Okay. It's a pleasure for me to welcome you all for the third quarter financial presentation for Austevoll Seafood. We are doing this presentation from our main office here in Austevoll. I will start my presentation by taking you through the highlights in the quarter. Thereafter, I will go more in detail through the performance in the different segments in the quarter. Britt will take you more in detail through the different numbers. I will end the presentation by giving our view on the markets in the segments we are operating within. Starting off talking about the third quarter performance, it's always important for us to mention that third quarter is always a seasonally low fishing quarter, and I would say all over the different regions.
The operation is quite quiet both when it comes to the pelagic activity and when it comes to the whitefish activity during this quarter. When it comes to the salmon performance, I would say we are in a good track. The biological performance has been improving during third quarter and also into the fourth quarter when it comes to Lerøy's performance. It also gives us a good foundation going into 2021. Looking at the quarter, we have a revenue of NOK 5.5 billion, an EBITDA of just below NOK 800 million and an EBIT of NOK 415 million. Pre-tax profit of NOK 393 million, which is down approximately NOK 80 million compared with last quarter in a similar quarter 2019. If you go down on the page and include our 50% share in Pelagia, you see we are delivering an EBITDA of NOK 842 million.
It's approximately NOK 140 million lower than the similar quarter last year. It's divided between NOK 100 million less from Lerøy mainly due to weaker performance from the whitefish segments and approximately NOK 35 million-40 million less from the pelagic activity in the group. I will come back to that when I'm going through the different company in detail. Looking at the full year so far. Year to date third quarter, you see we have a revenue below last year around NOK 16.7 billion, an EBITDA of NOK 2.8 billion, EBIT of just below NOK 1.7 billion and a pre-tax profit of just below one and a half billion NOK. Have a strong balance sheet. Total assets just short of NOK 40 billion and an equity share of just below 60% and net interest-bearing debt of NOK 4.6 billion.
Including the 50% share of Pelagia, you see that EBITDA in the first nine months is around NOK 3 billion. It's approximately NOK 560 million less than last year. Whereof NOK 350 million is coming from the Lerøy activity and approximately NOK 200 million less compared with the first nine months in 2019 is coming from the pelagic activity. Two drivers behind the result in the pelagic activity is that there's been pressure on the fishmeal margins in Pelagia which has cost, I would say, NOK 100 million in less contribution. Also due to the weaker catches in first quarter and the last quarter of 2018, there has been lower sales in Peru which also explain approximately NOK 100 million of the NOK 200 million difference from this year compared with last year. Going through the operational overview of the group.
Summing up, I would say that we are aiming to catch around 400,000 tons of pelagic fish on our own quota with our own vessels during 2020. We will process approximately 1.8 million tons of pelagic fish on our factories. We will catch with our vessels and produce on our whitefish plants approximately 100,000 tons of whitefish. We are aiming to end up with just above 190,000 tons of salmon harvested in 2020. Starting off going through the pelagic segments, again, I would focus less on our performance in third quarter and more on the view for the next quarter to come. Looking at the quota which was set on last Sunday, you can see it's on a similar level, both the quota size and also the total biomass identified by IMARPE this season compared with the same season last year.
Quota was just below 2.8 million tons, which gives a total of 5.2 million tons from the Peru quota during 2020, which is on a higher level if you compare the last five years. Second season will start up midnight today. I would say we have all the vessels ready. It's a bit later start up this season compared with last season. Quota is the same. If you look at the last season, it was just above 900,000 tons, which were caught of the 2.8 million tons, which was set at that time. At that time, it was a higher percentage of juveniles. The fish was also more spread.
We have no reason to believe that this will be the same this year. Of course, it's going to be exciting to see how the fishing pattern will develop, I would say, in the first three weeks of the season. The COVID-19 situation is severe, and it is a quite heavy logistics in order to be prepared for the season. I would say we are well prepared and better prepared now than it was first season last year. It's been some human consumption catches during third quarter and also into the fourth quarter, bringing the total volume up to just below 19 tons of horse mackerel and mackerel during the year compared with the same year last year. When it comes to the catches in Peru, on this side of the year, we are aiming to catch around 140,000 tons by the year end.
