Multiexport loses US$ 32.9 million
The company reports a poor financial performance in 2015, due to a sharp drop in prices caused by a strong depreciation in the currencies of its major markets compared to the US dollar, together with a significant growth in Canadian production and the impact of the Russian trade embargo on Norwegian salmon imports.
On a more positive note, the company also reported a significant improvement in their production costs and stocking increased numbers of Atlantic salmon, although they decided to halt their rainbow trout production.
The company posted operating revenues of US$ 346.3 million during 2015, 13.4% lower than in 2014. According the the company's annual report, this decrease is explained by the sharp decline experienced by salmon prices in its main markets due to the combination of a strong depreciation of major currencies against the US dollar, along with a 30 per cent growth Canadian salmon production and the Russian embargo of Norwegian salmon imports, all of which were partially offset by higher sales volumes.
In 2015, the company sold 64,951 tonnes of raw material, representing a 2.9 per cent increase over the previous year,, of which 58,006 tonnes were Atlantic salmon (+ 5.8%), 1,686 tonnes were rainbow trout (-26.9%) and 5,260 tonnes were coho salmon (-12.2%).
Operational results
Operational EBIT was US$ -35.3 million, US$ 50.5 million lower than in 2014. Regarding this, the company explained that “despite the 9 per cent decline in farming costs due to the constant search for operational efficiencies, falling prices more than offset that improvement and largely explain the operating results of this year”. Meanwhile, losses during 2015 totalled US$ 32.91 million, compared to profits of US $ 14.45 million in the previous year.
At unitary level, the company recorded an Operational EBIT of US$ -0.44/kg WFE of Atlantic salmon last year, which compares unfavorably with the US$ 0.22/kg WFE achieved in 2014. Meanwhile, coho salmon obtained an EBIT of US$ -0.63/kg WFE (US$ 0.78/kg WFE in 2014). In turn, trout recorded US$ -2.75/kg WFE (US$ -1.01/kg WFE in 2014), with a volume which reached only 2.6 per cent of total sales during 2015.
Smolt stockings
Multiexport said it has no plans for stocking rainbow trout in future, because of poor performance that has characterized the growth of the species in recent production cycles, but the company reported that its Atlantic salmon stockings totaled 14.12 million smolts last year, up by 27.4 per cent compared to the 11.08 million fish it transferred to the sea in 2014.
Coho salmon stockings reached 2.2 million fish in 2015, showing a marginal decrease of 0.7 per cent compared to the previous year.
