But too early to say if this will have an impact on Faroese salmon farmer’s 2019 total harvest volume, says SpareBank1 Markets.
Bakkafrost harvested 13.7 thousand tonnes in the fourth quarter, 9 per cent above SpareBank1 Markets estimate, wrote its salmon analyst Tore A. Tønseth in a financial report on Tuesday.
Compared to last year, the Faroe Island salmon farmer harvested 12 per cent more than in Q1/Q4 2018 (both at 12.2 thousand tonnes), with Tønseth attributing this rise to some Q4 volume pushed into Q1. Tønseth explained that from a price realisation perspective, this has been positive for Bakkafrost. “Feed sales ended at 16.3 thousand tonnes, close to our 15.9 thousand tonne estimate,” he explained.
The bank’s current recommendation is (in NOK) BAKKA Sell/420 (unchanged).
“We don’t expect just minor changes to our report after this trading update. Since Bakkafrost do not give guidance on a quarterly basis, it is hard to tell if the higher volumes are related to good production or it is just volumes being moved between the quarters. We know harvest weights first weeks of 2019 have been much better than in 2018, but it is early to say if this will have an impact on total harvest volumes in 2019 for Bakkafrost,” wrote Tore A. Tønseth.
