Australian yellowtail kingfish producer Clean Seas Seafood reported record sales and positive cash flow for the first time since 2018 in the first quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, due partly to product diversification and price increases.
The Australia and Norway-listed company reported revenue of AUD 15 million (€9.6 million/$11.2 million) during the first quarter of 2022, a 50 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Revenue per kilogram, however, declined by 4 percent versus the same period last year.
Sales volume reached a record 1,066 metric tons year-to-date, up 44 percent over the same period in fiscal 2021 and 62 percent over the same period in fiscal 2020.
Clean Seas' domestic market is still seeing ongoing impacts of lockdowns in premium restaurants, which traditionally is its largest business segment. In Australia, the company will launch for four new frozen and hot smoked products in Woolworths prior to Christmas.
The company began farming at its new full lifecycle location in Fitzgerald Bay, allowing it to potentially triple production. Activating this location has the potential to increase total production to 10,000 metric tons annually, the company said in its report.
Clean Seas completed a capital raise earlier this year and now has AUD 32.6 million (€20.2 million/$24 million) in cash and AUD 17.7 million (€11 million/$13 million) of undrawn facilities.
This year, the company undertook a secondary listing of its shares on the Euronext Growth Exchange in Oslo. Norwegian seafood conglomerate Hofseth came onboard as a minority investor and Norwegian Sparebank 1 Markets and Australian brokerage Bell Potter assisted with the listing.
Clean Seas is headquartered at its processing facility in in Adelaide. Its hatchery is at Arno Bay and its fish farms are situated at Port Lincoln, Arno Bay and Fitzgerald Bay on the Eyre Peninsula.
