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# Lucky Star cannot get enough fish to fill its tins, and canned fish sales have dropped 9%
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/oceana-lucky-star-fish-shortage-canned-volumes/
- Published: 2026-09-22T02:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T02:29:59.000Z
- Description: Oceana's local canning lines ran 60% below last year, and the same shortage of fish did far worse damage to the business nobody sees on a shelf.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

Oceana knows how many tins of Lucky Star pilchards South Africans will buy. Its problem for most of this year has been finding the fish to put in them. In a voluntary trading update on Monday covering the 11 months to the end of August, the group said revenue held level with last year and operating profit rose. Inside that, the canned food business sold 5% less by volume, with canned fish down 9%, because there was not enough stock to meet the demand in front of it.

## What 60% less canning does to a tin

Raw material shortages cut local canning production by 60% over the period. A cannery's wages, power and machinery cost much the same whether the line is full or half empty, which is why Oceana's cost of producing each unit climbed as the volumes came down. Margins held anyway, helped by better prices for what it did sell, cheaper freight, lower inventory holding costs, a better sales mix and more pilchards caught locally. Canned meat sold strongly enough to cover part of the gap. Stock on hand finished the period well down on a year ago.

## The part of Oceana the shortage hit hardest

The same missing fish did far more damage away from the tins. In the African fishmeal and fish oil business, which turns industrial catch and cannery trimmings into feed ingredients, production fell 73%. Sales volumes went with it, down 72%, and prices moving 31% higher in rand did not come close to covering that: the segment's operating loss grew from where it stood at the half-year.

Oceana's American fishmeal business had the opposite kind of year. Gulf Menhaden landings at Daybrook improved in recent weeks, running 7% ahead of the same point in 2025 and 11% above the five-year average. The 28-week season still has until the end of October to run, and sales volumes are already up 16%.

The wild caught fleet worked too. More days at sea and better catch rates lifted hake landings and sold 5% more fish, though fuel the group had not hedged took some of that back. Horse mackerel sales rose 8%, with prices firm because the smaller fish that earn the most are in short supply. Squid lost money again, on catch rates the whole industry has been struggling with.

Oceana's financial year closes at the end of September. It expects to put the full set of numbers on the market on or about 26 November.