The world’s largest buyer of salmon has been hit by Covid-19.
The big talking point in the salmon market on Friday was unconfirmed information that Mowi-owned Morpol was affected by the coronavirus. Morpol is the world’s undisputed largest buyer of salmon, with a total processing capacity of 150,000 tonnes annually.
According to a number of independent sources, Morpol reduced its salmon purchases to 30-40 per cent last week, after several employees reportedly became infected with the virus. Long queues of trucks have been outside Morpol’s processing plant as a function of reduced production capacity.
“People are worried about going to work,” a source with knowledge of the matter told SalmonBusiness.
Neither Mowi nor Morpol has returned our repeated inquiries into the matter over the weekend.
To IntraFish, Mowi Poland communications director Emilia Schomburg announced on Monday afternoon that 29 employees have been infected by coronavirus at the company’s plant in Duninow, Poland.
“From the day we diagnosed the first person on the 17th July this year, we have conducted 749 tests, 29 were positive, which can certainly be considered a small percentage as we employ over 4,000 people,” Schomburg wrote in an email to IntraFish.
“All diagnosed employees are fine,” Schomburg added.
