While Europe’s trout farming is only bettered in the scale of its harvest by its Atlantic salmon production, it is an industry that historically makes few waves. On closer examination, though, the trout sector is polarizing: The traditional market, comprising whole fish sold in sizes of 400-500g, is in slow decline; while at the same time, there is growing market demand for fillets produced from larger fish as many European consumers seek simpler, more convenient cooking formats.
In terms of volume, the growth in the fillet trade just about makes up for the drop in the traditional table product. The demand for smoked trout has also shown steady growth.
Europe produced 385,604 metric tons (MT) of trout last year, comprising 250,013 MT of smaller fish (under 1.2kg) and 135,591 MT of larger fish, according to the latest figures published by the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP).
In 2014, Turkey was again Europe’s No. 1 producer of smaller trout with 107,533 MT. This is a position the country has held for more than a decade. It was followed by Italy with 36,800 MT, Denmark with 27,591 MT and France with 22,000 MT.
Norway has long dominated the large trout trade, producing 75,000 MT of fish last year, up from 70,000 MT in 2013. Finland, France and Denmark followed with 12,448 MT, 12,000 MT and 10,500 MT, respectively.
Larger trout are now being grown in both fresh and salt water and this trend is expected to continue in the long term in line with the general rising demand. In fact, until Russia imposed its ban on seafood and other foodstuffs from Norway, the United States, EU and some other countries in August last year, traders were saying there was not enough trout to cover the demand in a number of European markets and that prices had increased as a result.
Were it not for the Russian ban, Norway would currently be selling a lot more trout, say producers. Russia used to import more than half of Norway’s total trout production, and so with the continued loss of their No. 1 market, Norwegian farmers will keep a tight rein on production.
That situation was recently made worse with Russia deciding to block 14 Norwegian salmon and trout companies from providing the raw material for products that are imported to the market via other countries in the Eurasian Economic Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan). These 14 companies were already banned from exporting directly to the Russian market, but the additional measure against these firms came after a dispute over whether Russian food safety inspectors would be allowed to see the Norwegian facilities.
In response to the reduced market scope, the Norwegian government is now allowing trout farmers to leave fish in the water longer. As a result, the maximum allowed biomass of trout in the water has been increased by 20 percent until 30 June 2016.
In the first eight months of this year, Norway’s trout exports achieved a total value of NOK 1.3 billion (EUR 141 million; USD 156.9 million), a decline of 15 percent or NOK 251 million (EUR 27.2 million; USD 30.3 million) year-on-year.
Today, Belarus, Poland and Japan have become the largest markets for the product.
Last year, the country exported 50,700 MT of trout, down 9.5 percent on the previous year, achieving a total value of NOK 2.3 billion (EUR 249.3 million; USD 277.5 million), a decrease of just 1 percent, reflecting the higher prices paid for trout at that time. Averaging NOK 43.31 (EUR 4.69; USD 5.23) per kg last year, fresh trout prices were NOK 2.25 (EUR 0.24; USD 0.27) ahead of the average price for fresh salmon.
However, with more trout being channeled into European markets this year, exporters reported that prices fell in the first quarter and then stabilized in Q2.
Overall, production is not expected to increase by too much in the short term with farmers being cautious across the sector.
European aquaculture production totaled 2.34 million MT in 2014, a rise of 5.6 percent on the previous year, according to FEAP, with the biggest increase coming from the coldwater marine species sector. These species now represent 71.5 percent of Europe’s total farmed fish production with 1.67 million MT.
