Mowi will no longer be open about the proportion of fish without damage – E24

After a “historically challenging” quarter with sick and injured fish, the salmon giant explains the secrecy by saying it is “competitively sensitive”.

Winter sores and jellyfish attacks weigh on the quarterly results of Norway’s largest salmon farmer Mowi. How much fish is left and looks nice enough to be sold as high-quality fish, the Mowi boss no longer wants to talk about.

– It is competitively sensitive, says Mowi CEO Ivan Vindheim to E24 after presenting the quarterly figures.

For years, Mowi has stated a detailed percentage for this. But as the share appears to be one of the historically worst for the company, this reporting has come to an abrupt end.

Vindheim explains that the proportion of fish of the highest quality (superior) has previously been fairly stable, and therefore believes that there has been no information for the market players in this figure.

– But now we have been through a very special quarter with pearl Normans, which then turn it completely upside down. Suddenly there is a lot of information there.

Vindheim says that people with such information can see what proportion of superior fish superior fishfish of the highest quality they will sell in the future, and that this may affect prices.

– You can’t be too open, he adds.

– Nothing to hide

The problems in the farming industry have led to several people advocating for more transparency.

– Then it is strange timing, when you have always reported the quality share before?

– We have already been open by saying that it has been a biologically difficult quarter. So we are completely open and transparent.

– But you see that it looks a bit strange, when it has not been competitively sensitive before, but only when the numbers are historically bad?

– Again, we have been crystal clear about our problems this year. The only thing we do not state is the superior numbers themselves.

These will now only be published in the annual report in the spring of 2025.

– But you agree that it is more important to be open now with the problems you are facing?

– Absolutely, I think it is always important to be open as far as possible. I would also dare to say that no one is more open in this industry than we are. We have nothing to hide.

Although Mowi is Norway’s largest breeder, the company does not sell the fish in this country. Everything is exported.

How much fresh fish?

Public statistics show record high mortality overall for the salmon farming industry last year. At the same time, new records are constantly being set in the proportion of wounded and damaged fish (so-called production fish) this year. At its worst, Mowi had a share of 48 per cent of production fish on a weekly basis, according to the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.

– Of the salmon slaughtered in the quarter, how much fish is left that is not damaged, full of wounds or dead before slaughter?

– These are figures we cannot provide. But at the same time, I would like to remind you that it is mainly the Perlesnormanet that has led to this situation. It is a natural phenomenon for which I ask for understanding.

It has been 20 years since the last time Pearl Normans flocked to the coast on the same scale as last winter.

– Sometimes completely unexpected things happen. You can do a lot of preparation, but sometimes lightning strikes, says Vindheim.

The Mowi boss does not expect such a jellyfish attack to happen again anytime soon, but is in any case more prepared now. Monitoring and opportunities for shielding are among the measures that are ready in that case.

– Our colleagues have worked around the clock to do everything in their power to take care of the fish, values ​​and jobs. They think it has been really tough. I think it is important that people also show some understanding of that.

– That no one is left with the impression that this is something that we inflict on ourselves.

More polarized

Vindheim calls for more sympathy with the breeders when unforeseen things happen. He has also noticed a clear change in people’s attitudes in recent years. When algae led to massive salmon deaths in 2019, the situation was different.

– Do you believe the debate around the basic interest tax contributed to it?

– Yes, it polarized the whole of Norway, I think most people agree with that.

– Do you take self-criticism for the rhetoric that was used in that debate?

– I think everyone should go a little in their own right in relation to that process there. Us too. And I’m absolutely sure that if we were to do it again, everyone would have done much better by now.

He thinks the problem was that they came out “crooked from the jumping edge”, so that it was very polarized from the start. Here he calls for a more thorough process up front.

Now Vindheim has faith that the new fisheries minister will take up an arrangement with environmental flexibility, so that it will really pay off to invest in new technology to make the industry more sustainable.