Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of Mowi's fourth quarter results of 2022. My name is Ivan Vindheim, and I'm the CEO of Mowi. With me today to present our financial figures and fundamentals, I have, as usual, our CFO, Kristian Ellingsen. After presentation, our IR, Kim Døsvig, will routinely host a Q&A session for those who are following the presentation on webcast, can submit your questions or comments in advance or as we go along by email. Please refer to our website at mowi.com for necessary details. Disclaimer, I think we leave for self-study as usual. We are ready for the highlights of the quarter.
A quarter that marks the end of a record high year for Mowi financially, with operational revenues totaling EUR 4.95 billion and operational profit of EUR 1,005 million or EUR 1.0 billion if you like. This is an historic moment for us, as it's the first time in Mowi's close to 60 years history, we've crossed the EUR 1 billion mark in operational profit. There are tens of millions of hours of hard work behind this achievement, so a big thank you to all of my 11,500 colleagues in 25 countries who have made it happen. It's of course, much appreciated. For fourth quarter only, Mowi recorded an operational revenue of EUR 1.36 billion, which was also record high.
Operational profit came to EUR 239 million, the second-best fourth quarter to date on seasonally strong prices, I would say, driven by a reasonably good demand and a modest supply, actually a global supply contraction of 2% year-over-year, at least before we adjust for inventory movements. Including inventory movements, supply was stable year-over-year. For the sake, an operational profit of EUR 239 million is also in line with the trading update of the 16th of January. Furthermore, blended farming costs, i.e., weighted farming costs for our six farming countries, was EUR 5.25 per kg in the quarter, and that's relatively stable compared with the third quarter. Year-over-year, however, cost is significantly up due to inflation and then first and foremost, feed inflation.
We expect a slight increase in release from stock cost in the first quarter due to this, in addition to seasonally lower dilution of costs because of lower volumes. The underlying inflation we have witnessed over the past 18 months is unprecedented, so hopefully 2023 can offer some tailwinds on input costs. Time will show. In terms of farming volumes, we harvested 131,000 tons in the quarter, which was slightly above the guidance of 127,000 tons, adding up to 464,000 tons for 2022 in total. For 2023, we expect to harvest record high 484,000 tons, which is equivalent to a growth of 4.3% year-over-year.
As late as in 2018, we harvested 375,000 tons in Mowi, which means we have grown our farming volumes by as much as 109,000 tons over the past five years or 5.2% annually. This is above market growth. Our clear goal is to continue to capture market share in the salmon category by growing our farming volumes in the coming years, both organically and acquisitively. Farming volumes are, at the end of the day, the mainstay of our business model. That's what everything hinges on in this industry. The demand for more salmon seems to be good. Otherwise, it was with great pleasure Mowi was once again ranked as the world's most sustainable animal protein producer by the prestigious Coller FAIRR.
This is the fourth year in a row, as we have said numerous of times, sustainability is deeply ingrained in the Mowi culture and at the heart of everything we do. This is most definitely a recognition we sincerely appreciate internally. Personally, I must say it's very humbling to be allowed to lead such a company and organization that excel in this way in this important field. Speaking of pleasures, it was also with great pleasure we just before year-end received the approval of our acquisition of 51% of the shares in Arctic Fish, one of the leading salmon farming companies in Iceland. We have a separate slide on Iceland later in the presentation, so I think we leave it at that for now.
When it comes to our divisions, Consumer Products, our downstream business has delivered another great set of great results in the quarter, which rounds off a record high year for Consumer Products and operational EBIT of EUR 112 million on 229,000 tons product weight. This corresponds to a return on capital employed of solid 16.5%. Our Feed division can also put behind its best year to date an operational EBITA of EUR 47 million on 517,000 tons of feed, which is equivalent to a return on capital employed of satisfactory 13.1%. Feed performance was also strong last year, the fourth quarter included, which is of course of utmost importance to us by virtue of being the world's largest salmon farmer.
