Winter wounds and higher costs dent NRS earnings
Norway Royal Salmon today reported that challenges with winter wounds on some of the 5,400 gutted weight tonnes of fish it harvested in the first quarter of this year resulted in quality downgrades and reduced price achievement, as well as increased production costs.
In addition, a significant proportion of the fish harvested in the quarter came from an area subject to restrictions due to infectious salmon anaemia (ISA), resulting in higher wellboat and harvest costs.
“The challenges of winter sores and harvest from an area subject to restrictions are temporary,” said NRS in a trading update.
Price at lowest
“The price achievement is also affected by half of the quarterly volume being harvested in March, when the price of salmon was at the lowest. Overall, this gives a lower result than expectations for the first quarter of 2020.”
The preliminary operational EBIT per kg for the farming and sales operations is NOK 16.5 and preliminary operational EBIT for the Group is NOK 74 million (£5.6m) for Q1 2020.
The full Q1 report will be released on May 12.
