Global supply expected to decrease.
In a statement on Monday morning, Bakkafrost Group posted a total operating EBIT of EUR 30 million in Q1, compared to EUR 33.3 million in the same period in 2020.
Revenue was EUR 158 million, a decrease from EUR 168 million in Q1 2020.
Total harvested volumes were 21,000 tonnes gutted weight. Faroe Islands was 14,000 tonnes and Scotland was 7,000 tonnes.
The salmon farmer had beat expectations as analysts had estimated an operating profit of EUR 18.7 million in advance, according to the financial news site TDN Direkt.
Commenting on the result, CEO Regin Jacobsen said that “overall, we are satisfied with the results from this quarter. The salmon market has been severely hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic, but during this quarter we have also seen clear signs of improvements in the market. The global supply of salmon in this quarter increased by nearly 16 per-cent, compared to the first quarter last year”.
“Despite such increase in supply, salmon prices increased during the quarter. The demand for salmon has been very strong in the retail segment and during this quarter we have also seen demand from the food service segment picking up again. We expect this positive development to continue as Covid-19 mass vaccination progresses in the key markets for salmon. All in all, the salmon market outlook is good for the rest of 2021 as the global supply is expected to decrease somewhat, compared to the same period last year,” he added.
The CEO said that especially pleased with the strong results from the VAP segment and that the farming segment in the Faroe Islands has performed well.
“Quarter by quarter our average smolt size increases which also was the case in this quarter. In Scotland, the farming performance is gradually improving, and we expect to see some increase in average smolt size by the end of this year,” said Jacobsen.
In 2021, Bakkafrost expects to harvest 106,000 tonnes of fish. 66,000 tonnes in the Faroe Island and 40,000 tonnes in Scotland.
At Bakkafrost’s annual general meeting in April, the salmon farmer decided to pay out a dividend of DKK 3.65, corresponding to NOK 4.96, per share.