However, notwithstanding all these records, everything is still far from rosy in the salmon universe, at least in the Norwegian, not in the Norwegian part of it, at least. I'm thinking of the cataclysmic event of the 28th of September last year when the Norwegian left-wing government proposed to raise the tax level from 22% to unsustainable 62% on Norwegian salmon farming or about 80% with Norwegian wealth tax. Such a tax level is completely unprecedented in a global agriculture industry and would impose major limitations on future growth and development of the Norwegian salmon industry if it's put in action.
The public consultation response process ended on the fourth of January with as expected massive resistance to the proposal among the majority of the respondents. As many as eight out of 10 are against it, from professors to small farmers along the Norwegian coastline. There is no lack of warnings of the negative consequences of this tax proposal. Everyone looks out for their own interests, of course, but even many of the municipalities, the main beneficiaries of this tax, at least according to the government, are skeptical as they fear the havoc it will wreak on current and future jobs in their local communities, which I think is well-founded. If this will make a difference is another story and remains to be seen.
Now the political process has started, and we will for our part continue to work with all levels of Norwegian politics and organizations to try and turn this, in our view, anti-business proposal into a viable framework for the Norwegian salmon industry also going forward. With regard to timetable, we do not expect to have a clarification until after Easter, at least a formal clarification, and most likely not until close to the summer. Last but not least, the board of directors has decided to distribute a quarterly dividend of 1.70 NOK per share after the fourth quarter, which compares with 50% of underlying earnings per share and as such is in accordance with our dividend policy. That I think does it for the highlights for the quarter. Turn over to key financials. Kristian will as usual go in-depth on financial figures under his session.
To not disrupt the course of events, we will just touch briefly upon the most important ones now. First, turnover, which we already have been through, Mowi recorded an operational revenue of EUR 4.95 billion in 2022, which was record high and up by 80% year-over-year. Underlying volumes were quite stable last year across our business. This is mainly explained by good market conditions and higher prices for all our divisions. For the fourth quarter only, Mowi recorded an operational revenue as said of EUR 1.36 billion, which is also record high and by coincidence up by 80% as well year-over-year. Operating EBIT of EUR 1,005 million, we have already commented on, also high by a wide margin and almost double compared with 2021.
As we addressed in the highlights, we have grown our farming volumes extensively over the past few years, which we capitalized on to the full in 2022 when the prices finally came back in EUR after two troublesome pandemic years where we, as a EUR company, did not benefit from the weakening of the NOK, contrary to our Norwegian peers. Cash flow in the quarter was highly impacted by tie-up of working capital and CapEx in addition to closing of the Arctic Fish acquisition. NIBD came in at EUR 1.76 billion. Excluding Arctic Fish, NIBD would have been EUR 1.51 billion, and adjusted for temporary buildup of working capital, it would have been below our long-term debt target of EUR 1.4 billion.
In the case of the latter, we will revert to the long-term debt target when we know the outcome of the Norwegian tax process. I think that's enough about cash for now. Kristian will get back to further details later. Equity ratio was a healthy 49% at the end of the year, and underlying earnings per share was EUR 1.43 for the year and EUR 0.33 for the quarter. Finally, annualized return on capital employed was 24% for the year and 20% for the quarter, both well above our long-term target of 12%. In terms of regional margins through the value chain, Mowi Norway stood once again out positively, whereas our operations in the British Isles were disfigured by another biologically challenging quarter in the aftermath of a record warm summer.
We will get back to explanation shortly when we go through the various business entities. First, briefly about prices. As already said, we saw seasonally strong prices in the fourth quarter, which have continued into the new year on a reasonably good demand and on a modest supply. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, reference price was up by 17% in Europe and up by 7% in Americas for salmon of Chilean origin. For salmon of Canadian origin, reference price was up by 10% in Americas in the quarter year-over-year. Kristian will elaborate more on prices and supply demand under his session. Quickly about our own relative price performance.
