December 4, 2013
Chile''s salmon firms report losses of US$79.2 million in Jan-Sep
During the first three quarters of 2013, Chile''s Australis, AquaChile and Camanchaca all reported losses, with AquaChile and Camanchaca seeing losses worse than last year.
Meanwhile, Multiexport Foods and Invermar- two other top salmon farmers- came out with positive balance sheets for the same time period.
As a result, the collective balance sheet for these top five salmon companies totalled a loss of US$79.2 million, reports Mundo Maritimo, citing El Mercurio.
The losses stem from high sanitary control costs and high food costs, and- while seemingly high- are an improvement over the performance during the same period last year, when the deficit for the same companies totalled US$137 million.
Invermar''s results improved from a loss of US$28.2 million last year to a gain of US$3.8 million this year, where prices are the reason for the improvement, the company said. Another change since last year is a reduction in production by 21.4%, which came from its decision to remove trout and coho salmon from its farms and focus instead on Atlantic salmon.
Multiexport''s results also improved, from a loss last year to a gain of US$1.4 million this year due to the investment it received from Mitsui- without which it would also have been in the red despite a better third quarter.
Meanwhile, Aquachile''s losses went up, leaving the salmon farmer with the highest losses of all, at US$34.95 million, versus the US$25.6 million in the same period last year. This came due to poorer performance on its salmon and trout farms.
Camanchaca posted losses of US$27.8 million, up from last year''s loss of US$24.4 million, which were attributable to the low Atlantic salmon prices at the beginning of the year.
Australis'' losses during the period totalled US$21.6 million.