Atlantic salmon consolidated its position as the EU’s most consumed farmed species and the third most consumed fish overall last year, confirms the latest edition of an annual study conducted by the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA). It is also the species with the highest production value in the EU.
In 2014, the bloc’s per capita consumption of salmon surpassed 2kg for the first time and “The EU Fish Market – Edition 2016” finds that last year this increased to 2.09 kg.
Since 2014, the consumption of salmon has increased in value and volume by 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively, said the report.
Within the EU, the United Kingdom is the largest consumer of salmon products in absolute terms. The country, together with Spain and France are responsible for 71 percent of the total fresh consumption value, with EUR 1.05 billion (USD 1.2 billion), EUR 502 million (USD 563.9 million) and EUR 376 million (USD 422.4 million), respectively.
Meanwhile, the EU’s self-sufficiency for salmonids started to decrease in 2011, when imports grew by 34,500 metric tons (MT) and production fell by 25,400 MT, mainly related to a decrease of farmed trout. Imports grew 26 percent between 2011 and 2014, which reduced EU self-sufficiency to 30 percent in 2014, which was the lowest level of the last 11 years.
EUMOFA said salmon alone has had “a remarkable impact” on the low self-sufficiency of the whole group of products. Trout, though, has an opposite impact, with a high self-sufficiency of 90 percent in both 2013 and 2014.
Salmonids imported in the EU reached all-time peaks in 2015, with the volume reaching 877,000 MT with a value of EUR 4.6 billion (USD 5.2 billion), representing increases of 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Salmon accounts for 95 percent of the EU’s salmonid imports, and in 2015, the EU imported an overall amount of 833,000 MT of this fish with a value of EUR 4.3 billion (USD 4.8 billion).
At the same time, import prices decreased by 1.5 percent compared with 2014, and by 2.5 percent compared with the peak reached in 2013. This was a result of growth in imported volumes driven by the Russian import ban, by Norwegian exports going to the EU, and by the 15 percent depreciation of the Norwegian currency against the EUR from 2013 to 2015.
Of all the salmon imported by the EU, 85 percent was fresh and originated from Norway, corresponding to 700,00 MT and EUR 3.5 billion (USD 3.9 billion). According to Eurostat, it was mostly sold to neighboring Sweden and Denmark, who re-exported it to other EU countries, meaning the real salmon importing countries were the main consumer markets in the EU, with France in the lead.
