Norway Royal Salmon profits slump

NORWAY Royal Salmon saw its 2018 third quarter operational EBIT fall by 82 per cent year-on-year, partly the result of an outbreak of ISA salmon disease and lower harvests.
The company today reported an EBIT of 35 million Norwegian kroners (NOK) compared to NOK 192 million in Q3 2017.
CEO Charles Høstlund said: ‘During the quarter we have focused on building biomass, and the biomass in the sea has increased by 71 per cent from the end of the previous quarter.
‘This has resulted in a low harvest volume for the quarter. We have had a positive development in production costs from the previous quarter in Region North.’
The EBIT figure per kg was NOK 22.10 compared to NOK 19.29 a year ago.
Region North posted an operational EBIT of NOK 53 million in the quarter (NOK 155.3 million in 2017).
And the operational EBIT per kg gutted weight was NOK 22.27 (NOK 18.85 in the corresponding quarter last year).
Region South posted an operational EBIT of NOK 1.8 million (NOK 46.3 million in 2017). The operational EBIT per kg gutted weight was NOK 18.05 (NOK 20.19).
The company said it harvested 2,478 tonnes gutted weight in the quarter, which is 76 per cent lower than in the same quarter last year.
The estimated harvest volume for 2019 is 40,000 tonnes, an increase of 4,000 tonnes or 11 per cent on this year. A total of 10.8 million smolts are estimated for this year.
The sales business sold 14,945 tonnes of salmon during the quarter, which is 33 per cent lower than the corresponding quarter last year.
Picture: Norway Royal Salmon CEO Charles Høstlund