Still more signs have appeared that rearing cleaner-fish is becoming a lucrative business, the latest being the earnings of Norwegian outfit, Norsk Oppdrettsservice, a supplier of lumpfish to Leroy Seafoods.
“We can’t hide the fact that it’s been a really good year,” manager Karl Tron Skarpenes said about 2017.
The company from tiny Flekkefjord saw a pre-tax operating profit of EUR 2.75 million for all of 2017, up three-fold over 2016, reported newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv. The company saw about EUR 9.63 million in turnover.
Read Cleaner-fish business worth a go, evidence suggests
“We were pretty lucky with production, especially in the second-half, when we produced a number of fish that were set to be delivered this year,” said Skarpenes, adding that leftover fish from 2016 carried through the whole of 2017.
In all the company sold 3.9 million lumpfish to exclusive client, Leroy Seafood, owner of 51 percent of Norsk Oppdrettservice shares.
The junior company also managed to cheer shareholders with EUR 1.1 million earmarked as a dividend.
Meanwhile, Marine Harvest Group had posted videos on social media showing the recent successful spawning of its own lumpfish brood ahead of a ramping-up of cleaner-fish production in Scotland.
Read Marine Harvest to build GBP 6 million Scottish lumpfish hatchery
