NZ King Salmon's farm in the Tory Channel has provided cooler waters for its stocks amid marine heatwaves. Photo: Supplied to RNZ
New Zealand King Salmon says it has had a strong end to the trading season despite continuing marine heatwaves.
The Marlborough-based fish farm said its revised farming model provided for a shorter production cycle to avoid warmer waters in the Pelorus and Queen Charlotte sounds over summer.
Under the revised method, the company held the majority of its stocks in cooler waters of the Tory Channel over the critical summer months.
It was therefore expecting to report a smaller underlying first-half loss of between $3 million-$5m for the period ended January, compared with a previous guidance of $8m to $12m loss.
It said the revised harvest outperformed its expectations by about 50 percent to 750 metric tonnes (MT), bringing the total harvest for the year to about 6000MT.
The company will provide a further business update when it issues its first-half report at the end of March.