Norwegian seafood firm Mowi has announced record revenues of €1,362 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Operational profit was €239 million, compared with €146 million in the corresponding quarter of 2021.
The company said that its fourth-quarter performance cemented a record year for Mowi financially.
For the first time in its nearly 60-year history, the company crossed the one-billion-euro earnings mark, with operational profit for the full year reaching €1,005 million.
Revenue of €4,946 million was also a new record for the company.
Harvest Volumes At Record Level
Mowi harvested 131,000 tonnes in the quarter and a total of 464,000 tonnes in 2022, which was 4,000 tonnes more than in the corresponding quarter in 2021.
In Norway, harvest volumes reached a record-high level of 294,000 tonnes.
Harvest volume guidance of 484,000 tonnes for 2023 represents an all-time high level and includes volumes from Mowi’s newest subsidiary, Arctic Fish in Iceland. This will equate to volume growth of as much as 109,000 tonnes in five years.
Mowi is the world's largest producer of Atlantic salmon and is among the leading employers in Norway, employing one in 300 of the Norwegian workforce.
Tax On Aquaculture
In a statement, the company expressed concerns that its ambitions for continued growth in Norway will be 'severely inhibited' by the government’s proposal to impose a resource rent tax on aquaculture.
“The Norwegian government’s proposal for an effective tax level of 62% for the Norwegian salmon-farming industry, or approximately 80% with Norwegian wealth tax, will completely undermine future growth prospects for coastal Norway’s most critical industry," said Mowi CEO Ivan Vindheim. "This industry currently employs 60,000 people in coastal communities, and at the end of the day it is their livelihoods as well as future job creation that are being put in peril.
"Consequently, I sincerely hope that government and parliament will listen to the industry and wider coastal communities and choose a different tax rate and a tax model that is less devastating to the Norwegian aquaculture industry so that we can continue to invest in coastal Norway in the future."
©2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest fresh produce news. Article by Robert McHugh. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
