Oslo land-based aquaculture start-up founded by Norwegian fish farmer Arve Gravdal (Maiken Foods AS, Caspar Storms vei 16, Oslo). In January 2022 it signed a reservation contract with aicep Global Parques for 10 hectares in the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone (ZILS) for an €80 million land-based salmon farm, with cod in a second phase. Its Portuguese company, Maiken Foods, Unipessoal Lda (NIF 516680110, Centro de Negócios ZILS, Monte Feio, 7520-064 Sines; incorporated 5 January 2022; share capital €1,000), is registered for saltwater aquaculture and fish processing. The plant has not been built: in August 2025 iLaks reported that the Norwegian parent had no significant activity in 2024 and a going-concern warning in its accounts.
Maiken Foods is an Oslo start-up that has developed a land-based system for farming salmon in onshore tanks at low fish densities, which it says reduces biological risk. Its founder, CEO and chair is the Norwegian fish farmer Arve Gravdal.
In January 2022 Maiken Foods signed a reservation contract with aicep Global Parques, which runs the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone (ZILS), for 10 hectares of land. The project was announced as an €80 million land-based salmon farm, with cod to follow in a second phase. Portugal, France and Spain were named as the main markets. The Portuguese company Maiken Foods, Unipessoal Lda (NIF 516680110) was incorporated on 5 January 2022. It is based at the ZILS business centre in Monte Feio, Sines, and is registered for saltwater aquaculture and the preparation and freezing of fish products. In February 2024 Gravdal told the regional paper Semmais that the project would cost €70 million and that production could start in 2025.
That has not happened yet. In August 2025 the Norwegian aquaculture site iLaks reported that the parent company had no significant activity in 2024, had negative equity of NOK 1.2 million at the end of the year, and carried a going-concern warning in its accounts. iLaks said the building plans and financing in Portugal had been delayed. In January 2025 Maiken Foods signed a short-term lease on Atlantic Sapphire’s land-based farm in Denmark to show that its technology works at scale. NorthSouth HQ lists the company because its Portuguese subsidiary is registered in Sines. We will update this page when the plant moves forward or the project is dropped.
Maiken Foods sits inside the Portugal ↔ Scandinavia business corridor that NorthSouth HQ tracks every day. Its operations are a data point in the broader story of how capital, goods, people and ideas flow between Portugal and the Nordics — a corridor that is accelerating in 2026.
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