Lerøy saw a reduced harvest during the summer

The Lerøy Seafood Group harvested less salmon between July and September this year compared with the same period last year.

In its Q3 trading update the company reports that it produced 51,400 tonnes of salmon and trout against 53,900 tonnes 12 months ago.

The figures do not include fish from Scottish Sea Farms (SSF), in which the company owns a half share.

The overall harvest figure is divided into 17,600 tonnes at Lerøy Aurora, 16,900 tonnes at Lerøy Midt and 16,800 tonnes at Lerøy Sjøtroll (of which 6,800 tonnes are trout). The largest decrease is in Lerøy Midt.

The Lerøy Havfisk catch volume of wild (trawler caught) fish was 13,300 tonnes during the quarter, of which 1,500 tonnes was cod.

The full report for the third quarter of 2024 will be published on 14 November, and should spell out the reasons for the drop, along with the SSF performance.

It is known, however, that Lerøy suffered from biological issues and jellyfish attacks earlier this year, which may have impacted harvests further down the line.

With a workforce of 6,000 people, Lerøy is one of Norway’s largest seafood employers. The group reported a slightly lower second quarter (April to June) operational profit of NOK 906m (£66m).

CEO Henning Beltestad said in the summer that the group had implemented a number of improvement measures and these were gradually showing results.

He said: “Biological development in farming in Q2 and year to date in 2024 has been good.”

The biological development had been good, he said, and downstream operations were continuing to develop positively.