Glyvrar, Faroe Islands-based salmon-farming firm Bakkafrost reported drops in its operational EBIT and revenues in Q3 2024.
CEO Regin Jacobsen attributed the drops to several factors, and emphasized the four-week Faroese workers’ strike in May 2024 – which delayed his firm’s planned salmon harvests until after Q2’s peak price window. The early harvesting of two pens at its A-19 farming site, after the detection of ISA virus, also contributed to the drops.
Jacobsen said Bakkafrost harvested 3,300 metric tons (MT) from A-19 at a high cost and with an average weight of just 3.4 kilograms (HOG), negatively impacting the Q3 results of the Faroese farming segment. The A-19 harvest represented 23 percent of the total harvest from the region in the period.
Ultimately, no ISA virus was found in fish at the site, but they had to be removed in accordance with Faroese regulations, he said.
“That contributed to a situation in the quarter where we had to harvest big volumes in a soft market, which contributed to our lower price achievement [and] weaker (negative) premium,” Jacobsen said.
For Q3 2024, Bakkafrost posted total operating EBIT of DKK 173 million (USD 25.3 million, EUR 23.2 million), down from the DKK 269 million (USD 39.3 million, EUR 36.1 million) reported for the corresponding period of 2023. Operating revenues slipped by DKK 122 million (USD 17.8 million, EUR 16.4 million) to DKK 1.74 billion (USD 254.2 million, EUR 233.3 million), while profits after tax for the period fell by DKK 335 million (USD 48.9 million, EUR 44.9 million) to a loss of DKK 116 million (USD 16.9 million, EUR 15.6 million).
The group harvested 27,029 MT of gutted weight salmon in the quarter, 6,189 MT more than a year previously. Its Faroe Islands farming segment (Farming FO) accounted for 21,618 MT of the total harvest, compared to 16,740 MT in Q3 2023, with the strike-enforced delayed harvest accounting for much of the increase. The Scottish farming segment (Farming SCT) harvested 5,411 MT, compared to 4,100 MT a year previously.
For the first nine months of this year, both farming segments harvested …
