Mitsubishi-owned salmon-farming company Cermaq reported slightly lower net income in the nine months ending 31 December 2025, soon after it acquired several assets from fellow salmon farmer Grieg, as low prices suppressed earnings despite higher harvests.
Mitsubishi reported Cermaq’s net income slid to JPY 7.1 billion (USD 45 million, EUR 38 million), down from the JPY 8.1 billion (USD 51 million, EUR 43 million) it posted in the same period of the previous financial year. As a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, Cermaq’s financial calendar starts on 1 April and runs through 31 March, meaning its results covered Q1 through Q3 of its financial year.
Net income is down on the same period of 2023 as well, when Cermaq reported net income of JPY 7.6 million (USD 48 million, EUR 41 million).
According to the company, prices remained soft for salmon in the European market through August 2025, largely related to a surge in salmon supply. Those low prices were a challenge during the period for a number of other salmon-farming companies, including Lerøy and SalMar, as many companies reported high harvests, with Mowi reporting an all-time record harvest for the period.
“However, beginning in September, supply fell below the prior-year level, improving the supply-demand balance and prompting a price rebound,” Mitsubishi said.
Data shared by the company indicates the price began to catch up to historical norms by November and continued to climb in December, which helped the company during its Q3 period.
According to Mitsubishi corporation, in the nine-month period through 31 December 2025, Cermaq Norway sold 72,215 metric tons (MT) of gutted-weight equivalent (GWE) salmon. That total is up from the 71,945 MT GWE the company reported through the same period of 2024.
Cermaq Chile also saw improvements, with harvests increasing to 70,815 MT GWE in the nine months ending 31 December 2025, an increase of 5,703 MT over the same period of 2024 when the company harvested 65,112 MT GWE.
Mitsubishi said the increase in supply from Chile was consistent across the country, which resulted in softer prices.
“In the U.S. fillet market, prices remained soft through November, reflecting an increase in supply from Chile underpinned by strong biological performance,” the company said. “However, stronger year-end demand in December drove a sharp market rebound, with prices rising to USD 6.55 [EUR 5.54] per pound at month-end.”
Data presented by SalmonChile reflected the export surplus in 2025, with the country’s recent data indicating it exported 982,840 MT of whole-fish equivalent (WFE) salmon from January through November, an increase of 14 percent over the same period of 2024, corroborating Mitsubishi’s data on supply shifts.
While both Norway and Chile saw gains in production, Cermaq Canada continued a downward slide in sales volume. The company sold 5,532 MT of GWE salmon in the nine months ending 31 December 2025, down from the 6,684 MT GWE it sold in the same period of the prior year. That total was also nearly half the total it sold in the same period of 2023, when it achieved sales of 10,600 MT GWE.
Cermaq Canada has been forced to close salmon farms in British Columbia and cull salmon as a result of decisions by Canada’s government. The country’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set a 30 June 2029 deadline to transition away from all open-net pen salmon farms in the province to closed-pen or land-based farms, which Cermaq CEO Steven Rafferty has sharply criticized as unfeasible.
“The objective the government has put forward in front of us cannot be delivered in this time frame and is, in fact, logistically impossible in remote coastal areas due to lack of suitable land or supporting infrastructure,” Rafferty said in 2024.
As Cermaq grapples with issues in Western Canada, it has finalized the acquisitions of multiple other salmon-farming companies, including Grieg’s assets in both British Columbia and Newfoundland.
Grieg reported it was planning to scale back its Canadian operations in February 2025, and months later, Cermaq stepped in to purchase those operations. Mitsubishi reported the acquisition in July 2025, and on 19 December 2025, Cermaq Group reported it was increasing the capital of Cermaq Holding, Cermaq Norway Holding, and CQ Canada Holding – three subsidiaries under the Cermaq Group.
The goal was to provide funds for the acquisition of salmon-farming operations under Grieg Seafood, which includes farms in Northern Norway, and both the east and west coasts of Canada. According to the company, Grieg’s west coast business has roughly 12,000 MT of production, while its Newfoundland business has 11,000 MT of product.
