Chilean fishing and salmon-farming firm Camanchaca suffered losses in the third quarter of 2024 as high fishing yields and lower salmon production costs were not enough to drag the company’s performance into the black.
Total Q3 revenues for the firm amounted to USD 160 million (EUR 152 million) – down 17.9 percent from the USD 195 million (EUR 185 million) it posted in the third quarter of 2023. Its EBITDA before fair value reached USD 11.9 million (EUR 11.3 million) in the quarter, falling 51.3 percent from the same period last year.
This led to Camanchaca posting a net loss of USD 3.1 million (EUR 2.9 million) in the period, compared to a net profit of USD 2.9 million (EUR 2.8 million) one year ago.
Broken down by sector, Camanchaca’s fishing business brought in USD 66.5 million (EUR 63.2 million) in Q3 2024, compared to USD 86 million (EUR 81.7 million) a year ago, and recorded losses of USD 3.7 million (EUR 3.5 million) during the latest quarter, compared to a profit of USD 6.2 million (EUR 5.9 million).
Camanchaca’s pelagic capture surged 316 percent year over year to 38,143 metric tons (MT). Its Pesca Norte business jumped 786 percent to 15,886 MT, and Pesca Sur saw a 202 percent boost to 22,257 MT. Horse mackerel production also jumped 664 percent to 13,874 MT.
However, the average price of fishmeal and fish oil declined 15.4 percent and 32.1 percent, respectively, year over year to USD 1,731 (EUR 1,644) and USD 3,636 (EUR 3,454) per MT.
Its salmon-farming business brought in USD 82.7 million (EUR 78.5 million) in the third quarter of 2024, compared to USD 100 million (EUR 95 million) in Q3 2023, but posted a net profit of USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.5 million), compared to losses of USD 2.2 million (EUR 2.1 million).
The firm’s Q3 harvest of Atlantic salmon was down 30.1 percent year over year to 12,418 MT whole fish equivalent (WFE), with an average weight of 5.1 kilograms, and sales fell 22.3 percent to 7,715 MT WFE. Ex-cage costs, though, dropped 12.9 percent to USD 4.39 (EUR 4.17) per kilogram WFE and played a big factor in the sector turning a net profit.
“This cost is the lowest in the last seven quarters and is mainly explained by the recovery of average weight, better sanitary conditions, and the first signs of a drop in food costs,” Camanchaca said.
Mortality for Camanchaca’s Atlantic salmon in Q3 2024 totaled just 1.2 percent, compared to 2.6 percent in Q3 2023.
“Despite the fact that prices have been depressed in the quarter, cost-efficiency measures, commercial agility, good fish health, and the drop in the cost of feed have allowed us to improve results quarter by quarter,” Camanchaca CEO Ricardo García said in a release. “We believe that there will be a recovery of the seafood category in 2025, which could be observed in better prices when we project to grow from 48,000 MT of Atlantic salmon this year to 53,000 MT to 54,000 MT next year. The commercial conditions of salmon today show market prices equal to those of 2019, corrected for inflation.”
Though he expressed some optimism for the short-term future, García has been highly critical of what he sees as institutional and regulatory uncertainty surrounding both the development of Chile’s national salmon-farming sector and the proposed nationwide fisheries law that would overhaul the current framework in place.
“The bill [to assign new fishing quotas] is a plundering inconsistent with the seriousness of the institutions that characterized Chile and that made [the country] progress,” he said. “It responds to pure populism, without technical criteria or good public policy and is very far from promoting Chile as a sustainable food power.”
Discussion around the fisheries bill has lacked technical analysis and participation from all sector players, García added.
“The correct way to make improvements to the fisheries law is to obtain the consensus of the actors within the framework of respect for the rule of law,” he said. “As the bill stands, we only see damage to production and employment in the southern and northern regions, a total termination of our operations in [the northern city of] Iquique, and the total closure of the canning plant in the Biobío Region, which has delivered more than 12 million cans of horse mackerel to Chileans along with all the employment it creates.”
Salmones Camanchaca’s parent firm, Camanchaca S.A., is still in the process of looking into restructuring its operations to place the main business areas of the Camanchaca group – pelagic fishing, crustacean fishing, salmon farming, and mussel farming – in separate companies: Camanchaca S.A., Crustaceos Sur, Salmones Camanchaca, and Camanchaca Cultivos Sur, respectively.
The new structure would consolidate the company’s pelagic fishing business, with the goal of streamlining operational and administrative tasks, optimizing fishing rights, and distributing sea and land fishing assets between different areas of Chile.