Overall price achievement was good for Mowi in the fourth quarter and on or above the reference price for all our fish, apart from Canada East, where we harvested out some ISA fish in the quarter. Per share was also good in the fourth quarter. Briefly about the EBIT waterfall. As we can see from the graph here, operation EBIT increased from EUR 146 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 to EUR 239 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. This was mainly driven by increased earnings in farming as a result of higher prices and volumes, partly offset by higher costs. Also the other businesses contributed positively this time around with strong operational performance and results across the board.
It's time to address the various business entities, and first one out is, as usual, Mowi Norway, our largest and most important entity by far. Operational EBIT was EUR 198 million for Mowi Norway in the quarter, which is the third best quarter to date, at least according to my records, and up from EUR 125 million in the comparable quarter of 2021. EBIT margin was EUR 2.28 per kg in the quarter, versus EUR 1.76 per kg in the fourth quarter of 2021. As the graph clearly demonstrates, this was caused by higher prices and volumes, partly offset by inflation and then first and foremost, feed inflation. In terms of biological performance, it's improved in the quarter year-over-year and also for 2022 as a whole.
By extension, I think it's fair to say that Mowi Norway has been on a formidable journey over the past few years. As the graph here shows, we harvested 210,000 tons in Mowi Norway as late as in 2017 versus record high 294,000 tons in 2022. Which means we have grown our farming volumes in Norway organically by as much as 84,000 tons over the past five years, or 6.9% annually. By that putting Mowi Norway towards the top of license utilization and production efficiency in Norway, which in turn has laid the foundation for the record high results we saw last year. A big thank you to our Norwegian farming organization for this achievement. It's highly appreciated. The breakdown of the margins for the different regions in Norway in the quarter.
Region North stands once again out as the margin winner with EUR 2.65 per kg on lowest cost and on strong price performance. Neither Region West nor Region South were far behind this time around, with margins of EUR 2.35 per kg and EUR 2.21 per kg on good operation performance, I would say, taking into consideration their geographical location. Region Mid, on the other hand, was lagging behind in the fourth quarter with a soft margin of EUR 1.47 per kg, adversely impacted by harvesting 50% of the volumes in October at seasonally low prices, in addition to more issues than normal last year with, in particular, sea lice. It deserves a mention that both Region North, Region West, and Region South harvested record high volumes last year.
All our entities in Norway recorded record high results, which is of course, great. Our Norwegian sales contract portfolio. In 2021 and 2022, we deliberately decided to keep our contract level low for our Norwegian volumes to capitalize on the expected post-pandemic market recovery. In hindsight, I think we can safely say that this strategy has served us well. For 2023, we have decided to keep our contract level relatively low as well, at least so far, partly due to uncertainty related to the Norwegian tax scheme, at least initially, but also due to our skewed harvest profile. In terms of contract prices for 2023, they are significantly higher than last year. It's time to address the other farming countries, and first one out is Mowi Scotland. The fourth quarter turned out, unfortunately, to become another biologically challenging quarter for our sorely tried Scottish organization.
With issues with SRS, Salmon Rickettsial Syndrome. Normally a low virulent bacterial disease in these waters, which changed in the fourth quarter, probably triggered by an unusual warm summer, actually the warmest on record, and huge issues with micro jellyfish, the Muggiaea atlantica, which did not only cause elevated mortalities, but also a weak fish health in general. Against this backdrop, Mowi Scotland recorded a soft operation profit of EUR 7 million in the quarter or EUR 0.67 per kg. Volumes have also been impacted by this in total 10,000 tons for the quarter and 48,000 tons for the year, both on the weak side. On a positive note, however, colder waters have done wonders for the fish health in Scotland, and by extension, we have harvested large size fish so far in the new year, which should prepare the ground for improved KPIs.
