Atlantic Salmon
Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)
En - Atlantic salmon, Fr - Saumon de l'Atlantique, Es - Salmón del Atlántico
Atlantic salmon culture began in the 19th century in the UK in freshwater as a means of stocking waters with parr in order to enhance wild returns for anglers. Sea cage culture was first used in the 1960s in Norway to raise Atlantic salmon to marketable size. The early successes in Norway prompted the development of salmon culture in Scotland, and latterly Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Canada, the North Eastern seaboard of the USA, Chile and Australia (Tasmania). Minor production also occurs in New Zealand, France and Spain. All of the major production areas lie within latitudes 40-70º in the Northern Hemisphere, and 40-50º in the Southern Hemisphere.
The early Norwegian success reflected the excellent deep sheltered sites available, favourable hydrographic conditions (stable temperatures and salinities), natural salmon strains that mature late, and heavy governmental support and investment. Scottish strains of salmon tend to mature early, reducing the value of fish as they reach marketable size, so Norwegian strains were introduced to reduce this problem. Generations of cross breeding have resulted in hybrid strains which are now the norm in most production areas.
Irish production has been limited by shallow sheltered water and local opposition. The economic value of salmon farming in the Faroes has now overtaken that of fishing. North American salmon culture mainly features Atlantic salmon on both coasts. Chile has become a major producer since Atlantic salmon were introduced from Norway and Scotland in the early 1980s. Chile benefits from low production costs and easy access to fish meal for salmon feed production, which allows it to compete with Northern hemisphere producers for lucrative markets.
Salmon farming reached Tasmania in 1984, with the importation of eggs from Nova Scotia, Canada. The area has favourable sea temperatures and its relative isolation from other wild and cultured Atlantic salmon avoids some of the major infectious disease problems. Lack of suitable sites will most likely limit the expansion of the industry there.
Rapid increases in production have led to falling prices, which in turn have put increasing pressures on producers to limit costs. Significant future expansion of the industry may rely on the development of offshore sites, since most of the available suitable inshore sites are already in use, and because of increasing antagonism towards, and regulation over, further expansion in sheltered areas.
The vast majority of Atlantic salmon currently in production is hybrid stock, derived originally from native crossed with Norwegian stock. Some family breeding programmes are now in place, in order to attempt to identify family lines with increased production potential and/or disease resistance. The use of sex or genetic manipulation in Atlantic salmon is not widely used in cultured fish.
Market & Trade
The following status and trends exist:
- Current worldwide production of farmed Atlantic salmon exceeds 1 000 000 tonnes.
- Farmed Atlantic salmon constitute >90 percent of the farmed salmon market, and >50 percent of the total global salmon market.
- The major markets for farmed Atlantic salmon are Japan, the European Union, and North America.
- The major products remain fresh (whole, steaked, filleted), frozen, and smoked (mainly for the European market). A small but increasing percentage is on-processed to supply value-added products into the market.
- Because of rapid increases in production over the last 10-15 years, ex-farm prices have fallen sharply. This, and the decreasing availability of suitable sites have limited further growth in production in the Northern hemisphere. The most rapidly growing supplier now is Chile, which has low labour and materials costs and can therefore effectively compete with traditional producing countries in distant markets.
- Many producers in Europe are unable to sell fish into the market at the cost of production. There has been an increase in the development of quality schemes, both industry and interest-group led (e.g. organic/welfare-related schemes), in order to try and protect market prices. Political intervention (e.g. minimum import prices for Atlantic salmon imported into the EU from non-EU countries) has failed to maintain market prices in some markets.
- Much of the state-of-the-art research into salmonid farming still takes place in traditional Northern European producing countries, and much of this focuses on developing economies of scale in order to reduce unit production costs and protect profit margins. However, it seems likely that significant future production increases will take place in Chile, where costs of production are generally lower due to lower cost of labour and raw materials.
- For up-to-date salmon market prices, see Globefish or local market organisations.
Information Source
