The operating profit of NOK 831 million is an increase of 44 per cent from the same period last year. Strong demand for seafood has led to significantly better price achievement for the group’s main products compared to the same period last year. In the stock exchange announcement, Lerøy writes that the salmon price has fallen significantly since the second quarter, but that it is still higher than last year. The company estimates that the company will have slaughtered 202,000 tonnes (GWT) of salmon and trout in 2023. This is a reduction of 5,000 tonnes compared to 2022. The figures are presented a week after Lerøy Seafood Group announced the layoff of 339 employees at three of its facilities from the new year. The farming giant justifies the redundancies with the government’s desire to introduce ground rent tax on aquaculture from the new year. It is also called salmon tax, because it is in salmon farming that the profit must be taxed more heavily. This is the government’s “salmon tax” proposal: In the state budget for 2021, the government will propose to introduce a production tax of 40 øre per kg of salmon, trout and rainbow trout produced. The proceeds are estimated at around NOK 500 million. The fee will be introduced with effect from 1 January 2021 and will be paid as a tax in arrears in 2022. The fee will be paid to the aquaculture municipalities and county municipalities in 2022. The production fee will go into the Aquaculture Fund and be distributed according to the allocation keys that apply in the fund at all times. Since 2017, the aquaculture municipalities have received a share of the income from the sale of new permits and increased capacity in existing permits through the Aquaculture Fund. The production fee will also cover production from previous permits that have been awarded free of charge or at a low price. The aquaculture municipalities and county municipalities will receive NOK one billion in each of the years 2020 and 2021 through the Aquaculture Fund. Of sales and auction revenues from increased capacity and new permits from and including 2022, 75 per cent accrues to the state and 25 per cent to municipalities and county councils. No profit-based ground rent tax is proposed. Source: regjeringen.no Wants the salmon tax to be postponed Lerøy feels that the proposal has weaknesses characterized by a lack of insight into the dynamics of the industry. Group leader Henning Beltestad says the government’s proposal leads to uncertainty and a breach of trust. – The consequences are very serious for Lerøy and our employees, and our expectation is that implementation of the proposal will be postponed so that a thorough consultation round can be carried out with subsequent consideration and a broad settlement in the Storting, says Beltestad. Group manager Henning Beltestad. Photo: Trygve Hellestræ / news Corner stone company Lerøy Aurora on Skjervøy is laying off 158 of its employees in just over a month. Then only 22 employees will remain at the plant. Managing director Kurt-Einar Karlsen has previously told news that it is not possible to get new contracts for salmon processing. General manager at Lerøy Aurora, Kurt-Einar Larsen. Photo: Hans-Ludvig Andreassen / news – To be in a situation where I have to give layoff notices to the same employees who have helped build the adventure on Skjervøy, I think is absolutely terrible, said Karlsen. In 2021, Lerøy Seafood Group ASA had a profit after tax of NOK 1.42 billion. The company paid out 1.49 billion in ordinary dividends to its owners. The company has 74 percent equity. The CEO of NHO, Ole Erik Almlid, has expressed concern about the consequences of the ground rent tax on top of the tax expenditure that already exists. He believes the government should postpone the introduction, and carry out a proper impact assessment of the proposal before it is sent to the Storting. “Norwegian private owners and ordinary people’s workplaces are the foundation of Norwegian business, and the basis of life for many coastal communities,” Almlid told news when the layoff notice to Lerøy became known.
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Still laying off hundreds of employees – news Troms and Finnmark
