Japanese Fishing Giant Maruha Nichiro Hits New Revenue Highs, Driven by Robust Growth in North American Market

Maruha Nichiro, Japan's leading Marine industry giant, has announced historic growth in its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2024 (ending June 30, 2024). In the quarter, total revenue climbed 2.4 percent to 257 billion yen ($16 billion), while EBIT rose 4.8 percent to 13.3 billion yen.

Maruharjiru was formerly the Maruha Group and Nichiro Corp, which merged in 2007, and officially became the current corporate structure after an equity restructuring in 2014.

In the April-June period, the company performed particularly well in overseas markets, with revenue rising 12 percent year-on-year to 60 billion yen (about $3.82 billion). This was driven by strong growth in the North American market, where sales of Pacific cod products surged 32% to 13.6 billion yen, with significant growth across all product categories. In addition, the pet food business in Thailand has returned to normal, and the packaging and canning subsidiary business in Southeast Asia has steadily improved.

However, weakness in the Alaskan pollock business continued, with sales from related subsidiaries falling short of expectations. Maruharjiru predicts continued pressure on the Alaskan pollock market in 2024, with cost challenges remaining despite stable demand. Therefore, the company will continue to focus on the optimization of production and sales to improve efficiency, expecting market conditions to gradually improve.

In the European market, Dutch subsidiary Seafood Connection Holding achieved a 6 percent year-on-year growth to 27.3 billion yen thanks to its sales of high value-added products such as sushi ingredients. However, given the general price weakness in the European market, the company plans to increase its market development efforts centered on sushi and Asian food to boost sales for the full year.

Despite multiple challenges such as rising costs and unfavorable exchange rates, Maruharjiru's overall performance reached a new high thanks to strong growth in the North American market. Looking ahead, the company expects profit attributable to the parent company to reach 23 billion yen in the 2024-25 fiscal year, up from its original forecast of 19 billion yen.