Iceland-based salmon-farming company Ice Fish Farm (Ifish) harvested 1,966 metric tons (MT) of fish in the third quarter of 2022, a 904-MT increase on the corresponding period of 2021. However, the average weight of the Q3 harvest was a low 2.7 kilograms due to early harvesting.
The company's quarterly operational earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) per kilogram reached NOK 7.00 (USD 0.70, EUR 0.68) – up from NOK 0.70 (USD 0.07, EUR 0.07) a year previously.
Ice Fish Farm is owned by Froya, Norway-based Måsøval and completed the acquisition of Icelandic salmon-farming firm Laxar in June 2022. In its Q3 report, it said has entered a refinancing process "to ensure sufficient funding, simplify the loan structure of the group, and finance all interest-bearing liabilities on group level."
"The process of refinancing has started well, and the target is to complete the refinancing before end of this year," it said.
Ice Fish Farm also announced it had sold its shares in Eldisstodin Isthor to Arnarlax in May 2022, with the transaction closing in August 2022. The sale resulted in a NOK 74.3 million (USD 7.4 million, EUR 7.2 million) gain for the company, but with Isthor's biomass also being sold, the company took a one-off write-down of NOK 12.4 million (USD 1.2 million, EUR 1.2 million).
For 2022 to-date, Ifish has harvested 8,151 MT of salmon. And with a planned 3,200 MT harvest in Q4 2022, the expected full-year harvest is more than 11,300 MT.
Its Q3 2022 EBIT amounted to NOK 13.57 million (USD 1.4 million, EUR 1.3 million), compared with almost NOK 18.8 million (USD 1.9 million, EUR 1.8 million) a year previously. Its revenue for the period totaled NOK 178.5 million (USD 17.9 million, EUR 17.2 million), down from NOK 421.1 million (USD 42.3 million, EUR 40.6 million).
In June 2022, the company detected infectious salmon anemia (ISA) at its farming operations in Hamraborg and Svarthamar, impacting its Q2 2022 results.
In 2023, the producer’s expected harvest volume is 6,000 MT, rising to 20,000 MT in 2024, and 30,000 MT in 2025.
About six million smolt with an average weight of 350 grams will be released to sea sites in 2023, and the plan is to release a further seven to eight million 400-gram fish in 2024.
Ice Fish Farm is pursuing a farming license for 10,000 MT in Seyðisfjörður. The company said its application is being processed by authorities, and it has the expectation it will be issued in summer 2023.
Photo courtesy of Ice Fish Farm/Kevin Sinclair
