Ricardo García Holtz, Camanchaca general manager. (Photo: Camanchaca/FIS)

Camanchaca obtains USD 9.3 million in H1

CHILE
Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 23:30 (GMT + 9)

Camanchaca obtained income of USD 9.3 million in the first half of this year, a positive figure contrasting with a loss of USD 25 million experienced in the same period of 2013.

The company attributed this positive trend to improved margins of USD 37 million, associated with good results in products related with fishing (USD 8 million), salmon (USD 24 million) and harvests (USD 2 million).

The EBITDA for the first six months -- before fair value of the biomass of salmon -- reached USD 38 million compared to USD 2.8 million in the same period last year.

As it was reported by Camanchaca to the Superintendency of Securities and Insurance (SVS), income in the first half grew 22 per cent year on year and totalled USD 252 million.

This result was largely due to higher sales in the area of salmon, which grew by 40 per cent. In the case of fisheries, the rise in revenue was 0.6 per cent, and harvests grew by 7 per cent.

According to Camanchaca, a combination of factors led to the best results for the first half of 2014, one of the most significant 35 per cent increase in the price of Atlantic salmon (USD 1.5 per kilogram).

Another factor was the 9.8 per cent increase in harvests of Pacific salmon, which reached 16,000 tonnes.

Anyway, physical sales remained similar to those of the first semesters of 2014 and 2013, close to 17,000 tonnes.

"Since late 2013 a turning point in profitability of our businesses has been confirmed, with normalizations of harvested and captured volumes, prices and sanitary conditions and costs," pointed out Ricardo Garcia Holtz, Camanchaca general manager.

"We are confident that the efforts of the salmon industry for an effective coordination of sanitary treatments that operate in the same neighbourhood with clarity of loads that each of them can tolerate, allowing a greater degree of normality in the fattening costs," he added.

With respect to the fishing business, anchovy catches in the north totalled 71,000 tonnes, 33 per cent more than in the same period last year.

Thanks to a significant recovery of the biomass of sardine in the South, the company managed to capture 76,000 tonnes or 90 per cent of the quota allocated for 2014 and more than three times higher than that in the first half of 2013.

These higher catches were accompanied by a high performance of fish oil, which made it possible to obtain a three-fold production over the first half of 2013.

To this what was added was the fact that fishmeal prices showed an upward trend because the Peruvian catches were below the expected levels.

Fishing for horse mackerel also performed well in the first six months of this year: to 30 June, the company had removed 98 per cent of its annual quota, that is to say, 42,000 tonnes. With this capture, 15,000 tonnes of frozen fish and 900,000 boxes of canned fish were produced.

"Today we see some benefits of increased rigor in the care of the biomasses that are the object of catches and quotas, where this year the sardine good condition in the south and the gradual recovery of horse mackerel is stressed, which are behind the profitability recovery of our subsidiary in Camanchaca Pesca Sur," Garcia Holtz stressed.

The executive also highlighted that market development strategies of the company "proved to be successful" and that this semester managed to increase salmon sales to Asia from 16 per cent of the total in 2013 to 24 per cent.

"Today it offers an opportunity to open more markets in Russia, the world's third largest market, convincing the Russians that our fish is as good as another one, and that we are a reliable and safe supplier in the frozen product segment," concluded Camanchaca manager.

Related article:

- Best prices explain strong salmon export growth

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

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