Overall profit for the six months totalled $26.0 million, behind the $35.3 million of the previous year that included one-off items (net gain of $20.6 million last year versus an impairment charge (High Liner Foods Inc) of $1.1 million this year).
In addition foreign exchange gains improved from a loss of $2.1 million last year to a gain of $6.5 million this year as the New Zealand dollar declined.
The increase in underlying earnings for the business resulted from improved contributions from deepwater and aquaculture operations more than offsetting declines in returns from inshore and international fishing.
Aquaculture sales and profits continued to improve following the significant gains in the second six months last year.
However towards the end of the period half-shell mussel prices, particularly in the United States fell by almost 40 per cent from their peak led predominantly by weak selling out of New Zealand. Salmon stocks at the end of the period from last year’s harvest were higher than normal but have all been sold since.
The more rigorous testing regime and the progressive upgrade of the critical processing environments in our shellfish plants have meant that we have been able to ship product to market without any of the product recall issues of last year. Skipjack tuna catches in the Pacific were lower than last year and in New Zealand we had a poor skipjack season at less than half the previous year.
Strong Sales for Sanford Sustainable Seafood
NEW ZEALAND - Operating earnings (EBITDA) at Sanford Limited Sustainable Seafood increased from $35.5 million last year to $43.6 million this year with tax paid profit on operating earnings up from $14.7 million last year to $27.1 million this year.
