• Signs RAS supply contract with AKVA Group
The Maine (United States) based company Great Northern Salmon (GNS) just announced that in 2026 they finalized a six-year sales agreement with Stavis Seafoods for their upcoming production. On the other hand, GNS has signed an agreement with AKVA Group to become their technology partner. By the end of 2025, GNS signed a contract with Morgan Stanley for capital-raising and advisory services. And in engineering and construction, their long-standing relationship with PC Construction has been formalized through a CM (Construction Management) contract.
In that sense, GNS’s CEO Marianne Naess states: “We have built these relationships and others over time to achieve strong alignment on goals, collaboration, and shared interest in developing aquaculture in Maine. Additional partners also deserve credit, and more will be formalized in 2026, all part of building strong and resilient execution capabilities beyond our own team.”
Over the past two years, GNS has deliberately built a skilled in-house industry team to ensure strong planning and execution capabilities. At the same time, they have established mature, trusted partnerships with companies dedicated to mutual success, they assure.
CEO Marianne Naess states, “We have built these relationships and others over time to achieve strong alignment on goals, collaboration, and shared interest in developing aquaculture in Maine. Additional partners also deserve credit, and more will be formalized in 2026, all part of building strong and resilient execution capabilities beyond our own team.”
Stavis Seafoods and AKVA Group
The relationship with Stavis Seafoods began two years ago with an LOI and has now been upgraded to a binding offtake agreement, with import costs to Boston serving as the pricing benchmark. This price position gives GNS strong margin advantages over imported fresh salmon, even without a price premium.
Also, GNS has signed an agreement with AKVA Group to become their technology partner. They assure they have maintained strong relationships with AKVA Group over the years, and the parties are aligned on design priorities. After a thorough evaluation of several vendors, AKVA Group emerged as the best fit for GNS’s needs. AKVA Group is the leading global vendor in the industry with extensive experience in design and delivery. They have completed multiple successful international reference projects, including Nordic Aqua Partners in China. AKVA delivered its first design work to GNS in 2025.
Morgan Stanley and PC Construction
By the end of 2025, GNS signed a contract with Morgan Stanley for capital-raising and advisory services. The relationship has grown over time. For them, Morgan Stanley is a valuable addition to their capital-raising partnerships with Pareto Securities and IFG Asset Management.
In engineering and construction, their long-standing relationship with PC Construction has been formalized through a CM (Construction Management) contract. GNS has also chosen SMRT as its architect and engineering partner. They have collaborated with both for years, and both have developed specialized experience in the aquaculture and water treatment sectors.
They also mention the strong public-private collaboration behind their development in Millinocket has been essential. Our Katahdin, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), EMDC (Eastern Maine Development Corporation), DECD (Department of Economic and Community Development), MTI (Maine Technology Institute), FAME (the Finance Authority of Maine), and NRBC (Northern Border Regional Commission) have all contributed significantly along the way. As recently as this month, GNS was awarded USD 2 million in new development funds from MTI.
The Strong Interest, the Future
The American company Great Northern Salmon was created when the founders of Xcelerate Aqua founded a site in the area with unique development advantages in terms of risk mitigation, cost, and time to market. A strong partnership emerged with the local economic development entity Our Katahdin / One North in 2022.
The company is currently developing a 7,500 metric ton salmon capacity facility. With the significant cost benefits on the site, this moderate scale delivers competitive metrics compared to larger proposals, at lower risk. The site has room for doubling the production capacity in the future.
According to them, when the company experienced strong interest in its future product, agreements were entered into for future market off-take: they say Great Northern Salmon will be a product coming from clean and cold-water resources in Maine, sold in the eastern US.
