Mowi operating profit fell by 37% year on year in Q1

Salmon farming giant Mowi’s operating profit for the first quarter of this year fell by 37% to approximately €201 million (£172.1m) from €321.8m in the same period in 2023, the company said in a trading update today.

“Blended farming cost was €6.05 per kg in the quarter. Issues with winter sores and string jellyfish have resulted in low superior share and average size on fish harvested in Norway. This has impacted price and cost performance accordingly,” Mowi said in a market update.

The Q1 2024 harvest volume in Norway, Mowi’s biggest production region, was 55,000 gutted weight tonnes, down from 65,627 gwt in Q1 2023.

In total, the group harvested 95,500 gwt of fish globally in Q1. That volume is approximately 7,500 gwt (16%) lower than in Q1 2023, and 1,000 gwt lower than in Q1 2022.

Mowi Scotland’s harvest volume for Q1 2024 – rounded up or down - was approximately 14,500 gwt. That’s an increase of around 27% compared to the 11,373 gwt harvested in Q1 2023, and approximately 38% more than was harvested in 2022. The first quarters of 2022 and 2023 were both periods when Mowi was still tackling biological challenges carried over from the year before.

Harvests in Canada, Ireland, the Faroes, and Chile were similar to the same period last year.

Operational EBIT in Consumer Products, which includes Mowi’s secondary processing facility in Rosyth, was €24m. Operational EBITDA in Feed was €6m in Q1 2024.

Mowi’s full Q1 2024 report will be released on May 8.