Norwegian salmon-farming firms Lerøy, Grieg, and SalMar, as well as Faroese firm Bakkafrost, have released trading updates for the fourth quarter of 2024 that provide abridged financial results before each firm releases its full financial results later in the winter.
According to its latest trading update, Bergen, Norway-headquartered Lerøy Seafood Group (LSG) harvested approximately 56,800 gutted weight tons (GWT) of Atlantic salmon and trout in the quarter, excluding volumes from its 50 percent stake in Scottish Seafarms. This volume was about 9,300 GWT more than in the corresponding period of 2023.
Its Lerøy Aurora operations harvested 15,400 GWT, Lerøy Midt harvested 22,600 GWT, and Lerøy Sjøtroll harvested 18,800 GWT, of which 8,200 GWT was trout. For the corresponding period of 2023, these regions’ volumes stood at 12,500 GWT, 20,300 GWT, and 14,700 GWT, of which 6,500 GWT was trout, respectively.
LSG’s total wild catch volume in Q4 2024 was 9,800 metric tons (MT), representing a decrease of 2,700 MT year over year.
Considering these preliminary results, for the full year 2024, the group harvested around 171,200 GWT of salmon and trout, compared with the previous year’s 159,600 GWT. Its wild catch volume totaled 65,000 MT, compared to 75,900 MT in 2023.
Lerøy’s complete Q4 2024 report will be released 28 February 2025.
To start 2025, LSG confirmed there was a salmon escape event at its farming site in Møre og Romsdal, which is part of the firm’s Lerøy Midt operations. The extent of the escape, caused by storm damage, is not clear. Recapture nets have been deployed at the site, according to the company, where the average size of the fish was just over 1 kilogram.
Also based in Bergen, Grieg Seafood harvested …