Knock on wood. Chile. Mowi Chile saw increased earnings and margins year-over-year in the quarter on higher prices and volumes, partly offset by higher costs for their part as well due to inflation. In terms of numbers, operation EBIT was EUR 20 million in this quarter versus EUR 11 million in the comparable quarter of 2021. Margin was up from EUR 0.64 per kg to EUR 1.08 per kg. Volumes are also up, as said, from 16,500 tons to 18,500 tons. In general, both production and biology were reasonably good for our Chilean operations in the fourth quarter. Flying off to Mowi Canada. Mowi Canada turned a profit of EUR 60 million in the fourth quarter against a break-even result in the fourth quarter of 2021.
This was driven by higher prices as well as cost increased year-over-year for our Canadian operations too due to inflation. Volumes, however, were stable, 11,000 tons versus 10,000 tons. In Canada West, we achieved a strong operation profit of EUR 21 million or EUR 2.15 per kg, which is a significant improvement from EUR 8 million or EUR 1.07 per kg last year or in the fourth quarter of 2021. As far as Canada East is concerned, we harvested very low volumes in the quarter. On top of that, they were related to harvesting of ISA fish at high cost and low prices, in addition to low dilution of cost after low volumes.
In terms of overall biology for Canada East, it has improved compared with previous years from which we expect to start gradually benefiting in 2023. I guess I should add knock on wood to this one as well. Our two smallest farming entities, Mowi Ireland and Mowi Faroes. For Salmon of Irish origin, we made a loss of EUR 3 million in the quarter following issues with SRS, as in Mowi Scotland. We also expect a weak first quarter due to this, in addition to other biological issues last year. Our biomass in sea is low, and we will prioritize biomass growth going forward and take advantage of colder waters during the winter and improved fish health. In the Faroes, operation EBIT came to EUR 5.5 million positively by means of a margin of EUR 1.75 per kg on 3,000 tons harvest volumes.
Our latest addition to the Mowi family, Arctic Fish. As already said on the highlights, it was with great pleasure we just before year-end received the approval of the acquisition of 51% of the shares in Arctic Fish, one of the leading Icelandic salmon farmers. Iceland is Mowi's seventh farming country and was the last spot missing from our geographical footprint. We are looking forward to further develop the company together with the other owners and the highly competent and motivated organization. Iceland is namely one of the very few areas left that still offer extensive organic growth opportunities in conventional farming. On top of that, Icelandic waters also provide excellent growth and living conditions for the salmon, which is key in this.
For 2023, we expect to harvest 15,000 tons in Iceland, and in terms of reporting, we will start to report on the figures as from the first quarter onwards. The balance sheet is also already in our balance sheet, so I'm referring to the P&L figures. So much about Mowi Farming. Over to Mowi Consumer Products, our downstream business. Consumer products made an impressive operating profit of EUR 43 million in the quarter. In terms of overall demand, it was good in more or less all markets in the quarter, and we also see a reasonably good development in demand so far in the new year, notwithstanding the economic slowdown we are facing. Last one out, Mowi Feed.
I said initially this morning, Mowi Feed can also put behind its best year, but also its best quarter to date, with an operational EBIT of EUR 47 million and EUR 21 million respectively, which corresponds to a return on capital employed of satisfactory 13.1% for 2022. Feed performance was also strong in 2022, as said, the fourth quarter included, which is of course of paramount importance to us as the world's largest salmon farmer. In terms of volumes, we sold 149,000 tons in the fourth quarter and 517,000 tons for the year. As is proper, I would like to commend our feed organization for these great results in what has been a challenging sourcing environment. Kristian, the floor is all yours for walking us through the financials and fundamentals. Thank you so far.
Thank you very much, Ivan. Good morning, everybody. Hope everybody is doing well. As usual, we start with the profit and loss. This statement here shows group revenue increased year-over-year for both Q4 and for the year. The full year figure was a record high EUR 4.9 billion following all-time high achieved prices driven by a strong market and reduced contract share for Norwegian origin. Strong revenues and volumes and competitive costs gave a record high operational EBIT for the year and for the quarter at the same level as the 3rd quarter. We will go further into costs in a few slides. In financial EBIT, the fair value adjustment on biomass was positive on higher prices.
