Lerøy posts sharp rise in Q2 sales
LERØY Seafood, the combined fish farming and whitefish trawling company, today reported higher-than-expected second-quarter sales of NOK 5.3bn (£431m), up nearly 13% from NOK 4.7bn (£383m) for the same period last year.
Lerøy, along with SalMar, is co-owner of Scottish Sea Farms (Norskott Havbruk), which saw its income jump from NOK 7.5m in the April-June period a year ago to NOK 51m (£4.2m). The group reported: Operating profit before fair value adjustment related to biological assets NOK 583m (£47m);
EBIT/kg “all inclusive” excluding whitefish NOK 13.8/kg. Prices realised in the quarter were affected by winter wounds; and Earnings from land-based operations for whitefish remain weak but with a significant improvement. There was a positive quota situation for the trawler fleet for the second half of 2021, with expected catch volume of around 73,000 tonnes of whitefish. A dividend of NOK 2 per share will be paid this quarter. CEO Henning Beltestad said the second-quarter growth had been good and he expected that to continue.
He added: “In the first quarter, demand in the grocery trade was strong. This has continued in the second quarter where we have also seen a gradual improvement in demand from the hotel, restaurant and catering markets as a result of a reduction in restrictions related to Covid-19. Our experience is that seafood’s position in the market is very strong.”