The triad of strong salmon prices, higher fish survival and lower costs of farming have aided the recovery of Chile’s largest salmon farming company, Salmones Camanchaca.
EBITDA for 1H 2022 reached $74.3 million, compared to $9.4 million in 1H 2021, while net income was $30.3 million, from negative $8.4 million in the same period of 2021.
Atlantic salmon harvests went up 32 percent to 20,555 MT (WFE )in 1H 2022 year-on year. Sale price of Atlantic salmon was $ 8.50/Kg (WFE), representing 47-percent growth compared to 1H 2021.
The cost of harvested Atlantic salmon (ex-live fish cage) reached $4.19/Kg, lower than the $4.33 of 1H 2021. The cost of farming, including harvest, was $1.12/Kg (WFE), which compares positively with $1.30 in 1H 2021.
Thus, for 1H 2022, the EBIT/Kg (WFE) of salmonids reached $1.01, which compares favorably with the negative $1.04 of the same period of the previous year, representing an improvement of $2.05 for each kilo sold.
“We have gone through several storms in recent years, including operational difficulties due to the pandemic, sharp price drops due to the closure of restaurants, and adverse oceanographic situations due to summer radiation, but this first semester shows that when markets normalize and environmental conditions are more similar to historical ones, Camanchaca shows the full potential of its fishing and aquaculture assets,” said CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz.
He said the company’s investment in an 60,000-tonne-capacity processing plant helped widen the salmon formats, helping it tap into the strong market demand.
