The company, which has farms in Norway, British Columbia and Shetland (Grieg Seafood Hjaltland) attributes the change in fortune to higher prices in US markets coupled with better growth and lower costs.

Grieg Seafood achieved EBIT (Earnings before interest and tax) with fair value adjustment of biological assets of NOK 11.2m (£1.1m), against EBIT of NOK 2.8m in Q1 2008, or NOK 1.14 per kg compared with NOK 0.2 per kg in Q1 2008.

Profit before tax increased to NOK 171.0m in first quarter 2009, compared to a loss of NOK 78.6m in first quarter 2008.

The accompanying statement said: “The latter part of the first quarter was characterised by good salmon prices. For the first time, there has been a global reduction in the production of salmon which has more than compensated for the decline in demand resulting from the global recession. Sales declined 19% from first quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009. This is due to a considerably lower harvest volume which was down 33% to 9,205 tonnes. Prices increased by 25% in the first quarter.

“The result is first and foremost positively influenced by a very solid result in Canada, reflecting both higher prices and lower production costs. So far, results in Norway do not fully reflect the sharp rise in price in the first quarter. This is due to financial hedging of salmon prices at lower levels than the current market prices, as well as a planned stop in harvest in Rogaland in the last seven weeks of the first quarter. Nor is the strong market reflected in the results from Shetland. This is a consequence of a cull carried out at two sites with small fish following confirmation of the ISA virus there. With this exception, the group’s production costs are moving in the right direction.”

Looking to the future, Grieg point to growth in most of the main markets with continued salmon price increases into April saying: “It is a development that is being driven by the global reduction in the production of salmon due to the significant cut-backs in Chile due to ISA problems there. A further reduction in offers from Chile is expected, and it will take time for the Chilean industry to re-establish production volume at its historical level.

“Feed prices declined in 2009 and this development is likely to continue as global raw material prices and changes in exchange rates take full effect.”

Grieg Seafood say they have been through a period of strong expansion and the focus is now on efficiency of operations aimed at exploiting the potential to further reduce production costs. They expect harvest volume in 2009 to be 58,000 tonnes, 2,000 tonnes less than predicted earlier saying the reduction is entirely due to the cull carried out at two sites with small fish in Shetland during the first quarter. The expected harvest in 2010 continues to be in excess of 70,000 tonnes.

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