Peruvian fishing company Pesquera Exalmar reported a 31 percent decline in fourth quarter 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), citing a range of factors.
EBITDA slipped to $63 million (€58.1 million) from $91.3 million (€84.2 million) in the same period of 2018.
Exalmar blamed the earnings slide on "the greater fishing effort because of the dispersion of the resource, presence of juveniles that caused temporary closures, as well as the increase in purchase price of raw materials, and, mainly a decrease in fishmeal prices."
This came despite an 11 percent increase in sales to $266.1 million (€245.6 million).
Sales of fish for human consumption climbed 244 percent during the period, while sales of raw material to the feed and other industries rose 5 percent.
Exalmar has launched an internal probe after a company employee was named in media reports linked to the anchovy quota fixing scandal.
It comes amid an official investigation into the alleged manipulation of data that led to the overstatement of biomass and quotas.
Allegations have been brought into even sharper focus by a decision in mid-January to cut Peru's second north central zone anchovy season short with only 36 percent of the 2.78 million metric tons harvested because of the abundance of juvenile fish.
The quota was set on the basis of a biomass of 8.3 million metric tons, which, according to reports, officials at Peru's Marine Institute (Imarpe) knew was too high.
