The total volume of salmon being produced on Norwegian fish farms in January increased by 4 percent year-on-year to approximately 724,000 metric tons (MT), according to industry group Seafood Norway.
This latest biomass figure was 15,000 MT less than the previous month, but the volumes for December and November 2017 were up 7 percent and 9 percent respectively.
Seafood Norway has also confirmed that the mortality rate of the country’s farmed salmon is on a downward trend. Total mortality for the last year-class salmon was about 15.4 percent, down from a level of about 20 percent in 2002. It said that these latest figures clearly indicate that the level of salmon in the sea phase has improved significantly.
While the year classes 2016 and 2017 are not included in the calculations because production is still ongoing, Seafood Norway said that the same trend can be expected.
Norway is forecast to harvest 1.3 million MT of salmon this year, an increase of 100,000 MT compared with 2017.
