Weaker salmon and trout prices, increased sea lice treatments, and lower earnings from its wild-catch segment due to diminished quotas negatively impacted Lerøy Seafood Group’s (LSG) earnings in the third quarter of this year.
Lerøy CEO Henning Beltestad, presenting the Bergen, Norway-headquartered seafood corporation’s Q3 2024 results on 14 November, reported revenues of just under NOK 7.9 billion (USD 706.5 million, EUR 672.3 million) for the firm in the period – down 1 percent year over year. The firm’s EBIT also fell 35 percent to NOK 412 million (USD 36.8 million, EUR 35.1 million).
Beltestad said that the company’s Farming segment has seen significant biological improvement in 2024 overall, but Q3 was a particularly challenging quarter, with lower growth than expected mainly due to sea lice.
“On the positive side, we’ve had increased harvest weights – to 4.2 kilos from 3.7 kilos [year over year] – but on the negative side, we’ve had a quarter with a high number of treatments, which has impacted costs, especially in the Midt region,” he said.
Comprising the three Norwegian regions of Lerøy Aurora in Troms and Finnmark, Lerøy Midt in Nordmøre and Trøndelag, and Lerøy Sjøtroll located in Vestland, LSG’s Farming segment reported operating Q3 EBIT of NOK 310 million (USD 27.7 million, EUR 26.4 million), compared with NOK 566 million (USD 50.6 million, EUR 48.2 million) a year previously.
The segment’s slaughter volumes of salmon and trout decreased by 3,000 gutted weight tons (GWT) to 51,000 GWT, while its EBIT per kilogram decreased from NOK 13.50 (USD 1.21, EUR 1.14) to NOK 10.30 (USD 0.92, EUR 0.88).
Salmon’s average spot price in the three-month period was NOK 70.50 (USD 6.30, EUR 6) per kilo, which was NOK 31 (USD 2.77, EUR 2.64) lower than Q2 2024 and NOK 7 (USD 0.63, EUR 0.60) less than Q3 2023.
LSG’s 2024 salmonid harvest volume is expected …
