Marine Farms ASA on Thursday reported its third-quarter results, and despite posting a 20 percent increase in revenues, the Norwegian company watched its EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) plunge 82 percent, to NOK 5 million (USD 882,000 million, EUR 594,000), during the period.
Marine Farms attributed its rocky third quarter to sea lice difficulties and smolt delivery delays at its Lakeland operations in Scotland and to low prices for sea bass and sea bream at its Culmarex operations in Spain.
Lakeland watched its EBIT per kilogram of salmon sold drop to NOK 3.6 (USD 0.64, EUR 0.43) in the third quarter of 2009, down from NOK 7.4 (USD 1.31, EUR 0.88) in the third quarter of 2008, while the volume of salmon sold slipped 9 percent.
Meanwhile, Culmarex saw its EBIT per kilogram of sea bass and sea bream sold plummet to a loss of NOK 4.7 (USD 0.83, EUR 0.56) in the third quarter of 2009 from a gain of NOK 0.90 (USD 0.16, EUR 0.11) in the third quarter of 2008, while the volume of sea bass and sea bream sold jumped 39 percent.
As for Marine Farms’ cobia farms in Vietnam and Belize, its EBIT came in at a loss of NOK 7.4 million (USD 1.3 million, EUR 879,100) in the third quarter of this year, compared to a loss of NOK 10.7 million (USD 1.9 million, EUR 1.3 million) in the third quarter of last year.
