The volume of salmon harvested by Bakkafrost Group in its native Faroe Islands in the first quarter of this year decreased by 3,000 metric tons (MT) year-on-year to the equivalent of 10,700 MT head-on gutted fish, according to its latest trading update.
Broken down into production regions, the contribution from the company’s operations in the north of the Faroes amounted to 6,300 MT, down from 6,700 MT in Q1 2019, while its farms in the west supplied 2,800 MT, down from 7,000 MT, and its southern farms provided 1,600 MT.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) achieved a harvest of 7,300 MT, down from 8,725 MT in Q1 2019.
Bakkafrost acquired a majority stake in SSC in October 2019. The group’s feed sales for the first quarter 2020 totaled 19,100 MT, up from 16,300 MT a year previously.
In 2019, Bakkafrost harvested 65,109 MT of salmon, with the 57,184 MT from the Faroes eclipsing the previous year’s 44,591 MT. At the same time, with 60 sites across the Scottish west coast and Hebridean Islands, SSC produced 33,799 MT.
While the group’s full first-quarter 2020 report will be released on 5 May, it had previously issued a harvest forecast of 57,000 MT for the Faroe Islands. However a strong, four-day storm at the start of last month caused significant destruction at two of its farming sites in the South Island (Suðuroy). This damage led to the loss of 1 million salmon with an average weight of 2.1 kilograms and was expected to reduce this year’s Faroese harvest by 5,000 to 6,000 MT.
Bakkafrost also previously forecast a harvest of 35,000 MT for its Scottish farming segment this year.
It was also expecting to release 15 million smolts in the Faroe Islands this year, compared to 12.7 million smolts in 2019 and 12.6 million smolts in 2018. The smolt release in Scotland for 2020 was expected to be 10.7 million smolts, compared to 12.4 million smolts in 2019 and 8.6 million smolts in 2018.
Photo courtesy of Bakkafrost
