It's a pleasure for me to welcome you to Austevoll Seafood's fourth-quarter presentation. I would first start by giving you the highlights of the quarter. Thereafter I would take you through the different segments in the group, telling you about the performance and a bit about the status so far this year from fourth-quarter.
Britt Kathrine Drivenes will take you through more in detail the numbers, and I will end this session by giving our view on the different markets we are operating within. Starting up, I would say that we have had a year marked by quite good performance of the companies in the North Atlantic, and particularly on Pelagic. Chile has been performing well.
I would say that Austral, our Peruvian entity, has been marked by an El Niño period which has made the figures this year tremendously different from last year. I will come back to that later. We also have various biological challenges, in particular in the west coast of Norway with the salmon farming. Come back to that as well. But all in all, this quarter we are delivering a revenue of NOK 8.7 billion.
An operational EBITDA more or less on the same level as last year, on NOK 1.2 billion, and an operational EBIT of NOK 804 million. Including 50% of the EBITDA from Pelagia, you can see that all in all the numbers are more or less similar from last quarter or four-quarter last year.
Total EBITDA of NOK 1.4 billion, whereof NOK 1.2 billion is coming from Lerøy, and approximately NOK 230 million is coming from our Pelagic operation. I will come back to that later. Looking at the full year, revenue close to NOK 34 billion, up from NOK 31 billion. An operational EBITDA down with approximately NOK 800 million. It's more or less explained by the different performance from our company in Peru, Austral from 2022 to 2023.
Operational EBIT NOK 3.6 billion, total assets of NOK 53 billion. Net interest bearing debt of NOK 6.7 billion, and an equity ratio down from 59% to 51%. Explained a lot by the implementation of the resource tax. Looking into the result, you can see, and including 50% share of Pelagia, you can see that the EBITDA from salmon whitefish is more or less on the same level as last year.
The difference is again from Austral, explaining the reduction from 2022 to 2023 of NOK 800 million. Total EBITDA from the Pelagic activity on NOK 1.3 billion in total. Looking into our operational overview, our company is a lot, and our activity is dependent on volume. Last year, in 2023, we had a lower volume through our group. Mainly explained again by Peru. We caught on our own vessel, on our own quota, approximately 250,000 tons.
Next year we are expecting an increase of 170,000 tons, being close to 430,000 tons of own fish. Last year we were processing in our Pelagic factories approximately 1.7 million tons in Chile, Peru, and in the North Atlantic. Next year we hope to increase that with 200,000 tons. We also had a record year in terms of catch on our 10 trawlers, 76,000 tons.
Less cod compensated by redfish and also saithe. We're in addition to our own catch producing approximately 20,000 tons in our whitefish factories. Salmon volume in 2023 was 180,000 tons, aiming to increase that to 200,000 tons in 2024. Looking into the different segments, starting up with Peru and looking at the biomass and also the quotas going forward and looking into the past.
As I told you in the start, it's been a challenging, I would say, fishing situation in Peru due to the El Niño period we have had, I would say, throughout the whole year. Normally in Peru there are two seasons a year. The first season in 2023 failed due to warm waters. Second season in 2023, they estimated a biomass of 7.1 million tons, which is in line with the historical average the last three years. The fish is not disappearing.
The distribution of the fish consists of smaller fish and is more spread than normal. The quota was set at 1.68 million tons, which was 23% of the total biomass, which normally is a low volume. But it's explained with the El Niño period we had and also that it was a lot of juveniles in the schools of anchovy, which makes it very challenging. Of the quota of just below 1.7 million tons, 76% were caught.
It's been a challenging, I would say, fishing season with a lot of closed zones due to the inclusion of juveniles in the fishing zones. We caught 86,000 tons, approximately 72% of our quota. It's down from 110,000 tons in '22. Purchased more or less the same level at 36,000 tons. Our content of high-quality fish meal was 64% versus 61% the season before.
Combined fish meal and oil yield, more or less on the same level as same period last year, 24.1%. It's fair to say that fish oil yield was extremely low during, I would say, boat season in '23. In terms of the expectation for next year, we are increasing our volume expectation mainly due to the weather forecast is improving. We are estimating in our papers approximately 2 million tons first quota and maybe 2 million tons second quota.
