Norway Royal Salmon triples harvest volume
Norway Royal Salmon tripled its harvest volume in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the same period last year, and almost quadrupled operational EBIT.
The company, which farms mainly in Norway’s northern Finnmark region, made an operational EBIT of NOK 131 million (£11.15m) in Q3, compared to NOK 34m in Q3 2018, although operational EBIT per kg dropped from NOK 22.10 to NOK 17.97.
Volume harvested (head on gutted) increased from 2,478 tonnes to 7,513 tonnes.
Biomass up by 32%
Biomass in the sea increased by 6,749 tonnes (32%) and additional biomass build-up is planned for the current quarter.
All of the increased income came from Region North, which had an operational EBIT of NOK 138.7m (Q3 2018: NOK 53m).
This was offset slightly by losses of NOK 3.7m in Region South, which is being sold off to other fish farmers.
Good performance
“The Group’s main operations in Region North contributed with a stable and good performance on harvested fish, while Region South had a weak result in the quarter,” said chief executive Charles Høstlund.
“NRS shall grow through sustainable growth; the Group increased its biomass in the sea by 32% during the quarter and plans to increase the biomass further in the fourth quarter.”
Payments for growth investments in the development project Arctic Offshore Farming and the new smolt facility, as well as the build-up of biomass in the sea has resulted in an increase in net interest-bearing debt in the quarter to NOK 926m.
NRS’s estimated harvest volume is 31,000 tonnes for 2019. Estimated harvest volume for 2020 is 37,000 tonnes, an increase of 32% compared with the volume of Region North in 2019.
