Arctic Fish confident of bigger harvest in 2023

Icelandic salmon farmer Arctic Fish expects to almost double its harvest this year, it said today.

The Oslo-listed company, which is majority-owned by Norwegian giant Mowi, harvested 8,561 gutted weight tonnes of fish in 2022, and is guiding for 15,300 gwt in 2023.

“Harvesting volumes in 2022 amounted to 25% less than realised in 2021 overall, coming in at a total of 8.6 thousand tonnes. The group is yet very optimistic on continuing strong market performance moving forward and believes that it can generate a healthy margin on sold quantities,” Arctic Fish said in its report for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Room for growth

Arctic Fish has farming licences for 27,100 tonnes maximum allowed biomass, of which 5,300 tonnes relate to licences for rainbow trout that are in the process of being converted to salmon licences.

The group also has applications for an additional 4,800 tonnes of MAB for salmon.

A 51.28% stake in the company was sold to Mowi last year after European competition watchdogs ruled that the holding had to change hands if a merger between fish farmers SalMar and Norway Royal Salmon went ahead.

Higher prices

Higher salmon prices meant that operating revenues for Arctic Fish in 2022 amounted to NOK 585.9 million, just 1.7% less than the NOK 595.9 m made in 2021 despite a 25% fall in volume.

Average price achievement in 2022 amounted to NOK 68.4 NOK per kg, a 32% increase when compared to 2021 year, where price achievement amounted to 51.9 NOK per kg.

Operational EBIT per kg increased by 134% year over year, with 2022 reaching 20.3 per kg harvested compared to 8.7 NOK per kg in 2021.

Biomass in the sea at the end of Q4 2022 was 10,939 tonnes and the closing average weight was close to 2.3 kgs, resulting in more fish and more biomass in the sea compared to Q3 2022, at a greater average weight. At the end of Q3 2022 the biomass was 8,058 tonnes in the sea and the closing average weight was close to 1.9 kgs.