AquaBounty optimistic despite Q4 loss

NORTH American land-based salmon farmer AquaBounty Technologies has posted a US$6. 1m loss for the final three months of 2020, close to double the figure for Q4 2019.

Despite that, the company, which is pioneering the development of genetically modified (GM) salmon, says the outlook for this year was positive. AquaBounty has started customer feedback trials with its fish and says it is “optimistic”.

Q4 Revenues – based on limited sales of non-GM salmon – totalled $50,197 against $46,367 a year ago.

AquaBounty said it had fortified its balance sheet with $192.3m in gross proceeds from the closing of underwritten public offerings of common stock in December 2020 and February this year, providing the financing to fund the expected cost of Farm 3, its planned 10,000 metric ton farm.

The company also said it had selected Innovasea, a global leader in advanced aquatic solutions for aquaculture, as the recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) technology solutions provider for Farm 3.

It has also appointed packaged food industry veteran Dr. Ricardo Alvarez to the company’s board of directors. Operating expenses were $6.1m, as compared to $3.5m in the same quarter for the previous year.

The increase was primarily ascribed to an increase in production costs as the biomass of fish in the company’s farms grew from 161 metric tonnes to over 603 metric tonnes. In addition, the company recorded an inventory reserve of $1.5m related to non-GMO stock.

“Net loss in the fourth quarter of 2020 was $6.1m, as compared to $3.4m in the same year-ago quarter.”

CEO Sylvia Wulf also told investors: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on market demand required the company to address the inventory levels of the conventional salmon at our Indiana farm, which began to exceed capacity in December.

“We needed to make room at the farm for our growing biomass of AquAdvantage salmon.As a result, we decided to harvest and begin donating our conventional salmon to local food charities.”