The total volume of Atlantic salmon harvested by the Bakkafrost Group in its native Faroe Islands in the second quarter of this year increased by 4,700 metric tons (MT) compared with the corresponding period of 2020, reaching 17,600 MT of head-on gutted (HOG) weight fish.
According to the group’s latest trading update, Bakkafrost’s Farming West operations contributed 13,200 MT of this total, with Farming North adding 2,500 MT, and farming South 1,900 MT. For the same period, Bakkafrost’s Scottish operations harvested of 10,600 MT, up from 7,900 MT, in Q2 2020.
The group’s feed sales for Q2 2021 totaled 27,200 MT, up from 19,100 MT in Q2 2020.
Its full Q2 2021 report will be released on 24 August, 2021.
Bakkafrost harvested 85,686 MT of salmon last year, up from 65,109 MT in 2019. This volume comprised 50,700 MT from the Faroes and 34,986 MT from Scotland.
It has forecast a harvest of 106,000 MT gutted-weight salmon for the full-year 2021, with 66,000 MT coming from the Faroe Islands and 40,000 MT from Scotland. It also expects to release around 14.5 million smolts in the Faroes this year, compared to 14.3 million smolts in 2020, 12.7 million smolts in 2019 and 12.6 million smolts in 2018.
Depending on external sales, Bakkafrost also anticipates selling 120,000 MT of fish feed this year. The main recipient of Havsbrún's fish feed is the local Faroese market, including Bakkafrost’s internal use of fish feed in the Faroes. This feed is also used in the Scottish farming operations.
For the first quarter of this year, Bakkafrost delivered total operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of DKK 223.5 million (USD 35.7 million, EUR 30.1 million), down from DKK 248.1 million (USD 39.6 million, EUR 33.4 million) achieved in the corresponding period of 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to disrupt salmon markets.
However, Bakkafrost CEO Regin Jacobsen said the sector also saw “clear signs of improvements,” in the three-month period, and that despite the global supply of salmon increasing by nearly 16 percent year-on-year, prices had increased.
Photo courtesy of Bakkafrost
