Arnarlax owner faces high lice bill
A recent serious salmon lice infestation could cost the Icelandic Salmon company (also known as Arnarlax) up to £5m, the business has reported.
Last month Icelandic Salmon decided to take out significant volumes of fish from Tálknafjörður in the Westfjords region of Iceland.
Icelandic Salmon, which is owned by Norway’s SalMar, said: “This will have a one-off impact, estimated at around €5m-€6m, on profits in the fourth quarter 2023. Harvest volumes for 2024 is expected at 15,000 tonnes.
“For the year 2023 as a whole, Icelandic Salmon expects to harvest 17,000 tonnes of salmon, up from the previous estimate of 16,000 tonnes. The increase is a result of growth beyond expected on our spring 2022 generation.”
Icelandic Salmon resumed harvesting, during the third quarter following a second quarter with limited harvest volumes.
The group harvested some 4,040 tonnes during the period, up from 3,804 tonnes in Q3 last year.
Icelandic Salmon CEO Bjørn Hembre said: “Our team demonstrated strong adaptability and commitment during a time with changing working conditions.
“Following a summer with limited harvest due to our focus on biological growth, we started harvesting in July.
“In the third quarter, total harvest came in slightly above the corresponding quarter last year, and the biological performance for the quarter was good.”
The group had Q3 revenue totalling €42m (around £38m), up from €34m (£29.5m) a year earlier.
The EBIT for the quarter was positive at €3m (£2.5m) resulting in an EBIT per kg harvest of €0.73. This was down from last year’s figure of €0.99 per kg, due to higher costs, which were partly offset by strong price achievement compared to market prices.
Smolt stocking continued in the third quarter and the group achieved operational improvements in smolt production. YTD the smolt weight is 236, up 36% from 2022.
CEO Hembre added: “The quality of the smolt is good and the survival rate of smolts is high. We see good effect of recent years’ investment and operational focus in our smolt production. “
It was announced earlier that board member Kjartan Ólafsson, had sold 450,000 shares in the company for over NOK 84m or about £6.2m to SalMar.
