Outstanding debts a serious problem in Chile

- They are in a completely different league compared to Norway. Even with higher salmon prices than today, its a problem with outstanding debts in Chile. This needs to be better over time, and the banks should focus more on this, stated Cermaq CEO Jon Hindar at Tuesday's Cermaq presentation in Oslo. Hindar says to kyst.no that the dramatic developments in Chile in terms of earnings has unpleasant consequences also for Cermaq. The capital intensive restoration of the Chilean salmon farming industry has sapped companies' credit lines. And although Ewos in the third quarter delivered good result with an increase of five percent compared to the same quarter last year, it will also be that not all trading partners have paid their debts for feed deliveries. In the question session at the presentation of the results for the third quarter, seafood analyst Kolbjørn Giskeødegård focused on the outstanding debts. - Ewos have outstanding debts that we understand increases. Does this concern you, and are you afraid it will escalate, asked Giskeødegård. - We have a good follow up on this issue, and where we feel the situation gets critical, we have particularly good follow-up, says Jon Hindar. He admits that the situation is far from being desirable. - These are issues that are serious, and will continue to be so for the next two to three quarters. We monitor our accounts receivable directly from Oslo, and seeks to have fair certainty when the claims will be over a certain period or amount. We also have policies relating to claims, which cover up to 90 percent of the outstanding The company has also tried to sell the debtors, but how easy this has been also played according to how reliable customers have been. Hindar describes the situation where a couple of customers have high amounts outstanding, while the other is relatively well balanced.