Nova Sea, our associated company where we are the largest owner with 49% of the shares, had an operational result of EUR 2 per kg. That was above Mowi Norway region mid, but below the other regions in Mowi Norway, impacted by some biological issues and low weights. Net financial items, as expected, paid interests of approximately EUR 12 million in addition to unrealized accounting effects. Underlying EPS increased in line with the operational EBIT and return on capital employed, annualized 20.3 for the quarter and 23.7 for the year, driven by farming, but also strong return in Consumer Products and Feed, well below, Sorry, well above the 12% target. Cash flow per share impacted by working capital tie-up.
We come back to that in the cash flow statement shortly. We then move over to the balance sheet. These numbers include a consolidation of Arctic Fish, and that's the main driver behind the change from the third quarter. Mowi's financial position is very strong, with a 52% covenant equity ratio. With regards to the cash flow and the NIBD, we see that the cash flow from operations was impacted by a working capital tie-up of EUR 229 million in the quarter, mainly related to temporary buildup of working capital in sales and marketing, feed, and biomass in farming. Other investments include EUR 180 million for the shares in Arctic Fish, partly offset by dividends from Nova Sea.
Excluding the acquisition of Arctic Fish, NIBD would have been EUR 1.51 billion, i.e., without the share purchase and the consolidation of their NIBD. As it looks now, we expect a net release of working capital this year in the amount of approximately EUR 150 million, as many of the items this year have been of a temporary nature, including delays in the supply chain. Given the current information, we expect a release in the first half of the year of approximately EUR 200 million related to accounts receivable, inventory, and effects on payables. When it comes to CapEx, the guiding is EUR 370 million, including Arctic Fish with EUR 30 million.
With regards to the structural CapEx, this includes EUR 70 million approximately in freshwater investments, including post-smolt projects in Norway, which were already underway when the decision was made to hold back on expansion projects in Norway following the resource rent tax proposal. The same also with the ongoing Gjesnesøya processing plant project in Norway. Arctic Fish has high investments this year in a new processing facility and also expansion of the smolt facility. With regards to the interest paid, this is expected to increase to approximately EUR 70 million this year, and tax is estimated to EUR 175 million. If we look further into the cost situation, the backdrop is that we have been able to keep costs stable for the last five years until 2022.
We see that indicated here also in the graph. A CAGR of 1.8%, that's less than annual inflation. Cost initiatives have offset the underlying cost pressure in farming. However, the post-COVID inflation impacted cost figures in 2022, but the entire cost increase of EUR 0.62 can be attributed to inflation as biological performance has improved year-over-year. The by far most important driver here is feed inflation as feed prices have increased significantly. Continued cost focus is very important. We need to combat increasing feed prices, biological measures, and more complex regulations as best we can. We also would like to mention that we have a cost performance which is good relative to peers.
We are number one or number two in the various regions we operate over time. Then, with regards to the cost-saving program, we over-delivered on the targets we set ourselves for the 2022 program. The EUR 48 million annualized savings we achieved last year were related to the productivity program, yield and efficiency, procurement savings, and other savings. The accumulated annual savings since this program started back in 2018 amount to EUR 230 million related to various procurement, contract improvements, productivity, other savings. One example of the latter is that we achieved our target set for 2022 when it came to travel costs. We cut that by 50% compared with 2019 on avoiding unnecessary traveling and utilizing digital tools. We have initiated a new program now for 2023.
This year, it also includes energy savings. We target a 3% cut on annual energy usage in Mowi, amounting to approximately 28 gigawatt hours. One important result of these cost programs, in addition, of course, to the P&L effect and the cash effect, is that we have built a more cost-conscientious organization, cost culture. Our teams across the company have a stronger cost culture than what was the case some years ago, and we think it's important to maintain this focus and continue to monitor and to follow up and to seek various improvement all across the value chain.
