Salmones Camanchaca has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2022, with revenue growth of 16.3 percent to $81 million, bolstered by a 34 percent increase in the price of Atlantic salmon.
EBITDA for the period improved from a loss of $7.4 million in the quarter to a profit of $3.7 million. The profit after taxes was $1.6 million, much higher than the loss of $15.2 million in January-March 2021.
The profit growth occurred despite the fact that during the period the harvested and sold volume of Atlantic salmon fell by nearly 12 percent, a decline that was due to events of low oxygen in one of its centres harvested in the quarter that was harvested at lower weights. Costs were also pressured by inflation in salmon feed and logistics costs, and by surviving harvests of fish from the 2021 algal blooms.
“The demand for salmon in the world remains strong and consumers have added more salmon to the weekly diet, which has favoured their prices and offset cost increases that we have seen in various components of the cost of the product,” Ricardo García Holtz, Vice President of Salmones Camanchaca, said.
“Farming conditions this year have been better than in 2021 and, as of March, the weather was more benign for salmon farming, which was reflected in lower mortalities and better feed conversions. However, we detected decreased oxygen levels in several places, especially in the Los Lagos region, which reduced the growth of the fish, lowered their average harvest weight and made the final product more expensive. This is a situation we are closely monitoring,” he added.
Salmones Camanchaca estimates a harvest for 2022 between 45-47 thousand tons WFE of Atlantic salmon and 6-7 thousand tons of Coho salmon.
