Umami Sustainable Seafood, a San Diego-based fish-farming company supplying sashimi-grade bluefin tuna to the global market, on Friday announced that it expects to report approximately USD 42 million in third-quarter sales.
The company sold approximately 2,200 metric tons of bluefin tuna for the quarter that ended 31 March. Over the past nine months, sales totaled USD 56 million on the strength of 2,800 metric tons of bluefin tuna.
Umami’s Croatia (Kali Tuna) and Ensenada, Mexico, (Baja Aqua Farms) aquaculture operations sold approximately USD70 million in bluefin tuna sales, approximately 3,500 metric tons. Sales from the Baja Aqua Farms operation prior to the acquisition of 100 percent of the operations (sales prior to December 1, 2010 totaling USD 14 million) are not included in Umami’s consolidated sales amount. From December 1, 2010, and into the future, the financial results include and will include Baja fully consolidated into Umami.
“We are extremely satisfied with the yield of tuna from this season’s harvest at our Kali Tuna and Baja Aqua Farms facilities,” said Oli Steindorsson, chairman and CEO of Umami. “Once again, we have demonstrated that our sustainable fish farming practices are capable of maximizing our annual harvest production and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the coming fishing season. We are confident that our sustainable farming practices will give Umami a distinct advantage over our competitors because of our up to three-and-a-half-year growth cycle in our pens before harvest. Longer time in captivity allows Umami to grow the fish to a larger and more valuable marketable weight before harvesting, which also helps sustain the wild population and lessens the impact of established fishing quotas.”
A stock assessment conducted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas last fall calculated the Mediterranean stock of northern bluefin tuna at 175,000 metric tons, a significant improvement over a 2007 estimate of 78,000 metric tons.
“We were pleased to seethe population estimates for this important resource in the Mediterranean improve over the past few years and we are proud to be helping in that effort in some small way,” said Steindorsson.
