Kvarøy Fiskeoppdrett has record sales so far this year. But the salmon price jump is a double-edged sword.
“It has been an incredible price development,” general manager Alf-Gøran Knutsen told NRK.
“There were some expectations that the price would go up a bit due to smaller volume, but that it would go as high as it has done the first half year is absolutely fantastic.”
Anticipation
90 percent of the salmon from Indre Kvarøy, northern Norway is sent to the USA. Knutsen says that the customers there have anticipated the price increase, and that the company therefore sells the salmon at a kilo price over a hundred NOK (€9.7).
But the high salmon price is not completely positive.
“We do not build a market, and therefore there will be a downturn when production increases. It is not good at all,” Knutsen told NRK.
Going down
In addition, Knutsen mentioned that ongoing projects with farming on land and offshore will eventually lead to more salmon on the market.
“This will mean that the price will go down.”
Although the income is formidable, the cost of producing salmon has also increased.
“This is because the shipping price of salmon feed has risen sharply as a result of unrest in the world,” Knutsen said.
“You constantly move the limit for how high a price you must have to make a profit.”
