Farmed Atlantic salmon production is forecast to reach a global total of 2.26 million metric tons (MT) this year, an increase of around five percent compared with 2016. While the 2017 harvest volume is below the 2.3 million MT reported in 2015, the sector is back on an output growth trend, delegates heard at the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) GOAL 2017 conference in Dublin, Ireland.
Ragnar Tveteras, business economist at the University of Stavanger, Norway, said that Atlantic salmon production is estimated to increase by a further seven percent to 2.4 million MT next year, and then by another 7.2 percent to almost 2.5 million MT in 2019.
This year, prices have continued to increase beyond 2016 levels with the 2017 average U.S. import price of fresh fillets at around USD 12 (EUR 10.22) per kg, and USD 7.90 (EUR 6.73) per kg paid for fresh whole gutted salmon in the European Union market.
“Prices are providing very good margins for salmon producers,” Tveteras said.
Norway has continued to be the world’s main Atlantic salmon producer and will harvest 1.2 million MT of the fish this year. Chile, meanwhile, has posted a significant increase from 505,000 MT in 2016 to an estimated 546,000 MT this year.
Norwegian production is expected to increase by seven percent in 2018 to 1.3 million MT, while Chile’s harvest is forecast to rise by nine percent to 600,000 MT.
In the coho salmon farming sector, which is prone to “fluctuating production,” Tveteras said that 2017’s production is expected to have fallen to a level of 141,300 MT (from 146,000 MT in 2016) and that this reduction has been accompanied by increased prices.
Coho production for 2018 is forecast to rise to 166,000 MT and then drop back to 149,000 MT in 2019, he said.
