U.S. imports of fresh Atlantic salmon fillets from Chile reached 8.8 million pounds in September, up a whopping 116.8 percent from the same month last year, according to figures released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service on Friday.
Through the first three quarters of 2011, they were up 91.8 percent from the same period last year, to 64.9 million pounds.
Chile’s infectious salmon anemia (ISA) outbreak of 2007 and 2008 is clearly in its past, as the country’s recovery has helped offset a dropoff in U.S. Atlantic salmon imports from Canada and Norway this year.
Through September, imports of fresh fillets from Canada were down 31.7 percent, to 7.8 million pounds, while imports of fresh whole fish were down 8 percent, to 106 million pounds. Imports of fresh fillets from Norway were down 66.2 percent, to 14.1 million pounds.
In fact, U.S. imports of fresh fillets from the Faroes Islands topped that of Canada, amounting to 8.9 million pounds through September, up an astounding 14 fold from last year.
Overall, U.S. imports of farmed salmon and trout are down 1.3 percent, to 387.2 million pounds, in the first nine months of 2011.