Chile, again, I would emphasize and say that they've been performing very well this year, both when it comes to catches, production, higher intake into frozen, which has brought better margins, and it's reflected in a number Britt will provide for you later on during the financial figures. Again, I would say that they've done a very good job in Chile so far in 2020 compared also with the previous years we have been comparing with. fourth quarter is normally a maintenance quarter, so we are expecting, I would say, a negative impact on earnings as always during fourth quarter in Chile. Quota situation is good. We are expecting 15% increase for 2021, still not yet implemented. That will also bring our own quota up to just below 40,000 tons for 2021.
Looking into the North Atlantic quotas, which is, I would say, the foundation for raw material intake, both for pelagic vessels and also for Pelagia with the fishmeal and fish oil activity, and also the human consumption activity. Summing up for the most important species, I would say that winter herring is up by 21%, which the Norwegian vessels has a high percentage of. North Sea herring is down by 5%, mackerel is down by 9%, and blue whiting is down by approximately 20%, which is the most important species for the fishmeal factories. Summing up, I would say more volume in for human consumption and maybe less for fishmeal during 2021 compared with 2020. I would say it's reasonable low quarter for fishmeal activity, mainly we're producing based on trimmings.
We're also expecting that trimmings will be the main raw material source for our activity in fourth quarter. Volume-wise, it's going to be a high intake of raw material for fishmeal and fish oil during 2020. I would say market-wise, it has a negative price trend into third quarter. Prices were dropping due to a good performance from Peru and also a disadvantage in the development of the currency exchange rate. I would also say that we have sold less volume in this quarter compared with what we did last quarter or the third quarter in 2019. It's less frame contracts and more spot trade during the quarter. When it comes to human consumption activity, I would say I will not spend a lot of time talking about third quarter. More into fourth quarter, I would say, which is the most important quarter for this segment.
About 50% of the total volumes is caught during fourth quarter and the main species is mackerel and winter herring. So far, it's been an okay succession of the execution of the season. Looking at the numbers in the quarter, you can see that earnings is a bit down. NOK 106 in EBITDA and NOK 44 in EBIT in the quarter, mainly driven by lower margin on fishmeal and also less volume of sales for fishmeal and oil during the quarter. Looking at year to date third quarter, you also see that it's considerably lower in the third quarter, the earnings. However, we had a gain of sales of NOK 105 million in the second quarter in 2019. Adjusting that out, it's approximately NOK 134 million weaker performance earnings in Pelagia, mainly due to the effect from the fishmeal industry. Jumping to Lerøy and Lerøy's performance.
Again, I would say that when it comes to the biological performance of Lerøy, it's in a positive development, also as expected and also as indicated in the second quarter last year. We are delivering EBIT of NOK 370 million which is down from NOK 501 million in the same quarter in 2019. It's mainly driven by approximately NOK 90 million weaker performance from the whitefish segment. We'll come back to that later. Looking at harvest volume, it's more or less in line of what we did last year approximately 1,700 tons less. We have been slaughtering in the quarter approximately 8,000 tons in the north of Norway, approximately 12,000 tons in mid Norway, and 14,000 tons in the west coast of Norway. EBIT per kilo is marginally less than it was same period last year and an EBIT per kilo of NOK 9.2 all over the regions.
Again, big difference between different regions. EBIT per kilo of 13 NOK in Lerøy Aurora and 11 NOK in Lerøy Midt and it's negative by 3 NOK in Lerøy Sjøtroll. Saying that, I would say that Lerøy Sjøtroll has been harvesting on a very challenging generation during this quarter. Going forward, we are expecting a better performance for our slaughtering on the next generation in fourth quarter. I would say all in all, biological performance better this quarter in all regions and gives us also a good foundation going into fourth quarter and into 2021. As you can see on the expectation of 2021, you are seeing that we are increasing our slaughtering volume with approximately 22,000 tons in Norway and approximately 5,000 tons in our shares in Scotland. All in all, we will have an increase of approximately 27,000 tons in 2021 versus 2020.
Some comments on the whitefish segment in Lerøy. As you can see in the quarter on an EBIT side, it's a considerably lower performance. There is some explanation by that. I would first enhance the COVID-19 effect in the market. We have seen that prices has been significantly dropped from the top in first quarter. Cod prices and saithe prices is down with 22%, and haddock prices is down by 42%. Another effect is that we had a much higher percentage of cod and haddock in the first quarter, leaving less fish in for the third quarter. It's been also different product mix, and we have been catching on lower priced species such as shrimp and redfish. If you look year to date 2020, you can see that the performance is more than only lower so far this year.