Of course it depends on the research IMARPE is doing now starting up the 18th of February. We are expecting that the quota will be set in the beginning of April. Positive news in terms of the El Niño is that it's expecting to be coming down to neutral down in April when the catches are supposed to start.
We are expecting better conditions to catch in Peru going forward compared with what we saw last year. Operation in Chile, we had by the last 15 days in December we were catching 18,000 tons. This was a volume we were purchasing from third-party fishermen and caught it with their own vessel by the end of the year. All in all we more or less caught the same volume in '23 as we did in 2022.
I would say looking at the graph on the right-hand side you can see that we have had a steady increase since the bottom in 2011 and are surpassing 800,000 tons of total quota in Chile now as an industry. If you include what we are expecting to purchase and catch with our own vessel for next year, we are aiming to catch and produce over 100,000 tons during 2024.
I would say it's quite good development in Chile the last few years in terms of both the biomass and also our operation. Looking at the North Atlantic Pelagic quotas, you can see that it's been quite stable total quota in the North Atlantic since 2019 until 2024. It's a variation between the species. But all in all in the North Atlantic quota has been just above 3.5 million tons.
This is the basis for our activity in Pelagia. Blue whiting season starting up, North Sea herring is up from last year. We are also considerably volume up in the Barents Sea capelin where we're going to catch with a total quota of 200,000 tons this year. Macro quota is down. NVG herring is down by 24%. The Icelandic capelin season seems not to be open this year.
That makes the foundation for Pelagia. Pelagia now is a quite large company holding, I would say, the whole value chain in the spectrum of producing fish meal, fish oil, producing human consumption products, filet and round pack mackerel, and also sophisticated high concentrate omega-3 products.
The aim of Pelagia is to create value out of the raw material we have available. I would say it has had quite good development. Looking at the intake of raw material for this quarter compared with the last quarter is a lower volume. Mainly explained by a higher intake in 2022 of the NVG herring. All in all 2023 fish in for fish meal and fish oil has been just below 1 million tons. It's been a very good year for this segment in the group.
Also looking into the direct human consumption in the quarter, the focus has been on Atlantic mackerel and also the herring. I would say that also started good during first quarter this year. A bit higher volume in fourth quarter compared with fourth quarter in '22. And all in all we received a volume which were partly lower than 2022. All in all we're delivering a revenue of NOK 4.2 million in fourth quarter.
The operational EBITDA is down by NOK 200 million. And we have an operational EBITDA of NOK 440 million. Lower income from fish meal and the human consumption activity. But in terms of the health division is delivering a bit better than last year. Also looking into full year, another good year for Pelagia. 1.7 million tons. And now NOK 1.7 billion in EBITDA and NOK 1.3 billion in EBIT. More or less on the same level as 2022.
When it comes to our salmon and whitefish activity, it's fair to say that we are not 100% satisfied with the performance, in particular in the West Coast. We have had biological challenges related to gill disease and also some ISA outbreak. At the end of the year we were also attacked by some jellyfish which increased the mortality more than expected by the end of the year.
But all in all, EBIT of NOK 765 million, down from NOK 822 million last year. Slaughter volume of 47,000 tons, whereof 12,000 tons is coming from Lerøy Aurora, 20,000 tons from Lerøy Midt, and also approximately 15,000 tons from Lerøy Sjøtroll. Spot price is up NOK 4 quarter on quarter and approximately NOK 9 comparing with same quarter last year. Also cost is up. Feed cost up approximately NOK 6 from Q4 2022.
If you look at EBIT per kilo, it's of course variation between the different regions. All in all on the value chain NOK 16.4. It's up from last year. Divided by approximately NOK 21 per kilo in Lerøy Aurora. NOK 26 per kilo in Lerøy Midt. And just below NOK 1 per kilo in Lerøy Sjøtroll. We have done a lot of measures to improve the biological, I would say, performance in our farming activity.
