Grieg Seafood on Tuesday posted a first-quarter net profit of NOK 171 million (USD 26.4 million, EUR 19.4 million), up from a net loss of NOK 78.6 million (USD 12.1 million, EUR 8.9 million) last year.
However, the Bergen, Norway-based farmed salmon producer watched its sales fall 19 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of this year, as its harvest plunged 33 percent, to 9,205 metric tons.
Grieg expects its production to slip from 60,000 metric tons last year to 58,000 metric tons in 2009, due entirely to the cull of two sites in Shetland to halt the spread of infectious salmon anemia (ISA). The virus first appeared in Shetland in early January, but no further outbreaks have been reported since 31 March.
ISA has forced Chilean farmed salmon producers to curb output significantly in the first quarter of this year. But the drop in the global farmed salmon supply has more than compensated for reduced demand due to the global economic downturn, driving up prices, according to Grieg.
The company said its first-quarter results were positively influenced by its Canadian operations in British Columbia, reflecting both higher salmon prices and lower production costs. But its Norwegian operations have not yet benefited from rising salmon prices.
“Grieg Seafood has been through a period of strong expansion, and the focus is now on efficiency of operations aimed at exploiting the potential we have to further reduce production costs,” the company said in a press release.
Grieg is still on target to harvest more than 70,000 metric tons of salmon in 2010.
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