Big drop in Marine Harvest profits

In the third quarter of 2011, operating profit for Marine Harvest, the company that used to run the St Molios fish farm in Lamlash, dropped from 759m Norwegian kroner (NOK) to NOK 457 million. Net earnings (profit) dropped to only NOK 18 million (£2 million), compared to NOK 670 million in the same quarter last year. This sharp fall is the more remarkable set against an increased harvest volume of 83,076 tonnes compared to 64,034 tonnes last year.

The collapse of profit is blamed on the big increase in world supplies of farmed salmon and a consequent drop in prices. CEO of Marine Harvest ASA, Alf-Helge Aarskog, warned that ‘a challenging market’ lay ahead in 2012. The company intends to reduce re-stocking with young smolt by 11.3 million.

The Scottish Salmon Company, which now runs the Lamlash company, is a much younger company, and despite its cheery website pointing to international appetite for salmon, particularly in China, its growth projection for this year and next is in minus figures. Are we starting to see a saturated market for farmed fish? Time will tell – and probably quite quickly.