It goes through the whole value chain from genetics to the raw to the smolt. We are looking into shielded production technology. We are also looking at how we are treating the sea lice. All of this is going to hopefully bring us to the volume we are supposed to produce based on the MAB we are having in the group. Not satisfied with the performance in 2023.
Aiming to produce approximately 175,000 tons in Norway in 2024. We are also happy to see that it seems like the challenges we have had in Scotland the latest five to six quarters are now showing improvement into the first quarter. When it comes to the wild catch, it's fair to say that we have more or less caught the same volume in the fourth quarter. Less cod which is the most profitable as a consequence that the quota has gone down.
We have been, it's the third year the quota has been decreasing now. It has been partly compensated by the increase of prices. But during the fourth quarter this year I would say that price achievement was 11% down comparing with the same quarter last year. So it's been a more challenging situation for both our factories for whitefish and also our fishing vessels doing whitefish. Now I give the floor to Britt.
Ja, det var det. Han var på mute. Han var på mute, ja. OK. Beklager. Det funker, Runar. Den var på mute. Dere? Ja, han var på mute her, sant? Men du ber å telle ned når jeg skal begynne igjen, sant? Ja. Starter du 3.91 når du kommer inn? Ja. Så kan du late som du kommer inn igjen, så det egentlig klikket sammen. Sånn. Det bare å gå på. Det går helt fint.
OK. Thank you, Arne. As usual we start with this table summing up the raw material intake in the quarter compared with same quarter in 2022. Also the raw material intake for the full year 2023. To the right you can also see our estimates for raw material volumes in 2024. However, in Peru this is of course subject to the quotas for each season.
Subject to IMARPE's cruises and recommendation to the Peruvian government, Arne has gone through the key figures, so I will not repeat too much. What I can say is that the operational EBIT in fourth quarter came in at $804 million, more or less in line with $794 million in Q4 2022. I will comment on the income from joint venture and associated on the next slide. To sum up fourth quarter, the net profit was $767 million, up from $405 million.
You can see on the box below that the biomass adjustment had quite a big impact on the net result. In Q4 2023 it was positive with $250 million. In Q4 2022 it was negative with $210 million. Earnings per share in the quarter was NOK 2.1, up from NOK 1.3. However, if we adjust for the biomass adjustment, the earnings per share was NOK 1.6.
Down from NOK 1.8 million. Norskott Havbruk and Pelagia are the two largest joint ventures in the group, and they are reported separately. We are glad to see that there is a substantial increase in earnings in Norskott Havbruk in fourth quarter 2023 compared with fourth quarter 2022. The company has had a really challenging period from the autumn of 2022 and the whole of 2023.
You can see that also in the full year result from the company. Pelagia have had a very good year also in 2023, more or less in line with 2022. A little bit down in fourth quarter compared with fourth quarter in 2022, but for the full year more or less in line. Income from joint ventures and associates in fourth quarter was NOK 111 million, down from NOK 140 million. For the full year, substantially down. Total NOK 279 million.
As you can see, impacted by the challenging year in Norskott Havbruk , 2022 the income was NOK 483 million. We also now release our preliminary 2023 figures. I would like to highlight the turnover and operational EBITDA. In these figures we have included our 50% share of Pelagia Group. You can see we have increased our revenue from a little bit less than NOK 37 billion up to over NOK 40 billion.
The increase is coming from Lerøy Seafood Group. Most from Lerøy Seafood Group. Also some from Pelagia. Here you can actually see the big impact of that we didn't have a first fishing season in Peru in 2023. Also that El Niño impacted the catch in the south zone of Peru. We had a decrease in revenue from the Austral Group of almost NOK 1.6 billion in 2023 compared with 2022.
Looking at the operational EBITDA that was $6.9 billion in 2022 and decreased to $6.1 billion in 2023. You can see this is explained by the reduction in the earnings in Austral which totaled almost up to $850 million in 2023 compared with 2022. Operational EBIT for the full year came in at $3.6 billion, down from $4.8 billion, and again explained by the challenging year in Peru.
