Bakkafrost and Lerøy Seafood Group experienced biological challenges at the end of 2023, causing them to report lower-than-expected year-end harvests and adjust their operations.
Lerøy harvested 47,500 gutted-weight tons (GWT) farmed salmon and trout in the closing quarter of 2023 – a decrease of 5,800 MT when compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. This contributed to a lower total for the full year of 160,000 GWT, which was down on the 174,600 GWT it reported in 2022.
According to the Bergen, Norway aquaculture and fishing company’s latest trading update, the volume produced at its Lerøy Aurora sites in Q4 2023 decreased by 2,600 GWT year over year to 12,500 GWT; Lerøy Midt’s harvest fell by 700 GWT to 20,300 GWT; and Lerøy Sjøtroll’s production dropped 2,500 GWT to 14,700 GWT, of which 6,500 GWT was trout.
Challenges related to string jellyfish impacted Lerøy's production in the last quarter, particularly resulting in the loss of feeding days at Lerøy Aurora, while Lerøy Sjøtroll harvested some sites earlier than originally planned. Lerøy Midt only experienced limited impacts, it said.
The company is not the only one to face string jellyfish challenges – fellow salmon farmer SalMar was forced to cull over a million salmon due to similar incidents at its Ørnfjordbotn, Senja, Norway-based salmon farm in December 2023.
While Lerøy’s Norwegian salmon and trout harvest in 2023 of 160,000 GWT was higher than it previously anticipated, Lerøy’s biomass coming into Q1 2024 was slightly lower due. It said its 2024 harvest guidance for Norway remains at 175,000 GWT.
Lerøy Havfisk’s total catch volume in Q4 2023, which is a part of Lerøy's Wild-Catch segment, amounted to 12,500 metric tons (MT), representing a decrease of 600 MT compared with Q4 2022. This total included 5,000 MT of cod, which was 700 MT less than the previous year.
LSG’s full Q4 2023 results will be published on 28 February 2024.
Meanwhile, a new trading update issued by Bakkafrost Group estimates the company harvested 16,000 MT of head-on gutted (HOG) weight salmon in the Faroe Islands – where the company is headquartered – and 1,100 MT in Scotland in the Q4 2023. The Faroese volume represented a year-over-year decrease of 3,276 MT, while the Scottish harvest was down almost 4,100 MT.
Bakkafrost advised that roughly 10,500 MT of the Faroese total stemmed from its operations in the north of the archipelago, 3,900 MT came from farms in the west region, and its sites in the south supplied the remaining 1,700 MT.
In Scotland, all the salmon Bakkafrost harvested in Q4 2023 were produced by its farms in the northern part of the country.
The group’s total salmon harvest for 2023 is estimated at 73,000 MT. Of this, the Faroe Islands contributed 52,400 MT – down from 66,686 MT of HOG fish produced in 2022 – while Scotland’s total harvest was 29,700 MT – an increase of more than 5,700 MT year over year.
In its Q3 2023 results, Bakkafrost said due to low fish growth rates at its Faroese farming and micro-jellyfish swarms causing high mortality on its Scottish farms, it would delay some planned harvests in both regions until the first quarter of 2024.
In regards to Bakkafrost’s other operations, it sold 39,400 MT of feed in the final three months of 2023, an increase from the 32,600 MT sold in Q4 2022, with its Havsbrún facility sourcing 53,600 MT of raw materials in the quarter. Its feed sales for 2023 reached 127,800 MT, and in total, the company sourced 467,100 MT of raw materials during the period.
Bakkafrost’s full fourth-quarter 2023 report will be released on 20 February 2024.
The salmon farmer also previously advised it expects its Faroese harvest volumes to reach 66,000 MT gutted weight in 2024, while 25,000 MT will come from its operations in Scotland, giving the group a total harvest of 91,000 MT this year if operations produce as expected.
Despite biological challenges affecting some companies late last year, other fish-farming firms experienced year-over-year growth in Q4 2023, such as Måsøval. The Norwegian salmon producer reported 7,929 GWT harvested in the quarter, up from the 5,032 GWT the company produced a year prior.
Early totals before the company officially releases its Q4 2023 results on 27 February 2024 signal that the company harvested 24,533 GWT for the full year 2023.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock/photolike
