Scottish Sea Farms situation beginning to improve, SalMar reports

Scottish Sea Farms could be turning the corner with its biological problems, new figures suggest today. The business has still to get back into profit, however.

SalMar, which jointly owns the business with the Leroy Seafood Company, says in its 2023 fourth quarter report that SSF (also known as Norskott Havbruk) showed an improvement from previous quarters last year and produced modest results.

The UK operation produced revenue of NOK 497m (£37.3m) against NOK 693m (£52m) for the corresponding period in 2022. Around 87% of production was sold on contract.

The revenue for the year was NOK 2.56bn (£192m) against NOK 3.18bn (almost £240m) in 2022.

But the operational loss or EBIT was lower during Q4 2023, emerging at NOK 47m (£3.5m) against a loss of NOK 127m (£9.5m) in Q4 2022.

The operational loss for the full 12 months in 2023 was NOK 304m (£22.8m) against a profit of NOK 214m (£16m) in 2022.

The harvest volume during Q4 was 4,600 tonnes and 24,900 tonnes for the whole year. The 2022 harvest was almost 36,000 tonnes.

SalMar’s share of the loss was NOK 18m (£1.35m) and NOK 482m (£36m) for the year.

Salmar said the EBIT loss per kg gutted weight was negative NOK 10.3 in the period, an increase from the loss of NOK 17.5 per kg in the corresponding period last year.

It said the results were still weak during the final quarter, due to continued biological challenges, but conditions have improved, and the company foresees an improved biological situation for the generations to be harvested during 2024.

The volume guidance for 2024 is kept unchanged at 37,000 tonnes.

Scottish Sea Farms site, Lober Rock, Orkney