Marine Harvest, the world's largest salmon-farming company, today reported fourth-quarter sales of $690.1 million, down from $830.2 million in the same period in 2006.
The sales drop is attributed to the outbreak of infectious salmon anemia in Chile, which caused the company's salmon production there to fall to 92,728 metric tons in the fourth quarter of 2007 from 100,084 metric tons in the same period in 2006. As a result of the outbreak, Marine Harvest has significantly downsized operations in Chileâ??s Region X.
"It demands a lot of efforts to solve this, but we are confident that we will succeed," said Leif Frode Onarheim, acting president and CEO of Marine Harvest, in a press release.
"We are disappointed with the results for the fourth quarter of 2007," he added. "On the positive side we are pleased to see that demand for salmon continues to grow. Our plan for restructuring our Chilean business is a plan to restore future profitability, but it will in the short term set us back both in production and profits."
Marine Harvest expects to produce 308,000 metric tons of salmon in 2008, 70,000 metric tons of which will be harvested in the first quarter.