When it comes to the productivity program, this is of course an important part of the overall cost-saving program, and salary cost is the number two cost item in our P&L, NOK 613 million for the year of 2022. We are proud to have achieved a 9% FTE reduction end 2022 versus the start of the program in 2020. In this period, volumes have increased 6%. Don't forget that. We have in fact increased productivity with regards to FTEs and volumes by 15%. We believe it's possible to have a further reduction in FTEs now in 2023 by working smarter, utilizing automation, and right sizing. This will to a large extent be solved by natural turnover, as it's also stated here. We move over to fundamentals.
First, sustainability. We have cut our CO₂ emissions for Scope 1 and 2 by 9% the last year, as much as, 33% reduced comparing with, 2019. With regards to Scope 3, i.e., the suppliers and their value chain, we have, together with our partners, managed a 10% cut since, 2019. That's a good achievement, I would say. In the end, Scope 3 emissions are the most important part of the total here. We are progressing well on our ambitious long-term targets in Mowi in this, respect.
If you put this a little bit into context, we have avoided 2 million tons also in 2022, annualized savings of CO₂ compared with what had been the case if you replaced our proteins with a mix of other land-based proteins. Salmon is definitely on the right side of sustainability. We have a good starting point with salmon being such a, such an efficient protein, but these results don't come by themselves, and we are proud that we have been ranked number one on the Coller FAIRR Index now for the fourth time in a row. We also have several other good rankings that's also reflected here on the slide.
A large part of our financing is also green or sustainability linked, including the bank facility, which is the backbone of our financing in Mowi. We have linked financial performance to sustainability performance. The current mix is 81%, including Arctic Fish, and the target is to be at 100% in 2026. We have a very solid financing in place, and we are comfortable with that, and very good relationship with our core banks in DNB, Nordea, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Danske Bank, SEB, and Crédit Agricole. The market fundamentals, starting with the supply development in the quarter, adjusted for inventory movements, global supply was stable. Some additional comments to the supply situation.
We saw that there were lower volumes than expected in Norway and Scotland in the quarter, partly offset by higher volumes than expected in Chile. In Norway, there was some early harvesting, lower weights and lower feed consumption than expected. Biomass in Norway down 3% for the market versus last year. In Chile, more harvesting than expected, but biomass down also here, down 5% versus last year. Here we see that the supply to the markets was stable year-over-year.
It's also very positive, of course, to see that the prices and the value of the salmon consumed was up approximately 20% in Q4, and 2022 was a record year when it came to the salmon market with consumption totaling EUR 21 billion, up as much as 30% for the year. When it comes to demand and consumption, we see in Europe, food service continued to improve in the fourth quarter. Retail sales were higher than before the pandemic, but decreased from the high level seen during the last years. In the U.S., consumption increased by 8% despite the very harsh winter weather in December.
When we look at our own trading and consumer product figures in the U.S., we increased volumes by even more, 13%. The numbers in the U.S. were strong in the quarter. In Asia, however, we saw a consumption decline by 3%, higher than normal air freight still, and also limited availability of large-sized fish from Europe. It has been a record year price-wise, and after a seasonal downwards adjustment after the summer, we have seen a good development during the winter, and the blended EUR price increase in Q4 was approximately 20%. With regards to the expected supply growth, with lower biomass in Norway and Chile, the expected supply growth for 2023 is on the low side, 2%.
In Q1, we are looking at a supply contraction of between zero and minus 5%. A constrained supply side going forward. When it comes to our own volumes, 2022 was another year where we not only reached our harvest volume guidance but also over-delivered on the guiding we set. With regards to 2023 volumes, they now include Arctic Fish estimated to 15,000 tons. Total figure, as we see here, is 484,000 tons for the year. In Scotland, we expect a volume recovery from a challenging 2022. We expect growth in Chile on overall good performance, while Canada West will be reduced following the loss of licenses in the Discovery Island area and also a site mix. Canada West is expected to be around 25,000 tons from 2024 onwards.
