA in Nordic Aquafarms, Bernt Olav Røttingsnes.

The two Danish companies produces high quality Yellowtail Kingfish. Maximus A/S is the hatchery with own broodstock and Sashimi Royal A/S is the grow-out producing fish from 50g to 5kg. Total annual harvest capacity is approximately 900 MTq, with potential for substantial on-site capacity expansion. The companies have produced Yellowtail Kingfish since 2017 with harvest and sales since 2018. The product is primarily sold to the premium HoReCa market in Europe.

– Nordic Aquafarms is the only land-based producer of two high value species; yellowtail kingfish and salmon, and the acquisition of the remaining share in the two Danish Yellowtail Kingfish companies enables us to focus even more on this fantastic product, says Røttingsnes. – We have made plans for further development of the companies and will evaluate how these can be implemented in the near future. With this acquisition we strengthen our biological diversification and expand the opportunity space for future projects globally.

Nordic Aquafarms has two land-based aquafarms in production in the Nordics and farms under development in Maine and California in the US. The group has an in-house multi-disciplined team of more than 55 employees to execute on its strategy to be a leading player in this growing industry. The group is uniquely positioned with an experienced RAS team of 10 employees in Aarhus, Denmark, Nordic Aquafarms Technology, and has proprietary technology delivered to the incumbent industry.

– Nordic Aquafarms has made tremendous progress the last years and is entering into a very exiting period with start of construction of our Maine project, permitting in California, and increased production of salmon in Norway and of Yellowtail Kingfish in Denmark. We have a non-site specific technology and will continue to look for new locations for our aquafarms, says Røttingsnes.

Nordic Aquafarms – Mikkel Kristian Thomsen appointed Group CTO and Head of Nordic Aquafarms Technology Aps

August 7, 2020

Nordic Aquafarms – a leading player in land-based aquaculture with production of Salmon and Yellowtail Kingfish is happy to announce that Mikkel Kristian Thomsen is appointed Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Head of Nordic Aquafarms Technology Aps (NAF Tech).

I’m very happy that Mikkel is our new Group CTO and Head of NAF Tech. Mikkel has extensive experience from RAS-design and construction, and together with his team in NAF Tech and our experienced production managers in Norway, Denmark and USA I feel confident that Nordic Aquafarms will have the world’s best RAS-farms, says CEO in Nordic Aquafarms AS, Bernt Olav Røttingsnes.

Mikkel Thomsen joined Nordic Aquafarms as manager of Nordic Aquafarms DK in 2018. Prior to this he was Head of Design in the Danish RAS-supplier Inter Aqua Advance. He has extensive experience from RAS-design and construction, and has managed development of both smolt, post-smolt and grow-out facilities as part of Inter Aqua Advance.

Nordic Aquafarms has a unique position as the only land-based aquaculture company with two facilities in production with two different species, a bi-coastal strategy in USA and an in-house RAS-technology team. In close collaboration with the production managers, NAF Tech develops our unique land-based production modules with high focus on product quality, capacity, efficiency and risk mitigation.

NAF Tech is the company’s inhouse RAS-engineering, -design, -procurement and -project management vehicle that is 100% allocated to these activities in our ongoing and upcoming. The team also supports the ongoing operations in Norway and Denmark with technical improvements and development alongside several R&D projects in live production environments.

NAF Tech has 10 employees with extensive experience from RAS development and construction. Before joining Nordic Aquafarms the team developed smolt, post-smolt and grow-out facilities as part of Inter Aqua Advance, and they have developed facilities for several companies i.e Grieg Seafoods and Marine Harvest / Mowi.

NAF Tech will manage Nordic Aquafarms’ patent portfolio, including a well proven Moving Bed Biofilter Reactor (MBBR) and biomedia, currently in use at several RAS-farms around the world. NAF Tech is in the process of filing several more patents related to our unique RAS-design.