– The company’s consolidated income showed revenues of US$ 674.4 million, which represents a growth of 2% compared to the previous year.

– The fishing area presented a better performance than the aquaculture segment, driven, among other factors, by an increase in the mackerel quota.

This Thursday, Blumar, a fishing and salmon company, presented its results at the end of December 2023 and showed consolidated income of US$ 674.4 million. This represents an increase of 2% compared to the same period in 2022 and reflects good performance of the fishing segment, which reached revenues of US$ 308.6 million last year, growing 20% ​​compared to the previous year. 

One of the points that has influenced in the better performance of the fishing segment – which represents 46% of Blumar’s consolidated income – is the sustained increase in the quota of  mackerel assigned to Chile. Only between 2022 and 2023 it increased by 23.4%, consolidating the country’s competitive position and allowing Blumar’s frozen horse mackerel production to increase by 20% at the end of 2023 compared to 2022. 

“The fishing segment is in a good moment, with good prices and with a lot of projection to continue promoting products for human consumption, which is a huge opportunity for regional development. Fishing was the second activity that grew the most in Chile in 2023 and, therefore, we believe that the focus should be on having a good Fishing es Law, which enhances all the attributes that the country has as a sustainable fishing power,” commented the general manager of Blumar, Gerardo Balbontín.

The aquaculture segment, which represented 54% of the company’s turnover, exhibited a more challenging scenario, with an 8% drop in its income at the end of 2023 compared to 2022, reaching US$ 365.9 million. The decrease is mainly due to a lower sales volume of salmon. 

The increase in salmon production costs, which by 2023 rose 14% for Atlantic salmon compared to the same period of the previous year, impacted the segment’s Ebitda margin and therefore the company’s consolidated profit, which in 2023 reached US$91.1 million, 29% lower than in 2022. During the year, the company recorded net profits of US$13.1 million.

In 2023, Blumar made investments of US$ 35.6 million, aimed to keep the operational level, growth in productive capacity in fishing and the acquisition of an open flow fish farm, called “Puyehue Fish Farm”, located in the Los Lagos Region. This facility will initially provide 30% of the company’s smolt requirement, which is equivalent to about 5 million fish per year. 

The other gains and losses for the period amount to MUSD -11,194 and compare negatively with the same period in 2022. This amount corresponds mainly to losses from accidents, which reflected the loss associated with the algae bloom that affected the Victoria center in the last days of December 2023. The loss for this concept corresponds to the associated insurance deductibles for which a provision of MUSD -8,802 has been determined.

“We have faced important challenges in the aquaculture segment, given mainly by the increase in the cost of feed and inflationary pressure in various other costs, but which we are addressing in different ways and focused on recovering the competitiveness of the segment, through more efficiency, cost reduction and incorporation of technology. Part of that is what we did by incorporating a new fish farm and launching a remote feeding room, which will allow us to generate savings in salmon feed, which is one of the most important costs for the operation,” said Gerardo Balbontín. 

It is worth to mention that, although it was an event that did not happen in the reported period, in February of this year, the Entrevientos plant, which Blumar operated jointly with MultiX, was affected by an unfortunate fire that completely destroyed the facility, which was the most modern process plant in the country.

“The Entrevientos incident is a painful event, which impacted more than 750 jobs and meant a significant cost for the company. We faced this responsibly, put people at the center and generated an exit plan that involved voluntary compensation and other aid aimed at mitigating the situation. In addition, we are working on various plans to ensure operational continuity in Magallanes, looking for the best formulas to continue promoting the development of this territory,” emphasized the general manager of Blumar.