Lerøy Q1 salmon and trout harvest down

The Lerøy Seafood group’s salmon and trout harvest for the first quarter of 2024 is down by more than 2,000 tonnes, year-on-year.

The company, which has had its share of biological and jellyfish attack problems in recent months, slaughtered 26,400 tonnes against 28,600 tonnes between January and March.

The figures do not include output from Scottish Sea Farms in which it has a half share. The SSF figures will become available next month.

The all-Norway slaughter figure is made up of 6,000 tonnes at Lerøy Aurora, 13,700 tonnes at Lerøy Midt and 6,700 tonnes at Lerøy Sjøtroll (of which 3,300 tonnes are trout).

This time last year CEO Henning Beltestad said he was not satisfied with profitability in the farming segment, and he announced a number of measures to correct the situation. But the last 15 months have been difficult for the company.

In the previous quarter Lerøy suffered from string jellyfish attacks which brought down the salmon and trout harvest by almost 6,000 tonnes.

However, jellyfish are usually an autumn problem and should not have significantly affected this year’s Q1 performance.

Lerøy is also one of Norway’s largest trawler fishing companies through Lerøy Havfisk . The catch volume of wild fish (mainly cod, haddock and saithe) was 24,100 tonnes of which 6,700 tonnes were cod.

The catch figure for Q1 last year was 25,300 tonnes but wild fish quotas in the Barents Sea have been reduced since then.

The full Q1 2024 report will be released on 15 May.

Henning Beltestad, CEO Lerøy Seafood