Norway's Marine Farms facing rocky Q3

Despite posting a 20% increase in revenues, Norway's Marine Farms ASA saw its EBIT plunge 82%, to NOK5 million (US$857,570), during the period.

Marine Farms attributed its unsteady third quarter to sea lice difficulties and smolt delivery delays at its Lakeland operations in Scotland and to low prices for sea bass and sea bream at its Culmarex operations in Spain.

Lakeland watched its EBIT per kilogramme of salmon sold drop to NOK3.6 (US$0.64) in the third quarter of 2009, down from NOK7.4 (US$1.31) in the third quarter of 2008, while the volume of salmon sold slipped 9%.

Meanwhile, Culmarex saw its EBIT per kilogramme of sea bass and sea bream sold plummet to a loss of NOK4.7 (US$0.83) in the third quarter of 2009 from a gain of NOK0.90 (US$0.16) in the third quarter of 2008, while the volume of sea bass and sea bream sold jumped 39%.

As for Marine Farms' cobia farms in Vietnam and Belize, its EBIT came in at a loss of NOK7.4 million (US$1.3 million) in the third quarter of this year, compared to a loss of NOK10.7 million (US$1.9 million) in the third quarter of last year.