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Nutreco tumbles on salmon dioxin fears
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
5th January 2001
AMSTERDAM - Shares in Dutch food group Nutreco, the world's biggest salmon farmer, fell on
Thursday ahead of a BBC documentary which newspaper reports say will warn that the popular
fish is contaminated with the carcinogenic chemical dioxin.
Nutreco shares shed 6.1 percent to a low of 49.10 euros, the biggest loser in the midcap AMX
index, which itself was up 2.3 percent.
Nutreco surged 85 percent last year and outperformed the Dow Jones Stoxx food and beverage
index by 46 percent.
Analysts said Nutreco will have to fight to gain public confidence after the BBC on Sunday
evening airs a documentary entitled "Warning from the Wild. The Price of Salmon".
The BBC was not immediately available for comment.
Most salmon, wild and farmed, contain some dioxin due to the pollution of the world's oceans,
but Nutreco has said that all its products meet strict European Union guidelines.
The BBC show, however, could spark public worries about salmon, which many people regard
as more healthy than meat, in the wake of a renewed outbreak of mad cow disease in Europe,
analysts said.
"It's hard to predict whether Nutreco will be able to convince consumers that their salmon con-
tains so little dioxin that it's no danger to their health. This will be critical," said analyst Joeri Raams at broker Amstgeld, who rates the firm as "Outperformer" with a 12-month price target of
70 euros.
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