Marine Harvest produced 80,000 metric tons of farmed salmon worldwide in the third quarter of 2009, up from 73,000 metric tons during the same period last year and up from its second-quarter forecast of 70,000 metric tons, the Norwegian company announced on Friday.
The bulk of the third-quarter production increase came from the company's Norwegian operations, which churned out 53,000 metric tons of head-on, gutted farmed salmon this year, up from 35,000 metric tons in 2008.
As expected, Chilean production fell to 8,000 metric tons in 2009 from 19,000 metric tons last year due to the infectious salmon anemia outbreak. In July, Marine Harvest reaffirmed its long-term commitment to Chile, pledging "to harmonize the scale of the business to the expected low level of activity in the coming years and to minimize losses during this period."
Canadian production also dropped, from 7,000 metric tons last year to 5,000 metric tons in 2009, while Scottish production held firm at 10,000 metric tons.
The world's largest farmed salmon company also reported that its Norwegian operations' EBIT per kilogram of fish totally about NOK 6.3 (USD 1.12, EUR 0.76) in the third quarter of 2009.
Marine Harvest said it benefited from strong salmon prices in the third quarter, which allowed it to further de-leverage the business. By the end of the third quarter, net interest bearing debt was reduced to about NOK 5,100 million (USD 910 million, EUR 612 million), compared to NOK 6,025 million at the end of the second quarter.
The company will release its complete third-quarter results on 16 November.
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October 15, 2009
