Arctic Fish revenues down for Q4

Low salmon prices hit the earnings of Arctic Fish, the large Icelandic fish farming company, during the final quarter of 2020.
The company, which is 50% owned by Norway Royal Salmon, harvested 2,988 tonnes and reported Q4 revenues of €12m euros. This resulted in a loss of (minus) €0.41 per kilo, for heads on, ungutted fish. The total 2020 harvest was 7,400 tonnes, producing revenues of €32m.
Arctic Fish said it still intends to go ahead with plans to list on the Oslo Merkur (Euronext) Market before Easter.
Ingimar Baldursson, business analyst at Arctic Fish, said the biggest challenge towards the end of 2020 were difficult market conditions which had been worse than expected at the start of the year.
Covid had a considerable impact following the continued closure of markets in Asia and Europe, leading to low salmon prices at times when they should have been at their peak.
Baldursson said he expected a much more positive market situation to develop during the second half of this year. Arctic Fish hopes to harvest a much higher figure of 12,000 tonnes this year and achieve stability with that figure over the next three years.
He added: “This is in line with the performance of our juvenile farm and taking into account the company’s farming licenses.
“There is a further expansion of the juvenile farm in the pipeline and there are some farming permits in the final stages of the environmental assessment, so it is assumed that production will double within four years.
“The company’s future plans assume that by 2025 the total production will be over 24,000 tonnes.”