Luna is worried the isolation status in Denmark from next week and two weeks ahead will have negative influence on their export as 50 % of their exported salmon is sent to Russia through Denmark.
Wednesday evening the Danish parliament stated, that from Friday afternoon all public employees will be sent home because of the corona virus. This statement influences a great deal of business including the salmon industry, as importation of goods have to go through customs in Denmark.
“We do not know, what will happen next week. Already this week we are sending less fish,” says Atli Gregersen, CEO at Luna, who brands their salmon: Hidden Fjord.
Atli Gregersen explains the company has already exported ten per cent less this week than usual.
“We expect it will influence our market much more next week. But we can say nothing with certainty, before we know how the Danish authorities will react,” he says and adds:
“The uncertainty in Denmark tells me that it can very easy turn out there will be very little harvest of salmon.”
It has not yet been stated if the isolation of all public employees will exclude customs to keep the industry running.
More concerning than the US market
Luna’s biggest exporting country is Russia, next in place is the US, where they export 35 % of their salmon. Trump stated Wednesday that all flight from Europe to US will be denied from next week on, so will a lot of the salmon that is transported by plane.
“The situation in Denmark is more concerning than the US. We have been lucky as we have been harvesting more the last couple of weeks, and therefore have less fish, that has to be harvested right away. The plan at the moment is to ship our salmon to the UK, and then fly it there to US. But nothing is certain yet. It depends on the Danish, as we otherwise will try to redirect the export to Europe instead of US,” says Atli Gregersen.
Read also:Trump suspends all flights from Europe: will have major adverse effects
Luna also plans to freeze more fish for exportation.
High cost on fish feed
“Our costs on feed will increase, because the fish will have to stay longer in the ocean,” says Atli Gregersen with concern.
Atli Gregersen is expecting that the amount spend on fish feed will increase a great deal, but can not give any specific numbers. The only thing that can equalise the rising costs is according to Gregersen adjustments in Luna’s coming investments this year.
“We have looked into our investment plan, but not made any final decisions. But we will certainly not make any big investments in the time to come.”
