Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Q3 presentation by Nordic Aqua. To present today, we have Andreas Thorud, MD in China, and Tom Austrheim, CFO, and myself. I'll just remind everyone that it is possible to raise some questions during the presentation in the written log. The agenda for today: we will start with some highlights, then we will go through operations and project. Andreas will come in and present sales and market. Tom will take us through the financials, and then we will sum up by the end. If we take the highlights first, the underlying operations have been going well, just as they have in previous quarters. So we have been able to produce large fish, a large group of fish being 6.5 kilo, and nearly no mortality, and also no maturation.
So many things have been going very well, but we have not had any commercial harvest in this quarter due to geosmin, and we have culled 651 tons. If we look at the geosmin situation, we are not completely over with that yet, and therefore we expect to have no further harvest during the end of this year. We have produced 1,000 tons of biomass, and by the end of the quarter, we had just under 3,000 tons of biomass. By the end, in September, we reduced the feeding in order to reduce production somewhat, so we don't need to take even more biomass out. If we look at stage two, going further with our project, things go as planned. You can see also in the picture that development is according to schedule.
We put in the first eggs in Q3 so that we will be able to start harvest from this group in two years' time. We had a capital increase by the end of the quarter, and together with indicative debt financing, we have cash on hand to be fully funded to the stage two. If we go through the production, as mentioned, we took out some biomass that was produced, part of the biomass that was produced in the quarter. Otherwise, the production has gone very well, low mortality still, as I mentioned, and in July and August, we were up at full run rate for the 4,000 tons biomass. So in many ways, the facility is working fantastic with the people operating it, and the main issue that we have discussed over the past time has been geosmin, and we have taken serious measures.
As you can see on some of these pictures, we have installed new technology. We have introduced protein skimmers, vacuum UVs. We have increased also ozonation capacity, and we have started to operate biofilters in a new way, everything just to reduce the geosmin. If we look at the total CapEx, we have spent some, but mainly for the coming stages or stage two, we believe that we will come up to EUR 19 million in total for the cost of these measures to prevent geosmin. Looking at the harvest plan, we have culled 650 tons in Q3. In October, we continued to cull some fish, and we believe also that we will cull further during the end of the quarter. But of course, we are always looking also at possibilities of having geosmins removed so we don't have to cull the full volume.
We see that for us that during next year, 2025, that would still be a normal year for us, and we believe that this geosmin situation will be over so that we will have a close to normal or very normal production in 2025. Going to look at the project, stage two, all the ways up to smolt, those facilities are already finally built, and the larger stages, you can see also on this picture, is progressing very well. So it's planned to put in fish into this system by summer next year. The total Capex is estimated to be just under NOK 80 million, NOK 76.6 million. This is including the geosmin improvement Capex. So if we look at the timeline, stage one finished. Stage two, we started construction last for a year ago, and production started this year, and first harvest is believed to be in 2026.
For the stage three, taking the production up to 20,000 tons is still waiting for the final decision on exactly when the start will be of this stage. So I will now give the word to Andreas. Please, Andreas.
Thank you so much for that, Ragnar. I will go through the sales and market part. Nordic Aqua Partners is continuing to make positive inroads and developments when it comes to building a corporate image as well as a brand image in the Chinese market for our land-based Atlantic salmon, the Nordic Pure Atlantic. During the previous quarter, we participated at the World Seafood Shanghai Trade Show with the stand, as well as a keynote speech at the China Global Salmon Industry Development Summit, which is the biggest summit in China for the Atlantic salmon industry. This all provided us with an opportunity to engage with customers and prospects, as well as further educating on the benefits of our land-based Atlantic salmon locally produced here in China by a Norwegian company. In addition, we gathered good PR attention.
We were featured on China's biggest English-speaking television channel, CGTN, as well as other positive media reports. Another highlight in this regard was that during the state visit of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to China in September, we were invited and participated at a high-level business reception in Beijing, which also provides us with the opportunity to engage with the Prime Minister who acknowledged Nordic Aqua, our project, and also our prospects in this market. We also see that our company fits very well into the bilateral development relationship between Norway and China when it comes to the green transition, especially with regards to striving to provide a greener aquaculture solution. Next, if we look at a quick look back, we did demonstrate very well with harvesting and sales in Q2 that we got market acceptance and acknowledgement for our product.
We established a key customer base in various distribution channels. We had a superior share of 99% with an average harvesting rate of 4.54 kilo HOG, and also back then in Q2, an average price of EUR 8.94. However, looking forward, we now expect sales to resume sometime in Q1 2025, and right now, during this period, we are doing intensive market preparations for our sales and marketing team when it comes to participation at trade shows, engaging with customers and prospects, and other plans and activities in order to ensure that we get back to the market in the best way to further develop our premium position. We're still targeting the key food service distribution channel, as well as retail and e-commerce channels, depending on the sizes we produce. Especially for retail and e-commerce, we anticipate attractive growth areas in those segments.
We see with the Nordic Pure Atlantic that we have a compelling value proposition to the market with unparalleled freshness, a strong safety profile, and a positive sustainability aspect given the quality and fish health we have demonstrated, and also, of course, the proximity to the market. Being a Norwegian company operating locally in China, we are also able to be flexible and adapt to market conditions and seize opportunities to which we want to develop the market and these key distribution channels, as mentioned. If we take a bigger look and moving on to the next slide, we will see that the imports of Atlantic salmon to China in Q3 saw a record, and also the overall market year-to-date, Q1 to Q3, has shown very positive development. Q3 was the biggest quarter ever in terms of import volumes of fresh Atlantic salmon.
