Lerøy Seafood at Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, 2023.
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For the first time in its trajectory, Lerøy Seafood's revenues in a whole year exceeded NOK 30 billion. The seafood production and distribution company has presented its 2023 and last quarter results which represent advanced progress for its 2025 targets.
Regarding this, CEO Henning Beltestad said: "We continue to vigorously work towards developing the most efficient and sustainable value chain for seafood. I am proud of the work our employees do while acknowledging that the past year has been challenging."
One of the main difficulties around farming has been the challenges related to string jellyfish, an accelerated harvest in Lerøy Sjøtroll, and several lost days of feeding in Lerøy Aurora.
The costs of raw materials have increased due to high product prices which have made possible a "positive development" in the VAP S&D segment. Finally, wild catch earnings have been similar to the same period of the previous year.
Lerøy Seafood hopes to reach 205,000 harvest volumes in Norway by 2025. For this, it mentioned the necessity of improving smolt quality and adopting new technology so its performance in 2024 can progress.
"We are still in the early stages," Beltestad detailed. "So far, we have had a good experience with the use of submerged cages, with zero lice treatments and high survival rates, and we are also well underway with the introduction of various types of shielding technology. Currently, the plan is for approximately one-third of our salmon to be shielded with new technology by the end of 2024."
In addition, he noted that the operational operating profit expected from the VAP S&D segment is a "challenging" 1.25 billion. "We see clear signs of improved profitability, driven by better capacity utilization and good development in several of our key markets globally," he concluded.