Marine Harvest foresees a turning point in Chile
The CEO of Marine Harvest Alf-Helge Aarskog told Reuters that the rebound will be slow, because it takes three years to grow mature salmon from eggs. "In 2010 we will harvest 9,000 tonnes in Chile, which is the lowest ever for us," he explained. Besides, the company commented that volumes would increase to 28,000 tonnes in 2012.
Analysts said Marine Harvest's Chilean reintroduction of smolt has been slower than that of domestic Chilean producers. In that sense, Aarskog acknowledged that the build-up of Marine Harvest's fish population in Chile will be "conservative". "We are focusing on quality of production rather than quantity," he said.
He further detailed that Marine Harvest released 2.4 million smolts in 2009 and will release another 8 million each year through 2012. This compares with 40 million smolts released in 2007, though few of those made it to maturity.
Marine Harvest said it saw the global supply of farmed fish growing 8-10 percent next year and by 7-12 percent in 2012. Its long-term annual organic growth target is 5 percent.
"Strong global demand driven by fundamental food trends support increasing industry supply in 2011-2012," it said.
Continued high prices for salmon could give the company a dividend capacity of around 2.4-2.5 billion crowns in 2011 and 2012, while lower estimates might cut this to 400-500 million, the company estimated.