We have had an increased interest rate level in 2023 compared with higher net interest bearing debt that has given us higher net finance cost. In 2023 that was -$592 million, up from -$307 million in 2022. Profit before tax and fair value adjustment came in at $2.7 or almost $2.8 billion, down from $4.2 billion. Then we come to the tax cost which we usually don't talk too much about.
In 2023 we have actually talked about tax almost the full year, because the Norwegian government implemented a resource rent tax in May 2023 with the effect from January 1st, 2023. As you can see of our total tax cost, NOK 1.9 billion is this estimated resource rent tax on aquaculture.
This of course impacts on net result. The net result in 2023 came in at NOK 344 million, substantially down from NOK 4.3 billion in 2022. Again the biomass adjustment that was quite limited in '23, only NOK 77 million. Of course the net result in '22 was impacted by the positive biomass adjustment of almost NOK 1.2 billion. The main driver for Lerøy is of course slaughtered volume of salmon and trout, and also the catch volume of whitefish.
There has been a decrease of 11% of the slaughtered volume in fourth quarter '23 compared with same quarter in '22. The EBIT per kilo ex wild catch came in at NOK 16.4, up from NOK 15.6 in Q4 '22. The contract share was 22%. Cost level in the second half of '23 is significantly below first half of 2023. However, this inflation brings a year on year cost increase, and only the feed cost has increased by NOK 6 alone. Whitefish volumes are a little bit below same quarter in '22: 12,500 tons, down from 13,100 tons. This is subject to the reduction in the cod quota. Prices decreased by the end of the year and in total down 11% compared to Q4 '22. Revenue in fourth quarter of NOK 8.2 billion. Operational EBITDA just below NOK 1.2 billion and operational EBIT of NOK 765 million.
We were of course very glad that there was opened a second season in Peru in October. The raw material intake in fourth quarter came in at 95,000 tons, a little bit below the 103,000 tons in same quarter '22. The sales volumes are more or less in line with Q4 '22. However, the fish meal prices are up 18%. The production from second season in '23 will mostly be sold in 2024. The revenue in the quarter was $161 million.
Operational EBIT at zero and an operational EBITDA at zero and an operational EBIT of -$44 million. The company goes into 2024 with an inventory of fish meal and fish oil of 16,400 tons. Food Corp, they have their main season in first half of the year. However, as mentioned in our last quarterly presentation...
They went into an agreement to buy additional 19,500 tons of horse mackerel quota from third party. The company started catching this quota in December and caught 18,000 tons before the year end. Most of the raw material went in for production of fish meal and fish oil. The products will be sold in 2024. As normal, the fourth quarter is not giving positive results.
T here is a revenue of $88 million, an operational EBITDA of -$69 million, an operational EBIT of -$82 million. However, looking at the full year 2023, Food Corp has had yet another good year with good earnings. Operational EBIT came in at NOK 176 million, a little bit up from NOK 162 million in 2022. Br. Birkeland Farming is located on the west coast of Norway. They have slaughtered 2,200 tons of salmon in fourth quarter.
That is down 30% compared to Q4 2022. The EBIT per kilo came in at NOK 20.3, down from NOK 25.8 in same quarter in 2022. The revenue in the quarter is impacted by an attack of jellyfish that caused some mortality in the quarter. The company has had a very good 2023. They have slaughtered a lower volume, 7,400 tons, but the EBIT came in at NOK 36 compared to NOK 35 in 2022.
The two pelagic fishing vessels have been in operation in fourth quarter. They have caught their remaining quotas of mackerel and herring. The price achievement has been good and up from 2022. Looking at the snow crab operation, the fishery was stopped 1st of April because the total Norwegian quota of snow crab was caught at that time. Those vessels have not been in operation since April.
The price achievement for snow crab started to decrease in 2022. This continued into 2023. This operation has been really challenging over time and given negative results. The revenue in Q4 for the company was $113 million. The operational EBITDA was $39 million. The operational EBIT came in at $24 million. Looking at our statement of financial position, the total assets are close to $53 billion, up from $48 billion by the end of 2022. We have done investment in tangible fixed assets, among others for almost $2 billion in 2023. Of course tangible fixed assets has increased. We have been touching into this inflation trend that has given us higher prices for our products. But of course it has also given higher cost on all our input factors in the production. That means the biologic asset in sea have a higher cost.
