Stolt Sea Farm centre in Quilmas. (Photo: Stolt Sea Farms)

Stolt Sea Farm indirectly blames Pescanova for turbot price drop

SPAIN
Friday, July 04, 2014, 23:30 (GMT + 9)

Stolt Sea Farm (SSF) indirectly accused the Galician multinational firm Pescanova of "flooding" the market with very small and cheap turbot in order to obtain liquidity.

This Norwegian business group has two fattening centres and six plants in Galicia, and is the largest competitor Pescanova has.

At this time, the Spanish multinational firm annually produces about 3,000 tonnes of turbot and the fish farm it has settled in Mira, Portugal, is working at 50 per cent of its performance.

In its report on the results of the second quarter of this year, Stolt-Nielsen Limited stated the turbot prices continued to weaken during the quarter, which contributed to anegative fair value adjustment to inventory of USD 4.7 million.

"Post quarter-end, turbot prices increased, and we expect this trend to continue in the second half of the year," said the Group CEO Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen.

SSF reported second quarter operating revenues of USD 16.1 million, compared to USD 17.2 million in the first quarter. In addition, the company recorded an operating loss of USD 5.2 million compared to an operating profit of USD 1.4 million in the previous quarter.

Pescanova’s Portuguese plant has a capacity to produce 7,000 tonnes of turbot a year. While initially the former president of the multininacional firm, Manuel Fernández de Sousa, expected to produce 11,243 tonnes per year, these expectations have never become true.

Several technical problems and two accidents that killed all the fish in 2012 generated losses of around EUR 70 million, the newspaper Faro de Vigo reported.

Related article:

- Turbot plant in Portugal becomes a dilemma for Pescanova

By Analia Murias
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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