Still, I would say that COVID-19 is having effect on prices, but we are expecting that this effect will improve a bit, or the prices will improve a bit into fourth quarter and also into the new year. I will give the word to Britt.
Thank you, Arne. As usual, we start with this table that summarizes the raw material intake in the quarter and year to date, and also our expectations for the full year of 2020. As you can see from wild catch, there is a raw material intake of 267,000 tons. That is up from 247,000 tons. The increase comes from Peru. They finalized their first fishing season in July. For the total year, we expect around 1.9 million tons from the wild catch operation, up from 1.7 million tons in 2019. However, this is of course subject to the development of the upcoming fishing season in Peru now in fourth quarter and January. Arne has already gone through the key figures, so I will start at the EBIT level. The EBIT in third quarter is NOK 415 million, down from NOK 559 million in the same quarter last year.
The fall in earnings can be explained by lower earnings from the whitefish segment, as Arne has already mentioned. That has been a very difficult market. There has also been a different catch composition and lower harvesting rates. In addition, we have harvested from the spring 2019 generation with salmon in Sjøtroll, and we have harvested on very low weights and had a high cost on that generation, which has also negatively impacted the earnings in the quarter. If we look at income from associated company, that is NOK 71 million in third quarter this year, and that's up from NOK 45 million same quarter last year. The increase is mainly coming from Norskott Havbruk which has results of NOK 39 million in third quarter this year. That is up NOK 30 million from the same quarter last year. Looking at the net finance.
Of the net finance, minus NOK 72 million is the net interest. That is exactly the same level as it was in the same quarter last year. Pre-tax profit, that is before the biomass adjustment in the quarter, is NOK 393 million, down with almost 17% from NOK 472 million in same quarter last year. That gives earnings per share. That is ex the biomass adjustment of NOK 0.86, down from NOK 1.13 last year. As we have also been talking or presenting during our previous presentation, the market for seafood has been significantly negatively impacted by COVID-19. This first started in the Asia market in the beginning of the year. During first quarter and second quarter, it turned out to be a global pandemic.
This has negatively impacted, of course, the prices on the group's products and the demand from the market and have negatively impacted our revenues and earnings for the year to date figures in 2020. The revenue by end of September is NOK 16.7 billion, down from NOK 17.4 billion. The EBITDA is NOK 2.8 billion, down from NOK 3.3 billion in 2019. The depreciation in the nine-month period up to September is NOK 1.1 billion, that is up from NOK 993 million in the same period in 2019. We have investment program still going on within post-smolt. We also took over the new fishing trawler Kongsfjord in 2020. We have not still seen the full potential of all these investments but that will come in the coming years. The EBIT by the end of September is NOK 1.7 billion, down from NOK 2.3 billion in 2019.
Income from associated companies is NOK 158 million, down from NOK 340 million in 2019. I have to add here that in 2019 we had gain from sale of one wellboat and one factory, which impacted the earnings in 2019. The pre-tax profit by the end of September is NOK 1.5 billion, down from NOK 2.4 billion in 2019. We have an earnings per share as ex-fair value adjustment of NOK 3.25, down from NOK 5.53. Lerøy has harvested a little bit over 44,000 tonnes of salmon and trout, that is down by 4% compared to the same period in 2019. The spot prices is down substantially actually from Q2 this year, NOK 10, compared to Q3 in 2019 it's down by 2%. The contract share for the company in the period is 31%, the price realization from contracts are higher than spot prices.
We are especially glad to announce that we see that our release from stock cost is significantly down from Q2 2020, but also down from same quarter in 2019. Despite the challenging market situation caused by the COVID-19, we see that the EBIT per kilo Ex Wild Catch is NOK 9.2, down from NOK 9.8 in the same period last year. The Wild Catch segment, Wild Fish, has had a challenging market as we have already mentioned. This quarter we had a different catch composition compared to same quarter last year and lower catch rates. The EBIT in the quarter is minus NOK 50 million, down from NOK 40 million positive in the same quarter in 2019. However, if we look into year-to-date figures, we can see that the EBIT is not that different from 2019.
