Canadian farmed salmon production stagnant, prices down
Statistics Canada released the production and sales figures for Canadian aquaculture production today. Production of all aquaculture products were down 1.3% to 170,172 metric tonnes, largely due to a drop of finfish production other than salmon of some 1,887 tonnes. Farmed salmon production dropped by 1,944 tonnes on the East Coast, but increased slightly in B.C. by some 1,189 tonnes, for a net decrease of 0.64%.
While the level of production roughly stayed the same, the value of the cultured fish dropped markedly- from a total of CAD$ 913 million in 2006 to 846 million last year- a drop of 7.3 per cent. This was largely due to lower prices for salmon as a result of a deteriorating value of the U.S. dollar, which is the currency in which most of the farmed salmon is sold. While the production of salmon dropped by only 0.64%, the value of that production was reduced by $CAD 56.4 million, or 7.5%.
One would expect fish farmers to gear up production now that the Canadian dollar has fallen drastically against the U.S. dollar, and Chile is expected to take a few years to get control of its production problems.
Total Canadian shellfish aquaculture production also stayed virtually the same- 39,499 metric tonnes worth $CAD 71.8 million was produced in 2006, and the corresponding numbers for 2007 were 39,365 tonnes that sold for $CAD 70.0 million.
