Aquaculture farm. (Photo Credit: PJSC Russian Aquaculture)
RUSSIAN FEDERATIONMonday, May 04, 2015, 02:20 (GMT + 9)
PJSC Russian Aquaculture reported a year-on-year 6.5 per cent increase in revenue, which reached RUB 19.22 billion (USD 374 million) and a 49 per cent growth in operating profit, which was RUB 2.8 billion (USD 54 million), the highest value in its history.
The operating EBITDA was RUB 945 million (USD 18 million) compared to RUB 457 million (USD 8.9 million) a year before.
However, the firm’s annual report outlines a net loss of RUB 407 million (USD 7.9 million) compared to a 2013 profit of RUB 453 million (USD 8.8 million). This result reflects a negative impact of a significant loss associated to currency exchange rates, which was RUB 472 million (Rub 48 million in 2013).
Russian aquaculture informed early this year on its RUB 13 billion (USD 253 million) investment plans in fish farming by 2020 and increase production more than four times – to 21.000 tonnes of fish per year.
These investment plans include building a fodder factory with capacity of 80.000 tonnes per year, and facilities for production of 12 million smolts per year.
A spokesperson from the firm explained that this move will make the company less dependent on import from aboard, as Russia lacks its own production of quality fish fodder and smolt, which have been imported from Norway.
However, Forbes reported that after the Russian commercial embargo on several Western countries in 2014, which affected salmon and trout smolt imports, the firm managed to have them excluded from the list of banned imports two weeks later.
The Moscow-located company, founded in 1997 was formerly known as OJSC Russian Sea Group and changed its name to PJSC Russian Aquaculture in February 2015 is a subsidiary of RSEA Holdings Limited.
Together with its subsidiaries, the firm produces and distributes fish and seafood products primarily in the Russian Federation and operates in two segments, Chilled and Frozen Fish Distribution, and Fish Farming. It offers salmon, trout, cod, herring, shrimp, squid, mackerel, pollock, and flounder.
The company is also involved in the fish farming activities, selling and distributing fish and seafood to national and regional retail chains, regional distributors, and fish processing companies.
Russian Aquaculture has licenses to 29 lots for fish farming. The main areas are Karelia, where the company farms trout in lakes, and in fjords on the coast of the Barents Sea, where they have several plants for production of salmon.