Russian sanctions handed Sealord its best year in decades

Sealord has just turned global disorder into margin. The Nelson-based fishing company says the financial year to September 2026 was one of the biggest, best years its sales boss has seen in a very long time. The main driver was Western sanctions on Russian-caught whitefish, which left a supply gap that a New Zealand exporter was well placed to fill.

That is a remarkable turnaround from where the company stood earlier in the year, and it says a lot about how New Zealand’s seafood sector now makes its money.

From fuel crisis to fat margins

In March, marine diesel prices doubled within a month and Sealord paused its fuel hedges. Chief executive Doug Paulin said then that the hit would be “a $4m to $5m difference this calendar year“. He warned that if prices stayed high, 2027 losses could top $25 million, a scenario he called “a disaster”. With roughly 95 percent of its catch exported, much of it on contracts fixed the year before, Sealord had limited room to pass costs on quickly.

The disaster did not arrive, at least not this year. According to the company’s own results statement, strong pricing and supply restrictions offset the fuel bill. Sealord also passed higher packaging, freight, ingredient and maintenance costs on to export customers through fuel surcharges. Buyers accepted them because they had few other places to go.

Everyone else’s problem became Sealord’s opportunity

Sales general manager Jason Plato, a 30-year industry veteran, lists a run of supply shocks, none of them caused by Sealord:

• Sanctions from Europe and the US on Russian-caught whitefish created a gap that Sealord filled with extra sales.
• A 50 percent quota cut to Northeast Atlantic mackerel pushed up prices for Sealord’s jack mackerel.
• Atlantic cod quota cuts sent buyers looking for cheaper whitefish, lifting hoki block and fishmeal sales.
• A poor anchovy season in Peru drove up fishmeal and fish oil prices.

A good squid harvest added to the result. Put simply, Sealord had the right product in the right volumes at the moment its competitors were being shut out or cut back.

There is some irony in the Russia link. Back in 2022, Sealord’s trawler Meridian-1 was crewed by 74 Russians and six Ukrainians, part of a foreign-crewing arrangement that had run for about 30 years. That arrangement drew scrutiny after the invasion of Ukraine. The company now earns from the same sanctions regime that made that history awkward.

Smarter operations helped too

It was not all luck. Sealord moved its Nelson wetfish factory and the Thomas Harrison vessel from year-round work to a hoki-season-only model running from May to September. The company says the change proved itself in its first year. Concentrating effort on the season that matters is the kind of capital discipline that lets a business make the most of high prices when they arrive.

Catching less, earning more

Sealord’s result fits a sector-wide trend. Seafood New Zealand’s BERL report shows commercial catch volume fell 15 percent between 2020 and 2025, while catch value rose from $1.29 billion to $1.53 billion. Hoki export prices rose 36 percent to $2.45 a kilo, and snapper rose 20 percent to $12.50. Commercial fishing generated $6.4 billion in economic output and supported 14,506 FTE roles in 2025.

That is a long way from 2020, when Covid pushed export value down to $1.8 billion. The industry has shifted from a volume business to a price business, and prices are increasingly set by events in Moscow, Brussels and Lima.

The lesson for every exporter

Geopolitics works in both directions. In 2024, Seafood New Zealand noted that the EU free trade deal was saving the sector $19.6 million a year, while conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and the Red Sea was pushing up fuel and freight costs. Sealord got the good half of that pattern this year. Smaller inshore operators without hedging tools, one of them paying $2.34 a litre for diesel in March, did not.

For business owners, the takeaways are practical. Scale, flexible contracts and the ability to apply surcharges decide who comes out ahead when supply shocks hit. Open trade access to the markets that sanctions are redirecting is a strategic asset, not a nice-to-have.

Sealord is not celebrating for long. It expects the year to September 2027 to be more difficult, with fuel still unpredictable. Quotas get restored, anchovies come back, and sanctions eventually change. The supply gaps that made this year will not last forever, and the companies that use this windfall to strengthen their balance sheets will be best placed when conditions turn.

Sources

• Newsroom: Sealord rides Russian sanctions in massive fishing year (2026-11-05)
• Sealord: The price of fish exceeds expectations (2026-11-03)
• Sealord: Seasonal hoki model delivers in its first year (2026-11-03)
• The Press: Fishing giant loses at least $4 million to high diesel price (2026-03-24)
• Seafood New Zealand / BERL: The economic contribution of commercial fishing 2025 (2026-08)
• NZ Herald: Long-standing use of Russian fishing crews on New Zealand-flagged boats raises questions as war rages in Ukraine (2022-10-07)
• RNZ: NZ fishing companies employing Russian crews despite sanctions
• NZ Herald: Future of fishing – Tough times call for transformation of a $5 billion industry (2023-12-13)
• Seafood New Zealand: The global state of play (2024-08-23)