Post-smolt policy has helped achieve bumper results, says Mowi Scotland
Mowi Scotland has partly credited the ongoing success of post-smolt stocking from salmon initially reared in Loch Etive for very strong biological performance in the second quarter of this year.
Seawater production, survival rate, feed conversion ratio and superior share all improved compared to Q2 2025, Mowi Scotland said in parent company Mowi ASA's Q2 2026 report published today.
Loch Etive has a lower saline content than most seawater lochs because of a high sill that rises from the seabed at the mouth of the loch, and a large freshwater catchment. This charateristic makes the loch a more difficult environment for sea lice, and a good place to grow to post-smolts to a large size in net pens before they are transferred to Mowi’s high energy sites to reach harvest size.
“Operational and financial performance was strong in the second quarter, supported by first-rate biological performance and record harvest volumes,” Mowi wrote about the Scottish operation in its Q2 report.
“Operational EBIT was €48.1 million in Q2 2026, up from €31.3m in Q2 2025. On a per kg basis, operational earnings were €1.80 per kg. The increase from €1.29 per kg in the comparable quarter was driven by higher achieved prices and lower cost, in addition to somewhat higher volumes.”
Mowi Scotland said achieved prices increased from Q2 2025 on the back of a strong superior share and sale of differentiated products including Wester Ross brand, organic and Label Rouge products sold to the United States and Europe respectively.
“Of particular note was the annual growth of the Wester Ross salmon brand which exceeded 25%,” reported Mowi.
Harvested volumes came in at a record 26,680 gutted weight tonnes (24,199 tonnes) which was above guidance due to strong production.
Overall, Mowi made all-time high revenue of €1.599 billion (Q2 2025: €1.394bn) on record-high Q2 harvest volumes of 149, 911 gwt (133,239 gwt).
The group made an operating profit of €231.3m, up from €188.5m in the comparable quarter last year.
“Strong cost performance with realised blended farming cost for our seven farming countries in Q2 of €5.20/kg (€5.39/kg) was better than guided and equivalent to a cost reduction of €25.9m,” reported Mowi.
Feed ingredient costs rising
The company said realised cost is expected to be stable in Q3 but that it is experiencing increasing inflationary pressure on feed raw materials, particularly marine ingredients due to poor pelagic fisheries this year.
Mowi’s 2026 harvest volume guidance is reduced to 600,000 gwt from 605,000 gwt due to the sale of its Canada East farming operation to New Brunswick-based Cooke Inc.
“Farming operations continue to deliver very strong biological and operational results. In particular, our Norwegian and Scottish operations are performing strongly, with record volumes and reduced costs, which is very encouraging,” said Mowi chief executive Ivan Vindheim.
Strong price increases
Following a period of low salmon prices due to exceptionally high industry supply, salmon prices increased by 6% in the second quarter and have increased by 21% so far in the third quarter compared with 2025, driven by strong demand across many markets and a normalisation of supply growth in the industry, reported Mowi.
“We expect limited supply growth for the industry in the years ahead. In combination with continued strong underlying demand for salmon, we believe this will result in a more balanced supply-demand situation than we have seen over the past 18 months, supporting our positive market outlook going forward,” said Vindheim.
