Bakkafrost headquarters in the Faroe Islands. After the good performance of its Faroese operations "saved" the overall Q1 2024 result, now two of its pens at the A-19 Vágur site have problems with ISA, a rare infection in the Faroe.
Photo: Bakkafrost Group.
In a market announcement under the disclosure requirements of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act, Bakkafrost reported Sunday that tests at the A-19 farm in Vágur, Faroe Islands, have detected the presence of the ISA virus in two cages.
The company, the largest salmon farmer in the Faroe Islands, also reported that "strict measures" have already been implemented to contain the virus and prevent its spread.
"The two affected pens will be harvested out immediately and the full site will be harvested out within two months, in line with Faroese regulation," Bakkafrost said in its statement.
According to the information provided, the entire site has a total of 1.0 million fish, with an average weight of 2.6 kg at the time of virus detection.
Consequently, Bakkafrost estimated that harvest volumes by 2024 will be reduced by 2,000-3,000 tons gutted weight due to accelerated harvesting of the entire A-19 Vágur farming site.
This news comes just twenty days after the company stated in its Q1 2024 results presentation that, despite the challenges encountered in the start-up of its Applecross plant in Scotland, and how this will affect its planning, the company remained confident in its commitment to producing superior quality large salmon.
Precisely in the first quarter, it was Bakkafrost's operations in the Faroe Islands that achieved overall positive results despite the jellyfish and those start-up problems at the Scottish smolt facility.
In his comments on the results, CEO Regin Jacobsen emphasized that much of the company's success in the salmon market in Q1 2024 was due precisely to Bakkafrost's One Company strategy for producing premium high-quality salmon.
"Good biological performance in the Faroe Islands and improved biology in Scotland has enabled us to harvest large fish of superior quality and benefit from a salmon market marked with low availability superior quality and large fish," he said then.
Now, the virus and the consequent obligation to carry out an accelerated harvest will affect both total volumes and price achievement, as these salmon cannot be considered 'superior grade', which could jeopardize Bakkafrost's premium salmon production strategy.
At the moment, the Group has already seen its shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange fall by 2.2% today, after reaching losses of almost 4% during the day.
Bakkafrost is the largest salmon farmer in the Faroe Islands and the second largest in Scotland and is fully integrated from feed production to smolt rearing, farming, VAP, and sales. The Group is engaged in sea and broodstock farming in both the Faroe Islands and Scotland, and produces fishmeal, fish oil, and salmon feed in the Faroe Islands, as well as primary and secondary processing in the Faroe Islands, Scotland, and Denmark. With 1,686 employees, it is headquartered in the Faroe Islands.
