Lerøy Seafood at Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, 2023.
Photo: WeAreAquaculture
Lerøy Seafood Group has presented its full results for the first quarter of 2026, reporting an operational EBIT of NOK 858m (€79.0m / $93.1m), down from NOK 1.05bn (€96.6m / $113.8m) in the same period last year.
The company said the decline reflected lower prices in its farming business and pressure on margins in value added processing, sales and distribution (VAP S&D), which was partly offset by what CEO Henning Beltestad called a "substantial improvement" in its fishing division.
"We are delivering in line with the direction we set at the Capital Markets Day in March 2026 - growth, cost, simplification and leadership," Beltestad said, in the company's stock exchange update.
In Lerøy's farming division, operational EBIT fell to NOK 555m (€51.1m / $60.2m) from NOK 789m (€72.6m / $85.6m) a year earlier, despite harvest volumes of salmon and trout rising 4% to 39,943 GWT.
"We continued to see strong biological performance in the first quarter, with good growth and higher survival. Lower prices for salmon and trout explain much of the decline in earnings, but underlying operations are solid," Beltestad explained.
Meanwhile, Lerøy's VAP S&D division posted operational EBIT of NOK 160m (€14.7m / $17.4m), a down by almost 25% from the NOK 212m (€19.5m / $23.0m) in the first quarter of 2025. Revenue in the segment increased 4.7% to NOK 7.87bn (€724.2m / $853.5m).
"The result in VAP S&D is weaker than in the corresponding quarter last year. It has been a quarter with significant changes in both currencies and freight costs. This is temporarily affecting gross margins in some units, but demand is strong and the long-term potential is unchanged," the CEO said.
The seafood group's wild catch business was the best financial performer during the quarter, with operational EBIT rising to NOK 228m (€21.0m / $24.7m) from NOK 148m (€13.6m / $16.1m), despite a 25% fall in catch volume to 14,267 tonnes. Lerøy attributed the improvement to higher prices and operational changes in the onshore business.
"Wild Catch delivers a significantly better quarter than last year, driven by higher prices and operational improvements in the onshore industry. The expectation for operational EBIT in Wild Catch for 2026 has been raised from NOK 250-300 million to NOK 350-400 million," said Beltestad.
For the full year, the seafood group kept its Norwegian harvest guidance at 195,000 tonnes. Including Lerøy's share of Scottish Sea Farms, the total volume projected by the company stands at 217,000 tonnes.
Lerøy also said NOK 173m (€15.9m / $18.8m) of its NOK 1bn (€92.1m / $108.5m) cost programme had been realised by the end of the first quarter, with NOK 586m (€54.0m / $63.6m) of initiatives in place.
The group said it was still aiming for operational EBIT of NOK 2bn (€184.1m / $217.0m) in its VAP S&D division by 2030, alongside organic harvest volume in Norway of 220,000 GWT.
