Better fish health cuts costs by 16% in Chile
Salmon farmers in Chile, the world's second-largest salmon farmer, have reduced their costs by 16 per cent due to better fish health.
In addition, the earnings of listed companies in the sector grew by 20 per cent in the first half of 2017 to US $1,365 million, due to record sales prices.
The seven salmon companies that report their financial results reported that their production and health indexes have improved significantly in recent times, with lower fish mortalities and higher harvest weights that be maintained this and next year.
Best performance
Operating costs fell 16.4 per cent to $949.4 million in June 2017, compared to $1,135.7 million in the same period in 2016, according to a ranking prepared by salmonexpert.cl based on the information provided by companies to the market (see table).
The company that most substantially lowered its operating costs by 43.2 per cent to $ 69.7 million was Blumar. This, according to the company, was due to the best performance it had in sanitary terms for its harvest centres during the first six months of 2017, in terms of smolts, mortality, and feed conversion rate. In fact, its ex-cage index computed a fall of 9 per cent to reach $3.8 / kg WFE.
The only companies in the ranking that increased their costs were Invermar and Multiexport, which has to do with significant growth in volumes of salmon harvested. Invermar sold 10,427 net tons of final product, a 30 per cent expansion, and Maultiexport, 15,954 tons of raw material, representing an increase of 52.1 per cent.
Record salmon prices
The income of the seven salmon growers grew 20 per cent, passing $1,365 million in H1 2017. This was due to record salmon prices, which averaged around $6 per pound (for fillets) after the harmful algal bloom that affected the domestic industry in early 2016 limited supply. Companies estimate that the price will be adjusted to US $ 5.5 a pound, as a long-term trend.
As indicated above, the firms that increased their revenues the most were Invermar and Multiexport, due to their significant increase in harvests. The only companies that saw this item down were Blumar and Camanchaca.
The leading company in this measurement is Aquachile, with $ 317.6 million in revenue, followed by Multiexport with $248.5 million, Australis with $223.6 million and Los Fiordos de Agrosuper with $214 million. Meanwhile, in the period January-June 2017, the local salmon farming sector continued its financial recovery after a long time of crisis and went from losses of $12 million at June 2016 to profits of $197 million.