With the 484,000 tons harvest volume guidance, we have increased volumes by as much as 109,000 tons over the last five years, equivalent to 5.2% annual growth versus industry at 4%. There is an intrinsic potential here to grow volumes well above 500,000 tons. It's over to Ivan for some comments on the prospects ahead of us.
Thank you, Kristian. Much appreciated. Now it's time to conclude with some closing remarks before we wrap it all up with a Q&A session hosted by our IRO, Kim Døsvig. Already said, the fourth quarter marked the end of a record high year for Mowi financially, with operational revenues totaling EUR 4.95 billion and with an operational profit of EUR 1,005 million. It is, as said, an historic moment for us, as it's the first time in Mowi's close to 60 years history we crossed the magic EUR 1 billion mark in operational profit. Further to this, I think we must say that 2023 has started off on a good note with seasonally strong prices so far on our reasonably good demand and our modest supply.
How this will develop further on the demand side, no one really knows, of course, including ourselves, but normally the salmon fares well in challenging economic times. The supply side looks supportive with an expected global supply growth of as low as 2% for 2023, according to Kontali. In other words, a good start to the new year. Having said that, and as addressed earlier this morning, everything is though unfortunately far from rosy in the salmon universe, at least not in the Norwegian part of it. The Norwegian government's infamous resource rent tax proposal is hanging over us all and casts a dark cloud over the future prospects for the Norwegian salmon industry going forward.
An unprecedented tax level of 62% or 80% with Norwegian wealth tax is simply not sustainable and would impose major limitations on future growth and development if it's put in action, and thereby cause irreparable damage to current and future jobs in their thousands along the Norwegian coastline. The additional billions of NOK going to resource rent tax payments going forward will not be replaced by external capital infusions, and therefore deteriorate our and the industry's investment capacity. There is no such thing as a free lunch, not here either. I must admit that it really puzzles me that the Norwegian Ministry of Finance in all seriousness appear to believe that this tax proposal is neutral on future investments. Go figure, or in Norwegian, «Forstå det den som kan».
Nevertheless, the public consultation response process ended on the fourth of January with a sad, massive protest from the majority of the respondents, including many of the local municipalities. Now the political process has started, and we will, for our part, continue to work with all levels of Norwegian politics and organizations to try and turn this, in our view, anti-business proposal into a viable framework for the Norwegian salmon industry also going forward. With regard to timetable, we do not expect to have a clarification until after Easter, at least not a formal clarification, and most likely not until close to the summer. Much about politics.
In terms of full-year farming volume guidance, we expect to harvest, as Kristian just showed us, 484,000 tons in 2023, which is equivalent to a growth of 4.3% year-over-year, double of the expected industry supply growth and a continuation of the growth trajectory Kristian just walked us through. Our clear goal is namely to continue to capture market share in the salmon category in the years to come, and as you all know, in our industry, it's all about the farming volumes. A heads-up on landed farming costs for the first quarter, as we expect it to increase slightly quarter-over-quarter due to seasonally lower dilution in addition to previous inflation. That being said, we hope to see a decline in cost to stock this year on falling input prices. That's at least our take as of today.
Finally, the board of directors has decided to distribute a quarterly dividend of 1.70 NOK per share after the fourth quarter, which compares with 50% of underlying earnings per share and as such is in line with our dividend policy. I think we are ready for the Q&A session, Kim. If Kristian can please join me on the stage.
We have the first question from the web this time. Alexander Jones, Bank of America, he's asking. He's got two questions on demand. The first one, can you give us an update on what you're seeing in terms of latest demand trends? The second one in China, how do you expect China's relaxation of COVID curbs to affect salmon demand this year? What do you believe is the long-term outlook for Chinese consumption?
Yes. If we start with the demand, I would say that the prices have been good now for a significant period of time. We have seen, of course, we saw the seasonal decline following the summer last year, but the salmon has fared well during this autumn and this winter. In the end, the best indicator of demand and the market is prices, and we continue to see good prices in the market. In the Q4, volumes and developments were good. As mentioned, in my section, we saw that volumes were still ahead of pre-pandemic levels in retail and also good development in food service.
