Farming up and wild catch down for Lerøy Seafood in Q1 2026

Norway-based Lerøy Seafood released its Q1 2026 trading update this week, revealing that after lower harvest volumes in Q4 2025, its Farming segment appears to be recovering, closing the quarter in positive territory. The same cannot be said for the Wild Catch segment, where volumes declined.

Regarding the Farming segment, despite those lower harvest volumes recorded last quarter, the company decided to keep its projected harvest volume in Norway for 2026 unchanged at 195,000 GWT, and the trend shown by the data presented now seems to confirm that the decision was the right one.

In the first quarter of 2026, Lerøy Seafood's total salmon and trout harvest volume was 39,900 GWT, compared to 38,200 GWT in Q1 2025. That is, 1,700 GWT more was harvested, equivalent to a 4.45% year-on-year increase.

As the Norwegian seafood company clarified, these figures refer only to its operations in Norway, excluding harvest volumes from Scottish Sea Farms, which Lerøy co-owns with fellow Norwegian salmon producer SalMar.

Within Norway, and broken down by region, Lerøy Midt recorded the largest harvest volumes in Q1 2026, with 16,000 GWT. However, compared to 16,400 GWT in the same quarter last year, this represented a decrease of 2.34%.

Lerøy Sjøtroll followed with 15,700 GWT, of which 6,100 GWT were trout. Compared to 14,800 GWT in Q1 2025, of which 9,500 GWT were trout, this represented an overall increase of 6.08%. Nevertheless, if we look exclusively at trout, harvest volumes decreased by 35.79% compared to the previous year.

Finally, Lerøy Aurora was the region that recorded the lowest total harvest volumes in Q1 2026, at 8,300 GWT. However, compared to 7,100 GWT in the same quarter last year, this region saw the largest increase, rising by 16.9%.

Regarding the Wild Catch segment, total wild catch volumes in Lerøy Havfisk in the first quarter of this year were 14,300 GWT, of which 2,700 GWT were cod. In Q1 2025, total catches had been 19,000 GWT—3,600 GWT of cod—, meaning that catches fell by 24.73% in Q1 2026. Considering only cod, the percentage decrease is rounded up to 25%.

Lerøy Seafood, which after profits tumbled 96% year-on-year in Q3, closed 2025 as its best year ever in VAP S&D segment, marking the company's recovery in the last quarter of last year, will present the complete Q1 2026 report on 12 May.