Bergen, Norway-headquartered salmon-farming firm Mowi will conduct a strategic review of its Mowi Canada West operations in British Columbia in response to the Canadian government’s recent decision to ban open net-pen farming in the province from 1 July 2029 onward, Mowi CEO Ivan Vindheim has confirmed.
Because the ban only affects British Columbia, Mowi’s Canada East operations remain unaffected.
Delivering the company’s Q2 2024 results on 21 August, Vindheim said the ban was regrettable, as it comes after 40 years of sustainable and responsible salmon farming with net pens in British Columbia waters with the collaboration of First Nations.
“It looks like emotion and political agendas have overtaken facts and science in this case, which is really sad as there is so much at stake here,” he said. “But, things are as they are, and this farming region has never been particularly profitable for Mowi. Last year, we harvested 19,000 [metric] tons [MT] in British Columbia, and we made EUR 11 million [USD 12.2 million] through the value chain, which accounted for a modest 4 percent of our farming volumes and only 1 percent of our total profit. This year, we will barely break even.”
Further details, including a draft plan for the required transition, are expected to come out shortly, which will trigger a comprehensive review for Mowi.
“We find ourselves obliged to explore our options before deciding what to do,” Vindheim said. “The board has, therefore, decided to undertake a strategic review of this farming region where we will keep all possibilities open.”
Mowi recorded operating revenues of EUR 1.34 billion (USD 1.49 billion) in Q2 2024, which was 2 percent less than in the corresponding period of 2023. This translated to an operational EBIT of EUR 229.5 million (USD 255.1 million), down 23 percent year over year.
Vindheim said that after a “rocky start” to this year from a biological perspective, mainly as a result of winter sore issues in the firm’s Norwegian operations in Q1, the second quarter was a stronger period for Mowi operationally, with good biology and seasonally high growth.
This, he said, materialized in a record-high Q2 harvest volume of 110,419 MT and a record-high standing biomass in the sea of 327,000 MT.
“Biology has also developed well during the summer and into the third quarter, so we, therefore, reiterate a farming guidance of 500,000 MT for the year – a milestone for us as it will be the first time in Mowi’s history that we cross the ‘magic’ 500,000 MT mark, which is equivalent to a growth of 5.3 percent year over year and surpassing that of the industry by a large margin again,” Vindheim said. “We have grown our harvest volumes by as much as 125,000 MT in the past six years, or a compound annual growth rate of 4.9 percent. This is important because farming volume growth is the mainstay of our business model and the lifeblood of this industry.”
While improvements occurred in Mowi’s biology and the company secured cost reductions in Q2, price achievements in the quarter were more …
