Trondheim-headquartered Norway Royal Salmon (NRS) has reported that in the fourth quarter of 2018, the company harvested and sold the highest volume of salmon in the company’s history.
The company reported that it sold 27,785 metric tons (MT) of salmon in the quarter, up 24 percent year-on-year.
Thanks to that, NRS has reported operational earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of NOK 232 million (USD 26.7 million, EUR 23.7 million) for the fourth quarter of last year and an EBIT-per-kilogram of NOK 17.73 (USD 2.04, EUR 1.81). The corresponding figures for the same quarter of 2017 were NOK 95 million (USD 10.9 million, EUR 9.7 million), and NOK 15.51 (USD 1.78, EUR 1.58) per kilogram.
For the full financial year 2018, NRS achieved operating revenues in excess of NOK 5 billion (USD 574.7 million, EUR 509.8 million) and an operational EBIT of NOK 642 million (USD 73.8 million, EUR 65.5 million).
“Today we report the highest operational EBIT in the history of NRS for both a quarter and a financial year,” CEO Charles Høstlund said in a company statement. “We are pleased that Region North continues the positive development in production costs, however, biological challenges in Region South are reducing the result.”
NRS’s Region North posted an operational EBIT of NOK 243.3 million (USD 28 million, EUR 24.8 million) in the final quarter of 2018, compared with NOK 116 million (USD 13.3 million, EUR 11.8 million) in Q4 2017. Its operational EBIT-per-kilogram, gutted weight, was NOK 20.20 (USD 2.32, EUR 2.06), up from NOK 15.84 (USD 1.82, EUR 1.61).
However, Region South posted an operational EBIT of NOK 1 million (USD 114,928, EUR 101,932) in the quarter, compared with NOK 24.4 million (USD 2.8 million, EUR 2.5 million) in Q4 2017. Operational EBIT-per-kilogram gutted weight was NOK 0.60 (USD 0.07, EUR 0.06), down from NOK 14.12 (USD 1.62, EUR 1.44).
In terms of volume, NRS harvested 13,783 MT of gutted weight salmon in the last quarter, which was 52 percent more than in Q4 2017. Of this total, some 12,042 MT came from Region North and 1,741 MT from Region South.
The estimated harvest volume for 2019 is 38,000 MT, which would represent an increase of six percent compared with 2018.
In addition to owning salmon farming sites in West Finnmark, Troms, and Haugsund, NRS has minority interests in three associated fish farming companies that own 10 fish farming licenses, as well as Arctic Fish in Iceland.
Photo courtesy of NRS
