Bakkafrost's unwelcome weight loss
The decision to harvest small fish due to a disease outbreak has obscured progress made elsewhere by the company's Scottish operation, says chief executive Regin Jacobsen.
The average weight of fish harvested by salmon farmer Bakkafrost Scotland in the fourth quarter of last year would have been almost 6 kilos if smaller fish from a disease-hit farm off Skye were removed from the equation, company chief executive Regin Jacobsen has said.
Bakkafrost Scotland harvested 4,579 gutted weight tonnes of salmon in the last three months of 2025, including 900 tonnes from its Portree site. The fish had not reached full size but the Faroese-owned company made the decision to harvest out the site after an outbreak of the bacterial disease Pasteurella Skyensis.
Jacobsen said growth and performance “has actually improved in Scotland”, apart from the problems on Skye.
5.9 kilos
“If we exclude Portree from the fourth quarter, the average harvest weight was 5.9 kilos in Scotland, but when we include the 900 tonnes of 2.3 kilo fish that were harvested from Portree, the average comes down to 4.3,” Jacobsen said at a presentation Bakkafrost Group’s Q4 results last week.
Exceptional mortality in Scotland cost Bakkafrost DKK 55 million (£6.4m), mainly due to the problems at Portree, and this, combined with low prices and low capacity utilisation, meany that Bakkafrost Scotland made an operating loss of DKK 110m.
“Larger and healthier smolt will gradually reduce the marine cycle down to 14-15 months versus 20 months at the moment. Therefore 2026 to 2027 will mark a transition towards a more robust and healthier biomass build-up,” said Jacobsen.
Early pathogen detection
“Like in the freshwater (at Bakkafrost Scotland’s Applecross post-smolt facility), we are also starting the building up of biomass in the marine sites in Scotland, and with all freshwater facilities now operating disease free, the same standards and procedures are being systematically implemented across marine operations. We have to start with the eggs, and eventually end up with the largest fish being disease free. Therefore we have very high focus on early pathogen detection, proactive risk mitigation, high biosecurity standards, and visible leadership.
“Highly robust fish, together with the (increase in production) scale will transform the Scottish operation in the future.”
