Tallinn, Estonia, 2014-06-26 15:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
On 19.06.2014, the Swedish Board of Agriculture decided to pay SEK 6,727,636 (approximately 0.7 million euro) to Överumans Fisk AB as an additional compensation, therefore, the total amount of compensation is SEK 10,727,636 (approximately 1.2 million euro). The claim of compensation against the Swedish Board of Agriculture has not been recorded in the company’s consolidated balance sheet. Additional compensation of SEK 6,727,636 (approximately 0.7 million euro) is recorded as other operating income in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income of the second quarter of 2014 of AS Premia Foods.
On 31.07.2013, Överumans Fisk AB, the fully owned subsidiary of AS Premia Foods, filed a claim of compensation of damage and loss of profit against the Swedish Board of Agriculture (in Swedish: Jordbruksverket) in connection with the administrative proceedings initiated against Överumans Fisk AB in May 2012 resulting in the destruction of 17 tons of fish fingerlings in the total amount of SEK 25,487,000.
According to the resolution of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the unknown pathogen called “Agent x” has been identified as a parasite belonging to the Sarcocystidae family. The resolution contains no further information on the origin, nature and possible spread of the parasite.
The resolution of the Swedish Board of Agriculture is based on two pieces of legislation of Sweden – the Act on Testing of Animals and the Ordinance on Testing of Animals. Under the Ordinance, a legal or natural person that has suffered costs or losses following decision that was made on the basis of the Act on Tasting of Animals may be granted compensation from government funds if there are particular grounds. The referred legal acts provide no guidance on the size of the compensation or what types of costs are compensable. There is also no relevant administrative or court practise. Therefore, the Swedish Board of Agriculture applied as an analogy the provisions of the Epizootic Act stating; however, that the parasite in question is not an epizootic disease. According to the Epizootic Act, compensation is granted for slaughtered animals, decontamination, production loss or other loss of income than production loss, whereas the production loss is compensated only in the amount of 50%. This led the Swedish Board of Agriculture to conclude that any other costs or loss should not be compensated. Based on the above legal argumentation, the Swedish Board of Agriculture did not satisfy the claim of Överumans Fisk AB in respect of legal costs, stand-still costs, interest costs, other costs (such as travel, translation, and etc. costs) and satisfied the claim of loss of profit only partially. Due to the above reasons the amount of compensation was reduced to SEK 10,727,636 (approximately 1.2 million euro).
Additional information: Katre Kõvask AS Premia Foods Chairman of Management Board T: +372 6 033 800 katre.kovask@premia.ee www.premiafoods.eu
