Aquaculture (terminated in Statistics Norway), 2000, preliminary figures

Sales continue upward curve

The value of salmon sold in 2000 came to NOK 10.7 billion, up 17 per cent from 1999. A total of 437 000 tons of salmon were sold.

The value of sold trout went down by 8 per cent, but exceeded NOK 1 billion by a wide margin for the second year in a row. The decline in value is due to somewhat lower prices. About the same quantity of trout was sold in 2000 as the year before.

Nordland - still No. 1 salmon county

In 2000, 81 000 tons of salmon were produced in this long and narrow county of Northern Norway, while Hordaland on the west coast was right behind with 80 000 tons of salmon. Møre og Romsdal still produces the most trout. With almost 17 000 tons of trout the county supplied 34 per cent of total sales in 2000, a share slightly below 1999.

Fewer employed

The trend of increasingly fewer employees in fish farming seems to have stagnated. Since 1995 labour input has been reduced concurrently with the setting of new sales records. In 2000 the total man-hours worked in salmon and trout farming was down 12.5 per cent compared with 1995. In the course of the same period, the annual quantity of sold Norwegian salmon and trout increased by 75 per cent.

Mostly men

The work relating to the production of salmon and trout is done mainly by men. In 2000, 8.9 per cent of all man-hours were worked by women, whereas in 1999 it was 8.3 per cent. The share thus rose for the first time since 1995 when the share of women was 10.8 per cent. The female share is larger in the production of fry and fingerlings than in the production of fish for consumption.

Loss/wastage in the production of fish for consumption

The number of salmon reported as lost/wastage in 2000 was reduced 15.5 per cent from 1999. Around 95 per cent of these fish are counted and destroyed, while the rest have either escaped or been eaten by predators. In 2000 around 276 000 farmed salmon were reported escaped, a decline of more than 20 per cent from 1999. The number of escaped trout in 2000 was reported to be 75 000, nearly a doubling from 1999.

What about the future?

A total of 130.5 million salmon smolt and fingerlings were set out in 2000. This is nearly 7 million more than in 1999. Hordaland and Nordland set out the most, while Finnmark had the largest increase in setting out salmon. At the end of 2000 there were 11.4 per cent more salmon in fish farms than there were a year previously. The biomass has also increased. At the end of 2000 there were 331 500 tons of live salmon (166.3 million) in Norwegian fish farms, against 265 600 tons at the close of the previous year.

Around 29 million trout smolt were set out in 2000, almost 9 million more than the year before. Trout were set out in every county except for the Agder counties.

Other species of fish

Halibut is the third most important species in fish farming, but measured by both quantity sold and value it still lags far behind salmon and trout. In 2000, 426 tons of halibut were sold, a small decline from 1999. Sales of farmed cod came to 167 tons, a small increase from the "rock bottom level" in 1999. After increasing to 500 tons in 1999, sales of char and sea char fell back to 168 tons in 2000. Other fish species sold as farmed fish in 2000 were turbot, mackerel, saithe and eel.

Shellfish

Preliminary figures for 2000 show that sales have yet to take off. Mussels are still the main species; the 791 tons that were sold brought NOK 5.3 million.

Tables:

• Table 1 Fish farming. Sales of salmon and trout. Quantity and first-hand value
• Table 2 Fish farming. Salmon and trout. Number of workers and labour input, by type of license
• Table 3 Fish farming. Salmon and trout. Purcahses and internal receipts of fingerlings/smolt
• Table 4 Fishfarming. Salmon. Stock of fish for food during the period 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2000. 1 000 pieces
• Table 5 Fish farming. Salmon and trout. Stock of fish for food per 31 December 2000, by generation