Net profit down, but salmon-farming EBITDA up 500 percent
A 28 percent increase in the price of Atlantic salmon — from USD5.2 per kilogram to USD 6.7/kg — wasn’t enough to lift Chilean salmon-farmer Blumar SA to a third-quarter net profit, a company report revealed on Thursday.
Net profit for the third-quarter was down 71 percent over the year-ago period to USD2.8 million. Yet the company showed dramatic signs of improving business performance overall since the start of 2017.
Company EBITDA for the first nine months of 2017, though largely earnings before negative financial items, rose by 104 percent to USD30.5 million. Operating income decreased 13 percent to USD253.3 million, although company EBIT, or profit before taxes and interest, soared 244 percent to USD42.8 million.
Much of the turnover, however, was owed the wild-catch fleet. Sales of farmed salmon fell 22 percent on 5,400 tonnes less volume sold. The higher sales price in the quarter lifted all numbers, but in the background, management reported the fish-farming EBITDA separately was up 510 percent for the full-year so far.