Fish production in Finland rises by 1m kgs last year

Fish farmers produced about 15.3 million kilograms of food fish for sale in 2019, which was about one million kilograms more than that in the previous year, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Production of rainbow trout (some 14.2 million kilograms), which was also around one million kilograms higher than that in 2018, accounted for most of the increased volume.

In addition to rainbow trout, fish farms produced for food about 0.8 million kilograms of whitefish and approximately 0.3 million kilograms of other fish species.

Most of the food fish was produced in net cages in sea, with 18% of the food fish produced in the Continental Finland. About half of the food fish produced in Finland came from Åland, which accounted for nearly 60% of the total food fish production in sea areas.

Production volumes increased both in sea and inland. The increase amounted to approximately 5% in sea and 15% inland when compared to the corresponding figures in the previous year. Of the sea areas, the growth of food fish production was the largest in Åland.

In 2019, the total value of fish produced for sale was approximately EUR 70 million. Even though more farmed fish was produced for sale than in the previous year, the production value remained EUR three million euro, mainly because the producer price of rainbow trout decreased from that in 2018. The price of rainbow trout was influenced by the price of salmon on the global market, which declined from the extremely high level of a couple of years ago.