Canada-based seafood firm High Liner Foods has said it has taken action to reduce its reliance on Chinese supplies in light of the coronavirus which originated in the country.
Speaking to analysts after it released its Q4,2019 results, chief financial officer Paul Jewer said it is looking at alternative options to China for its supplies.
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He said: “We do have a large volume of processing, primary processing that happens in China and other parts of Asia. Obviously we are monitoring the situation very closely.”
He said that because its Chinese suppliers typically go through a shutdown period for Chinese new year., it had already stockpiled produce and now has enough inventory to carry it through through to late May and early June.
Jewer said the company is not not anticipating a significant disruption in its supply at this point but he added “we do have a number of mitigation plans that we’ve already executed on to help reduce the risk, including a number of plans that we started some time ago to reduce our reliance on Chinese processors as risk reduction for our business overall”.
High Liner’s Q4 sales were US$21.3m lower than the corresponding period in 2018 at $221.6m but adjusted EBITDA was up by $6.8m to $18.8m.