We had very good catch volumes of cod in first quarter and haddock as well. The prices in first quarter pre-COVID was substantially higher than what we see now. Actually 22% higher for cod and saithe and 42% higher for haddock compared to the prices that we see in third quarter. There is low activity within the pelagic companies in third quarter. In Austevoll Seafood Group, Peru, they finalized their first season quota in July. They have sold a substantially higher volume of fishmeal in Q3 this year compared to last year. However, the fishmeal prices were approximately 7% lower than what we achieved in the same quarter in 2019. The prices for fish oil is approximately 11% lower, but as you can see, it's a lower volume of fishmeal sold in Q3 this year.
The inventory by the end of Q3 is 2,000 tons with fishmeal and 4,500 tons of fish oil. The company had a revenue of NOK 530 million, an EBITDA of NOK 139 million and an EBIT of NOK 90 million, which is up from NOK 54 million in the same quarter last year. In FoodCorp, they have their main season in the first half of the year, and they have low activity in Q3 and will have low activity in Q4. They had a remaining quota of 6,000 tons, which they started to catch in August, and they finalized that quota by the end of the quarter. They have sold a little bit above 11,000 tons of frozen products, up from 8,800 tons in same quarter last year. They have also had a higher price achievement of frozen products this year compared to same period last year.
It is good to see, or it's comforting to see that with a higher raw material intake and also the higher production of frozen products, that shows in the earnings for the company. If we look into the nine months ending in September 2020, you can see that the EBIT is NOK 150 million, up from NOK 61 million for the same period in 2019. However, that said, it will be low activity in Q4. We will purchase raw material from the coastal fleet for production for fishmeal and fish oil. We expect negative earnings for FoodCorp in Q4. As I mentioned earlier, focusing on the salmon operation, they have harvested from the Spring 19 generation, which has been a very challenging generation. Harvesting weights in Q3 were low and of course a very low price achievement. Also the release from stock cost is very high.
We will finalize harvesting from the Spring 2019 generation of Q4, but with a high release from stock or the cost of this generation, that will negatively impact our earnings also in Q4. As you can see, the EBIT kilo here is negative. It's minus NOK 26.7. In the third quarter in 2019, it was minus NOK 0.6. The pelagic vessels in Brødrene Birkeland has caught around 2,000 tons of North Sea herring in the third quarter. The mackerel season started up by end September, and the two vessels will finalize their mackerel quota and then Norwegian spring-spawning herring in the fourth quarter. The vessel catching snow crab, there was a fishing ban, as it has been in the previous years in the third quarter. The vessel has been dried up in the third quarter and started up fishing again now in the fourth quarter.
This has given, of course, low earnings in the third quarter for the vessels. A revenue of NOK 39 million, an EBITDA of NOK 7 million, and a negative EBIT of NOK 4 million. The total assets in the group is close to NOK 40 billion, and the equity ratio is 59%. You can see that we have increased a little bit our intangible assets, and we have bought some more salmon licenses in 2020. The tangible fixed assets has increased, and that is, as I mentioned, a new trawler, Kongsfjord, which was delivered now in 2020, and also the ongoing post-smolt investment in the group. The group's financial position is very strong, and it remains important to have financial flexibility to support further organic growth, but also carry out strategic investments and sustain the company's dividend policy.
The net interest-bearing debt by the end of September is NOK 4.6 billion, and that is up from NOK 4.3 billion in the same period last year. Cash flow. I will comment shortly on the third quarter and then for the full nine months up to September. In the third quarter, we have a cash from operating activities of NOK 867 million. We built up biomass in the third quarter, and of course then we tie up some working capital as well. Within the pelagic companies, we loosen up in the working capital during third quarters. That is a good hedge actually. Looking at the nine-month period up to September, the cash from operating activities is NOK 2.2 billion, a little bit down from NOK 2.3 billion same period last year. The cash from investing activities is -NOK 1.1 billion, increased from NOK 600,000 in 2019.
As I mentioned, we are still having ongoing investments in post-smolt, and we took over the new trawler. Cash from financing activities is -NOK 1.2 billion, down from NOK 1.6 billion in 2019. You can see that the payout dividends are lower in 2020 compared to 2019. Austevoll Seafood paid out in June NOK 2.5 per share in dividend. The board had a mandate to pay additional dividend in 2020, but the board has decided to not exercise the mandate. Based on the company's strong financial position, this decision will be reflected in the ordinary dividend payments for the financial year of 2020. To sum up, we have a cash position by the end of September of NOK 4.2 billion, down from NOK 4.6 billion in the same period 2020.