And also the year-to-date shows a growth of almost 10%, which would give a run rate of China hitting more than 90,000 metric tons of fresh imported salmon at the end of the year. This is strong numbers, and also you may say, despite a little bit of reports and data of a subdued economic situation in China, lack of consumer confidence, and so on, we see that the market, the salmon market, has been proven to be healthy and growing, and we think this bodes well also for the future. When it comes to the composition of the origin of imported Atlantic salmon in the Chinese market, we see there is a variety of origins who are competing for customers, and a key feature is obviously the food service and the six-plus size that are much in demand.
Looking at Q3, we see that the market share in Norway has stabilized somehow and increased to 50%, followed by a range of other country origins led by Chile, Australia, Scotland, Faroe Islands, and so on. Market share year-to-date also shows that Norwegian market share has dipped somewhat overall, but it continues to be the leading nation given the strong recognition of Norwegian origin, year-through ability to deliver and supply good quality to the market. Moving on to the next one, we here illustrate how the imports of Atlantic salmon is with regards to pricing, and also that we have a European part with Norway, Faroe, and Scotland compared to Chilean and Australian salmon, and we see that there is a higher price achieved for the European, if you will, origin of salmon.
This can be attributed to a supply of six-plus and also some of the customs tariffs that are put on products from European nations, especially Norway, Faroe Islands, and Scotland, with tariffs of 7%. The Chinese market continues to be a big fish market with a clear preference for six-plus given the nature of the distribution channels. However, there are developments that show a higher penetration into smaller cities and also vibrant online e-commerce market, which do not have the same preference as six-plus, but are looking at smaller prices. Yet traditionally, big fish in the Chinese market has achieved much more attractive pricing than smaller sizes. And with that, I would like to hand over to our CFO, Tom Austrheim, for the financials. Thank you.
Thank you, Andreas. Looking back at our Q3 figures, the profit and loss was obviously heavily impacted by having no meaningful revenue as we had no commercial sales and the culling of more than 2,000 tons with an aggregate inventory value of about EUR 11 million. Both of these elements as such were in line with previous announcements. It's worth noting that the culling comprised both the culling that actually took place in the third quarter, as well as the culling that has taken place so far in fourth quarter and is expected to take place for the rest of fourth quarter. Our operating EBIT was minus EUR 12 million, and the loss for the period, EUR 13.9 million.
The cash flow for the third quarter was impacted by EUR 4.9 million investment in stage two, as well as a new credit facility of EUR 5.8 million raised and drawn down as a short-term credit facility. Borrowings at the end of the quarter had a book value of EUR 13.3, including EUR 3.3 in fair value adjustments, and the equity EUR 57.9, corresponding to 49%, and this was prior to completion of the NOK 350 million equity raise, which was completed after the quarter, i.e., in October, so looking at the CapEx and funding now that stage one is completed, as mentioned by Ragnar, stage two CapEx is still, as previously announced, at EUR 76.6, comprising the farming technology of 63, as well as a share of the geosmin improvement CapEx of 13.6.
On the funding side, it's been a relatively active quarter, and since also, we secured the 5.8 million short-term facility during Q3 that has been repaid in October, and we completed the 350 million NOK equity raise, also reflected in October. And this facility, together with our credit facility, will secure funding for stage two, up to 8,000 tons. And last but not least, last week, we were pleased to sign a cooperation agreement with Bank of China in front of our Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Policy, Marianne Sivertsen Næss, who you can see on this picture. This agreement is for the long-term financing of our facility in China, up to a total capacity of 20,000 tons, i.e., both stage two and stage three. And although funding is subject to final credit approval by the bank, we are, of course, pleased by this sign of confidence from Bank of China.
With that, I think I give the word back to you, Ragnar.
Thank you very much. Just before the summary, I would just remind everyone that it is possible to text in some questions, comments. But if we look back on what has been presented today, we have seen that the biological performance has still been very good. We have many big fish in our facility. The production has gone well. We have produced approximately 1,000 new tons of fish, so we're just under 3,000 tons. But of course, the geosmin has prevented any commercial harvest. Stage two is going as planned. Tom just took us through the financing situation with the capital increase that was completed in October and also the new signing of finance services going forward with Bank of China.
And we believe very strongly that next year will be a good year for the company when we will be back on track and harvesting the planned volume of 4,000 tons. So with this, I'm just complete the presentation, I guess, and we can wait a minute or two just to see if there will come any comments or questions. Thank you for us. Last time when we shut down, we saw that there came in some questions just after we finalized, so we can just wait 10 seconds more and then see. And if you should send in a question and do not get the reply here, we will, of course, email you a reply. Okay, I think everything must have been very clear. No comments or questions, so thank you very much for joining us. Thank you.
We can just see that there came a question in by the end of the presentation. Andreas, I think you are the best one to answer this question. It says, "Have you entered into any sales agreements for volumes in 2025?
The answer to that is not yet, but we are continuously using this time to explore opportunities with various partners that see the benefit of working with us. We're working with the Nordic Pure Atlantic brand, and this development and feedback we see from the market gives us a lot of encouragement that we are able to also realize strategic agreements. But as of now, we don't have any.
Okay, then I think we will just say thank you for us. Thank you.