Copyright

Bent-Are Jensen   

April 24. 2007

An overview and ranking of production in the EU’s 27 countries and the five biggest European producers outside the EU

Summary

Welcome to the first overview and ranking of all farmed production of fish and shellfish in the European Union (EU), and elsewhere in Europe. We would go so far as to say this report is unique in that other reports and analyses preferably focus on individual species and specific markets – without providing a picture of the whole, complex industry.

The EU is lagging behind where development in fish farming is concerned. Its share of global production is receding – at the same time as aquaculture is now the fastest growing sector in global production of food.

But during 2007 EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg plans to reassess the EU aquaculture strategy. He is more enthusiastic about the industry than his predecessors.

However, it is still the way that only eight of in total 350 people work with aquaculture at the EU’s directorate general for fisheries, DG Fish. Nonetheless, eight is double the figure they had last year.

Production of sea bass and sea bream improved by 84 percent for the period 1999-2006. This is a considerably more vigorous rate of growth than for all other comparable species in European aquaculture. In fact, almost triple the rate of growth for salmon production in the same period. But for the salmon, growth in production runs parallel with growth in value. For the two Mediterranean species value declines in tempo with increased supply.

Trout is undoubtedly the biggest species in volume terms in EU fish farming. Production ashore, in dam farming, is twice as prevalent as trout production in sea cages.

In the EU the following five nations are biggest in fish farming, measured in value:

1. United Kingdom

2. Greece

3. Spain

4. Italy

5. France

In Europe, individually it is Norway that is number one for fish farming – more than 4.5 times as large as the United Kingdom in volume.

Russia provides a surprise. The figures reveal Russia is bigger on farmed fish in volume terms than the EU’s second largest producer. But in value terms Russia is ranked fourth.

In this fully comprehensive report IntraFish presents the latest aquaculture facts and figures for each individual country, in order of ranking. An insight is also provided into market progress per species and per country.