Bakkafrost’s Scottish farms on road to recovery as group profits rise

BAKKAFROST almost doubled its operating profit during the first three months of this year with its Scottish farming business, showing a big improvement.

Releasing the 2022 Q1 results, the Faroe Islands based salmon farmer announced an EBIT (earnings before interest and taxation) figure of 418m Danish kroner (£48m), against DKK 244m (£28m) 12 months earlier.

The Faroe Islands farming segment performed particularly well with an operational EBIT of DKK 471m (£54m) while its Scottish farming arm, the Scottish Salmon Company, recorded a loss of DKK 53m (£6m) against a loss of DKK 6m (£690,000) last year.

The Q1 harvest for the Faroe Islands was 3,500 tonnes higher at 17,500 tonnes while Scotland dropped from 7,000 tonnes to 4,000 tonnes.

The full 2022 Faroes harvest is expected to total 68,000 tonnes while Scotland should rise to around 35,000 tonnes.

Two million smolts were transferred in the Faroes, down from 2.3 million in Q1 2021, but the number increased for Scotland – from 1.6 million a year ago to 2.3 million this quarter.

Despite disappointing financial results from the Scottish farming operation, Jacobsen said he was pleased to see clear improvement during the period following “challenging biology and high mortality” during the final six months of 2021.