We are in a challenging economic time, so time will show how this develops going forward. Still prices are good, and development in the market has been good. When it comes to China is a market which used to be around 5%, looking at the 2019 situation before the pandemic. Now it is significantly lower, I guess around 3%. There is a significant potential for China. We see still air freight rates. That is expected, of course, to improve at some point. We know that China is predominantly a food service market.
There is a significant potential for more home consumption, and we have our presence there, so I think Mowi is well set to benefit from improving market conditions in China, which we of course expect now with the reopening over time.
Thank you. Knut Ivar Bakken, SpareBank 1 Markets. Could you say something about the winter wound situation in Norway this year compared to last year?
Thank you, Knut Ivar, for the question. It's still an issue. How this evolve during the winter is a little bit early to say, but we already see signals of winter source at the normal sites or the usual sites. Most likely it will be an issue this year. For Mowi's part, I think we are doing okay so far. But again, still early days.
Hi, William Røe, Danske Bank. Just a question on the strong development in the Consumer Products market. Could you elaborate a little bit more on how you see the margins going forward, just based on how you see the demand developing going into Q1 and also just operationally?
As we said during the presentation here, so far it has been reasonably well. There are no indications of a slowdown. As Kristian just said, we are in uncharted waters, right? If this slowdown turns into a recession and it becomes deep and also persistent, then this can change. So far, I think we are good. It's just to look at our prices so far this year, and now I'm talking about 2023, it's amazing. It's fantastic. It's the best start of the year ever, at least in my time in this industry. So far, so good. Again, we are humble, so we are not wizards.
We don't know about the future, right? In the end, it's about how does the economy, world economy in general develop. Salmon is our global product. Food service has been fantastic after the pandemic. That market has really come back at the expense partly of retail of course, because then people go out instead of eating at home. In total, as Kristian showed there, a really fantastic development so far. Again, who knows about the future?
We saw that you made some contracts now for first half 2023. Is the contract market more functioning now than it did a few months ago?
Yes, it is.
Is that because of the comments on achieved prices, or is it something else from the politicians?
No, you know, the demand has been there all the time. The problem has been the supply, right? The farmers, including ourselves. With the statement we have heard from the government, we take it for granted that the normal price will not be an issue at least this year when it comes to taxation. Beyond that, who knows? That's actually not decided yet, so challenging. On a positive note, the salmon market is, or the salmon contract market is a one-year contract market, so this doesn't really impact our operation anymore.
Your net debt target, is that something you're looking into post the acquisition of Arctic Fish?
Well, I guess you should ask the CFO about that, so...
I think it makes sense to now see what happens with the resource rent tax situation. We have some clarity on that, hopefully in a reasonable amount of time, and then we come back to that afterward.
Uh-
Martin Kaland, ABG. It sounds like you have had some notable issues in central Norway. At the same time, costs into Q1 are only guided slightly higher, volume guidance largely unchanged. Does that imply that the other regions in Norway are performing so much better, or is the situation also better in central Norway going into Q1?
I think in relative terms, Mowi has had or had a more challenging last year than the others, as you say yourself. Now we are six weeks into the new year, so a little bit early to conclude on 2023, nothing has changed really. It's the same pattern now. In this industry, you know, you have a bad year and then all of a sudden have a good year. The things fluctuate. I don't think necessarily 2022 will be the new standard for Mowi Norway going forward. At least I do not believe so. You have normal fluctuations in this.
When overall, I think, and I said it during the presentation, Mowi Norway had a fantastic year. I think this must be, at least relatively speaking, the best year so far in our history. In absolute terms, it's absolutely our best year. It's just to have a look at our numbers. So far we are doing fine, but again, six weeks into the new year, that's still early.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Any more questions? No. That concludes the Q&A session.
Right. It only remains for me to thank everyone for the attention. We hope to see you back in May, all of you, at our First Quarter release. Meanwhile, take care and have a great day ahead. Thank you.