Fishmeal and fish oil. (Photo: Daybrook Fisheries)

Daybrook obtains record landings in new season

SOUTH AFRICA
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 22:30 (GMT + 9)

Fishmeal and fish oil firm Daybrook, a subsidiary of Oceana Group in the United States, experienced record landings of Gulf menhaden in the new fishing season, which started in mid-April. 

This was reported by Oceana’s acting CEO Imraan Soomra, who expressed hope these landing levels will continue, given the Louisiana-based firm, United States, can be susceptible to disruptive weather during that region’s hurricane season, Business Day reported.

In his view, Daybrook would also benefit from off- season capital spending of USD 2 million on efficiencies and throughput at the production plant.

Meanwhile, management expected an improvement on fishmeal and oil prices compared with 2017, with oil yields expected to improve markedly to 11 per cent-13 per cent from 7 per cent a year ago and the meal yield holding steady.

To increase fishing production, Soomra said fishing vessels were now heading out on Sunday nights instead of Monday mornings and returning on Friday evenings rather than on Friday afternoons.

On the other hand, Westbank, the company that catches Gulf menhaden for Daybrook, was also staggering the docking times of fishing vessels to ensure more efficient offloading of fish. In the interim period, the Daybrook operations were fairly inactive, with the fishing season closed from November to mid-April.

Daybrook’s board pointed out that revenue was 8 per cent down on the previous interim period in dollar terms, with the reduced oil yield in the 2017 fishing season contributing to lower opening oil inventory levels. This meant that despite strong 2017 landings, Daybrook’s sales volumes of fish meal and fish oil in the interim period were in line with the previous year at 31,315 tonnes.

Soomra said that since a large portion of fishmeal and fish oil sales were concluded in advance, sales prices were adversely affected by the lag effect of lower prices contracted in the latter part of 2017.

Consequently, Daybrook’s operating profit reduced to USD 10 million, representing a decline of 38 per cent on the interim period in the 2017 financial year.

The strong rand-dollar exchange rate was also a factor, and operating profit was halved in rand terms.

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