The extraction of fish from the affected sites started immediately after the ISA detection, with 1,600 tonnes of the quarter’s 9,000 tonne harvest coming from these sites.
As a result of the early harvest, NRS reports that EBIT for the fourth quarter of 2017 was minus NOK 55 million. The loss was attributed to high production costs due to the low average weight of the prematurely harvest salmon, high harvest and wellboat costs and the costs of culling fish in a cage, as well as additional cleanup costs.
The early harvest is also going to impact the company’s harvest volumes for 2018, the forecast for which is being adjusted down from 43,000 to 42,500 tonnes. The remaining biomass from sites with ISA is expected to be harvested in January 2018 and will amount to approximately 2,000 tonnes.