We also have higher receivables. Our cash position has increased compared to end of 2022. The net interest bearing debt by the end of the year is $6.7 billion, up from $5.1 billion in 2022. The increase comes from Lerøy Seafood Group which has built up working capital, and also a substantial increase in Austral Group in Peru because of a very difficult year for that operation.
The equity came in at $27 billion with an equity ratio of 51%. Looking at the cash flow for the full year, the cash from operating activities came in at $3.2 billion. As I mentioned, we have built working capital by the end of 2023. Tax payable taxes are more or less in line with 2022: $739 million in 2023, a little bit down from $775 million in 2022.
Cash from investing activities came in at $1.5 billion. As I mentioned, we have invested in CapEx close to $2 billion. We have also received some dividends, and most of that is coming from Pelagia. Cash from financing activities is -$551 million. Both Lerøy Seafood Group and Austevoll Seafood has issued new bond loans in first half of 2023. Lerøy Seafood has issued bond of $1.5 billion. Austevoll Seafood issued new bonds of $850 million. We started the year with a cash position of $4.3 billion. We ended the year with a cash position of almost $5.5 billion. As mentioned to the right here, the board will recommend to the annual shareholders meeting in 2024 a dividend of NOK 4.5 per share.
I will end this session by giving a view on the different market we are operating within. Starting off with the fish meal market. Normally Peru is by far the dominant producer. As you can see here it's a reduction of more than 51% in 2023 versus 2022. I would say although quota was a bit lower in Peru last season, I would say we are satisfied that we were able to catch 76% of the quota if you look at the parameters of the fish and the temperatures. What's quite interesting to see also is that prices has been, the gap between high quality and low quality meal has been increasing. Of course pushing us to produce more super prime and prime going forward. More or less all the meal is sold and waiting for the next season.
Looking at the main market China, I would say China is more or less at the same stock level this year than it was last year. 176,000 tons. You can also see that prices are higher than what they are selling in Peru. Also stimulating to more trade. Ending up with some macro pictures on the Chinese import. Approximately 1.6 million tons in 2023. 10% decrease compared with 2022. You can see that the participation of Peru is lower now than it was in 2022. Same development in fish oil. All in all down 20%. Peru is down 85%. So 14,000 tons in Peru produced in the whole 2023 versus just below 100,000 tons in 2022. 2022 was also not a high production year. Prices very high in Peru based on the fish oil in Peru.
It's more driven by the lack of supply than the demand. Looking into salmon, the expectation for '24 is an increase of 2.3%. Europe is up with 4.8%. Yet to of course be seen if this will be happening. At least I would say that this expected growth will stimulate good prices for '24. Looking at the price development you can see that the first two quarters of the year prices remain very high.
You can see the two last quarters it stabilized on a lower level. It seems like this has been stabilizing the last two to three years where you are having variation in price from first half to second half. Looking at the demand when production is coming down, I would say that the overseas market has been taking their shares.
of the production on behalf of EU customers. So all in all I would say we are not satisfied with the performance we have delivered in the salmon company during 2024. But have done a lot of measures to improve. It's coming from the genetic selection all or improving our procedures on our hatchery. Lower temperature in our smolt facilities. New farming technology.
Also changing how we are delicing the lice in open ocean. I think some of all measurements should bring us a bit closer to our targets or closer to our targets which we initiated one and a half years ago to approximately 205,000 tons in 2025. Challenging for the white fish. Cod down with 30%. Haddock down with 20%. I think it's going to be difficult that it's going to be compensated by higher prices.
It's going to be a higher competition to process and purchase this fish in the white fish factories. When it comes to South America we hopefully are aiming to put back the El Niño starting up the new season with the normal temperature. We are of course excited what the quota will be.
Also what the final catches will be from the first season. But seems like we will have neutral conditions now after I would say two seasons now with very challenging conditions. In Chile increase of quota was 15%. Which is again following the same pattern that it's been doing the last five years. Also expecting a good raw material year for Pelagia. More or less on the same level as we had in 2023. So that was all, thank you for following.