Better paid to handle fish exports.
“2021 was a good year. We had a sharp increase in volume, and we have an organisation that is very good at coping with such an increase, which meant that we got a good profit,” Dag Aksnes, managing director of Seaborn, stated in connection with the presentation of the company’s annual results .
Seaborn earned NOK 96.9 million (€9.8 million) from operations last year. This gave an operating margin of 1.3 per cent – up from 0.9 per cent in 2020. The Bergen exporter sold fish for NOK 7.5 billion (€758.4 million) last year. Only Lerøy Seafood, formerly known as Hallvard Lerøy, had a higher turnover among the exporters.
“The volumes we now sell make us more cost-effective than ever before,” Coast Seafood’s managing director, Sverre Søraa said. The Måløy exporter had a turnover of just under NOK 4.8 billion (€485 million) last year. The operating margin ended at 1.4 percent.
Increase
Increased export margins are a trend.
After several demanding years, 2021 gave a boost in the margin contribution for the exporters of salmon and trout. The average operating margin in the export sector ended at 1.68 per cent – the highest since 2013.
SalmonBusiness has reviewed the annual accounts of the Norwegian exporters’ corps. Together, they sold fish worth NOK 51.9 billion (€5.2 billion) last year. Total EBIT was NOK 872.6 million (€88.2 million).
Dominance
There are large differences in size between the companies responsible for the export of salmon and trout. But none of the larger players lost money on operations last year.
The export of salmon and trout is dominated by large companies.
The largest is Bergen-based Lerøy, with sales of NOK 18 billion (€1.8 billion), ahead of the three-leaf clover Seaborn, Coast and Sjor. Together, this quartet had a turnover of NOK 34.9 billion (€3.5 billion) in 2021.
