Mowi Q1 profit soars, but Scotland down again
BOOSTED by soaring salmon prices, Mowi has unveiled a record first quarter operating profit or EBIT, but results from its Scottish business were once again disappointing.
The world’s largest salmon farmer announced an operating profit of €206.7m (£176.7m) during the January to March period against €109.2m (£93.3m) in Q1 last year. The group turnover was €1,095m (£936m). Farming results also improved substantially – also driven by record prices.
Mowi CEO Ivan Vindheim said: “The increase in salmon prices coming out of the pandemic has been impressive. Salmon is a fantastic product with great product features and the beneficiary of strong megatrends, and I firmly believe this will continue to boost demand going forward.”
Almost all regions performed well, apart from Mowi Scotland where the harvest dropped by 7,732 tonnes to 10,541 tonnes and the operating profit was cut by more than half – from €26.6m (£22.7m) last year to €10.7m (£9.1m) this time.
Mowi said its Scottish results were still being adversely affected by problems relating to externally sourced eggs.
This stock is being harvested out during the current quarter and Mowi said it expects significant improvements during the second half of this year.
Mowi Canada produced an operational profit of €22.5m (£19.2m) against a small loss last year, while Mowi Chile almost trebled its operating profit, rising from €7.8m (£6.7m) to €20.1 (£17.2m).
But Norway, where Mowi has its largest salmon farming activity, was the group’s main star where the operating profit rose from €70.2m (£60m) last year to €151.4m (£129.4m) this time.