Then going into looking at the different markets we are operating in. Starting off with the fishmeal market and with the emphasis on what's happening in Peru, being the largest producer of fishmeal and fish oil, and thereafter looking at the bigger consumer, which is the Chinese market. Starting off, if you look at the table on the left-hand side, you can see that so far this year the production has been more or less in line with how it was in 2019. Prices, you can see on the lower left graph that has been increasing during the last four to six weeks. Before the quota was announced in Peru, we achieved super prime prices over $1,600 per ton, with a discount of $200 per ton for standard fishmeal.
I would say that China is the main destination for what's being now both pre-sold and sold of last season and for the next season, and have been the main driver behind the increase in prices. Of course, I would say that we have to wait a couple of weeks to see the impact on the fishing activity in terms of seeing the further development of the fishmeal market from the quota in Peru. Stock situation is, I would say, lower than last year, also lower than the last five years in the period. 112,000 tons, 42% lower in China than it was same period last year. The offtakes of the stock is a bit less than it was last year, 23,000 tons.
The prices we have been seeing after the announcement of the quota was close to $1,800 per ton, which is a substantial gap to the prices which is sold in Peru, also enhancing more trade for the fishmeal. Two reasons why we have seen that the prices has been increasing in China. Mainly, the first reason is that the Chinese currency has been appreciating against the US dollar and helping to lower China's import cost. The second, I would say, argument is that the fishery along the Chinese coast has been poorer than expected also, leading into a higher importation of international fishmeal. If you look at the fish oil prices, you can see that it's been quite stable prices for the last months, around $2,000 for feed grade and a premium of $200 for the omega-3 grade.
I would say that the yield and volume in Peru would be what's determining how the price will develop in the next months. Looking at the Atlantic salmon supply. You can see that in 2020, we are looking at an annual growth of 4.2%. It's a limited growth out of Norway, 1.2%, and the main growth is coming from the Americas with approximately 10% up. Now looking into 2021, you're seeing that we are not expecting a global growth in 2021 compared with 2020. Americas will come down again, and we are expecting a growth out of Europe on approximately 4.6%, led by an increase in Norway of 4.7%. I would say the underlying supply parameters is healthy going into 2021. Prices, I would say, it's been a challenging year, also reflected in prices.
I would say that by the end of first quarter and into the second quarter, prices were heavily affected by the lockdown in the main markets of salmon due to the COVID-19. Situation improved, I would say, during third quarter, and I would say that the visibility now is less into fourth quarter, looking at the recent development in the increase of the COVID-19 virus happening again. What you can see that the consumption during the first nine months has been led by an increase from EU. Also, the States has also been increasing their participation. In percent, Japan is up, and other markets has been going down in their consumption. It's mainly driven by less volume consumed in China, which has been, I would say, a challenging market during 2020 when the COVID-19 effect came in. Short term, I would say the full effect of COVID-19 remains unpredictable.
I would say in terms of using longer glasses, fundamental seems quite sound. We are aiming to increase our volumes, including associated company between 25,000 and 27,000 tons for next year. Whitefish quotas up, in particular for the most valuable fish, the codfish and haddock, giving also a good foundation in 2021 for the whitefish segment in Group. Looking at this season in Peru, we are excited of the quota we just put. We are prepared with our vessels. Hopefully we will have a good execution of the season. Of course, yet to be seen how the fishing will develop. Also feel that we will have a better start of 2021 due to the quota situation than we had in the same period in 2020 at the start.
Chile, still continuing with the healthy biomass, and expect a higher quota in Chile compared with the same year, 2021 versus 2020. I would say most important period for the human consumption activity of Pelagia, of pelagic fishing vessels, and we have been executing the season on an acceptable manner so far during Q4, and expecting to have a good contribution there also in fourth quarter. I would say it's a mixed picture on the quota situation for next year. A bit less for blue whiting in quota, so a bit less raw material for fishmeal activity, and a higher raw material basis for human consumption activities expected during 2021. That's it. Thank you for listening.