Faroese salmon farmer Bakkafrost stopped selling salmon to customers in Russia as of last Thursday, after the country's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
In 2021, around 10 percent of the company's salmon sales went to the Russian market, Bakkafrost CEO Regin Jacobsen told IntraFish.
"We were shocked by the move from Russia and on Thursday we informed customers we could not send salmon to Russia," Jacobsen said.
"The further developments in the following days have been shocking for everyone... we hope and pray for the people of Ukraine and we stand with them."
Bakkafrost has been selling its products to Russia for more than 20 years, and built up many strong relationships in the country over that time.
However, Jacobsen said the situation which started last week was "extraordinary" and very shocking.
"We were really, really, shocked seeing the images of hundreds and thousands of people needing to flee a democratic country. This has been shocking for us.
"We are no longer selling any products to Russia, and that situation will continue from our side - the situation with Russia is not going to normalize in the short term."
With roughly 10 percent of Bakkafrost's sales in 2021 going to Russia, the group will now have to find other markets for those products.
The company already sells a lot of salmon products to Europe, Asia and the US, and will plan to increase sales to these same markets instead, "that will be how we deal with this," said Jacobsen.
For 2021, Bakkafrost increased its revenue 19 percent to DKK 5.56 billion (€747.5 million/$839.9 million) while its operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) climbed 27 percent to DKK 1.4 billion (€188.2 million/$211.5 million).
