Lucky Star helps keep Oceana Group afloat amid fish oil price crash

The Oceana Group - owner of the Lucky Star canned foods brand, has reported a solid full year performance despite ongoing pressure on consumer discretionary spending and the crash in fish oil prices.

The Group posted a 38% decline in headline earnings per share for the year to end-September 2025.

Revenue decreased by 0.7% to R10 billion (2024: R10.1 billion), with the positive impact of increased sales volumes across all segments and firm pricing for Wild Caught Seafood being offset by the decline in US Dollar fish oil prices.

Operating profit was down 23.2% to R1 253 million (2024: R1 632 million).

However the Group did report a strong recovery in its Wild Caught Seafood segment as well as a solid performance from Lucky Star Foods, with African operations increasing operating profit by 58%.

Oceana declared a total dividend for the year of 285 cents per share (2024: 495 cents), a drop of 42.4%.

CEO Neville Brink is realistic about the impact of thefish oil price crash, noting that it came off record highs in the prior year.

"Prices have normalised, in fact I think they've probably overcorrected a bit and should strengthen in the next couple of weeks. But that's fishing unfortunately - we have to ride the waves and the volatility of the industry."

Brink also highlights a positive outlook particularly for the new market Lucky Star has found in Ghana.

The country's citizens have similar eating habits to South Africans, he says.

"Traditionally we've always exported to the SADC countries but this new market we've discovered this year in Ghana is starting to do well. The people know canned fish in a tall can... The two major cities, Accra and Kumasi, certainly have big fish-eating populations and we're starting to grow traction there."

Brink also details Oceana's concerns about the sustainable management of horse mackerel fishing stocks in Namibia - take a listen in the interview audio at the top of the article.