Grieg steers steady ship in Q3

Grieg Seafood has announced slightly lower harvests for the three months July to September this year.

The Q3 figure, which came in a Stock Exchange notification, was around 20,500 tonnes against 21,200 over the same period last year. The total is made up of 6,300 tonnes in Rogaland, 9,900 tonnes in Finnmark and 4,300 tonnes in British Columbia.

The average farming costs per kilo, by region, were NOK 46.5 for Norway Rogaland, NOK 45.5 for Norway Finnmark and CAN $8.5 (NOK 57.62) for British Columbia.

The figures do not include Grieg Shetland which is classed as “business for sale” and is the process of being sold to Scottish Sea Farms. The deal should be completed by the end of the year.

Grieg is expecting a total harvest of 130,000 tonnes of gutted salmon for the entire year, which should also include Shetland and Newfoundland.

The company said: “Towards 2025, we aim for global growth, cost improvements and to evolve from a pure salmon supplier to an innovation partner for selected customers.”

Bergen based Grieg Seafood has had one or two problems in the past year. In the summer it announced it was culling a million salmon and postponing its first transfer for a year after discovering a single case of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA).

The company said the move was being taken as a precautionary measure, adding that the lost fish were insured. It also suffered ISA outbreaks at its Norwegian operation back earlier in the year.

But the sale of Shetland to Scottish Sea Farms for £164m has given its medium and long term outlook a considerable boost, say industry analysts while the Q2 results were better than expected.

The full Q3 2021 report will be released on 3 November.