Earnings at fish farm giant soar 75 per cent

THE world’s largest fish farmer Marine Harvest has reported an impressive 75 per cent rise in earnings in its second quarter compared with the same period last year.

Operational earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) came in at €147million, against €84m a year earlier.

It is also a third up on the first quarter result of €112m, which was 17 per cent up on the 2015 first-quarter performance.

Scottish profitability was up by a third, following protracted problems with its salmon processing factory at Rosyth in Fife.

The EBIT per kilo is reported at €0.45, against 0.32 in the first quarter, but still a third below last year’s level of €0.65 per kilo.

The Norwegian company has reported a total harvest for the quarter of 87,000 tonnes, below its previous guidance of 90,000.

Three months ago Marine Harvest said one of its strongest ever quarters had been driven by record-high prices in Europe and Asia, and improving markets in the Americas. It was however negatively impacted by a €6.8m loss at the Rosyth plant, depressing operational EBIT per kilo to €0.32 in Scotland.

In March the company unveiled a potential major investment in Scotland when it named a quarry ay Kyleakin on Skye as the place it wants to build a £80m fish feed plant.

The project would create 55 permanent jobs by 2018, though the business is also shedding 80 jobs in Scotland as part of an efficiency programme.