Santiago, Chile-based Salmones Camamchaca continued to see strong results in the third quarter of 2022, with net income rising 306 percent to USD 18.5 million (EUR 17.9 million) when compared to the USD 4.6 million (EUR 4.4 million) it posted in Q3 2021.
Camanchaca's quarterly operating revenue reached USD 95.9 million (EUR 93.1 million) in Q3 2022, up 45.6 percent year-o-ver-year. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) before fair value adjustments jumped 602 percent year-over-year to USD 25.6 million (EUR 24.8 million).
In its quarterly earnings report, Camanchaca said its harvests and sales volumes in the quarter were also positive. Its harvests of Atlantic salmon reached 14,326 metric tons (MT) whole-fish equivalent (WFE), a 50.7 percent increase from 9,508 MT WFE in the third quarter of 2021. And its sales volume increased 23.7 percent to 11,713 MT in the quarter, while its average sales price increased 20 percent to USD 7.87 (EUR 7.64) per kilogram WFE. Camanchaca attributed this to higher global demand and lower supply during 2022, together with medium-term commercial agreements that played out in the company's favor.
Over the same period, Camanchaca's sales volume of coho salmon jumped 222 percent to 108 MT WFE.
Camanchaca said its ex-cage costs for the quarter were similar to its costs a year ago at USD 4.17 (EUR 4.05) per kilogram live weight. However, in 2022, costs have been pressured by an increase in the price of feed as well as inflation, in 2021, they were affected by algae blooms.
Camanchaca CEO Ricardo García said the positive results were a demonstration of the company’s capacity.
“After two complex years, with a pandemic and a period of great drought and sunnier summer in Patagonia, today we once again register results consistent with the capabilities of Salmones Camanchaca, not very different from those achieved in 2018-2019,” he said.
The increases in price helped the company offset the increasing costs pressure, García said.
“Perhaps what is extraordinary about this 2022 is that the limitations of world supply and the strength of demand have allowed salmon prices to cover the significant cost pressures that we have experienced due to inflation on supplies and services,” García said. “Salmones Camanchaca continues to deploy its strategy of adjusting production and commercial plans to better adapt to the effects of possible climate change, incorporating all risk mitigation practices and technologies, and developing main markets to come up with better solutions for our customers. These initiatives will mature in 2023, which will allow us to take a step forward in the use of our capabilities in 2024-2025.”
Camanchaca provided estimated Atlantic salmon harvest volumes of 45,000 MT to 46,000 MT in 2022, with similar volume expected in 2023, while it estimated its 2022 coho harvest at between 6,000 MT and 10,000 MT in 2023. It expects to reach a total production capacity for both Atlantic and coho salmon is 65,000 to 70,000 MT WFE within three years, García said.
García previously told SeafoodSource that while the company is improving and implementing a number of measures to reduce the impacts of phenomena such as algae blooms, the goal of 70,000 MT is one for which the company is prepared, and no further investments are needed beyond mitigating risks and plant increases.
Camanchaca's said its biological conversion ratio reacheched an average of 1.12 over the last 12 months, its lowest ratio ever. García previously announced that Salmones Camanchaca is aiming to hit a feed-conversion ratio of 0.6 across its entire salmon-farming operations by 2030.
The company said it experienced a financial impact of USD 1 million (EUR 970,000) in extraordinary mortalities during the period, mainly caused by sea lion attacks and algae blooms, but it was still significantly lower than the USD 3.7 million (EUR 3.6 million) impact it faced in Q3 2021.
Photo courtesy of Salmones Camanchaca
