Atlantic Sapphire looks forward to profitable production

Land-based salmon producer Atlantic Sapphire is set to deliver profitability when its phase 1 facility in Florida reaches full production, the company says.

The pledge was made as Atlantic Sapphire reported its financial results for the first half of this year. Its operational EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) saw losses for H1 2022 cut to US$5.7m (£4.9m) from $42.2m (£36.1m). Adjusted EBITDA, including the write-off from assets destroyed in the catastrophic fire at the company’s Danish facility, was a loss of $32.9m (£28.2m) compared with a loss of $47.2m (£40.4m) in H1 2021.

The company said that it has been successful in achieving a premium price for its Bluehouse salmon, at $12.10/kg (£10.35) compared with US average for salmon of $8.80/kg (£7.53)

It also recorded 17 months without any “extraordinary mortality events”.

The company said the second half of this year will see a focus on pre-cooling water intake to create greater temperature stability, additional tank lighting, improvements to the feed formula, fine-tuning processing and cutting costs across all aspects of the business.

When fully stocked, Atlantic Sapphire expects biomass in the phase 1 RAS (recirculating aquaculture systems) farm in Florida to reach 8,500 tonnes HOG (head on gutted weight).

Phase 2 at the Florida site is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024.