New Zealand King Salmon farm Photo: Supplied / New Zealand King Salmon
Fish farming company NZ King Salmon has slumped to a half-year loss, after higher levels of fish deaths and lower growth rates led to reduced harvest volumes.
Key numbers for the half year ended July compared with a year ago:
- Net loss $20.8m vs profit $6.0m
- Revenue $94.5m vs $101.7m
- Value of fish $55.8m vs $88.1m
- Dividends suspended
Chair Mark Dewdney said the half-year results were impacted by challenging biological performance, with salmon eating less, and slightly elevated deaths, affecting the amount of fish available for harvest and sale.
"As a direct result of these impacts... the board made the difficult decision in May to reduce the harvest for FY25 (Sept), to allow our biomass to recover."
Dewdney said the pause has seen salmon feed out rates and growth rates recover, and the company expects higher stocks and harvests in 2026 and 2027.
Chief executive Carl Carrington said changes to diet and breeding programmes to make the salmon more tolerant of water temperature changes were having the desired results, and the company was focused on its future growth plans.
"We have a strong focus on executing growth, which can be seen in the progress of our Blue Endeavour open ocean pilot farm, delivery of our service vessel Whekenui, and our purchase of the Cloudy Bay commercial site in Blenheim, to support our future processing needs and volumes."
Blue Endeavour will be the country's first open ocean salmon farm and is seven kilometres of the coast in Cook Strait.
The board said eight-month before-tax profits to September would be between $1m and $7m, likely at the upper end of that range.
King Salmon did not offer any further earnings guidance, saying dividends will remain suspended as it develops its Blue Endeavour project.
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