Chilean farmed salmon and trout exports increased – though just slightly – during the first half of 2023 when compared to the same period in 2022, the Chilean Salmon Council reported in its latest “Quarterly Salmon Export Report.”
Chile’s exports of salmon and trout reached 373,734 metric tons (MT) in H1 2023, a 2 percent increase when compared to the same period in 2022. The value of those exports totaled USD 3.31 billion (EUR 3.03 billion), also a 2 percent bump.
The Chilean Salmon Council’s members include the salmon-farming companies AquaChile, Australis, Cermaq, Mowi, and Salmones Aysén, which together comprise more than half of Chilean salmon production, and its recent report references information from Chile’s Central Bank and the National Customs Service.
“We see an industry that is expanding but at very moderate levels, and in a competitive world, those who do not advance fall behind,” Salmon Council Executive Director Loreto Seguel said in a release.
Chile’s salmon production, which takes place principally in the southern regions of Los Lagos, Aysén, and Magallanes, is a significant job generator and is the country’s second-largest export sector, following the mining industry. Salmon represented 15.5 percent of the country’s total non-mining exports by value through the first six months of the year, according to the council’s calculations, a slightly better performance than the 2017 to 2022 average of 14.9 percent.
However, the industry did not manage to reach its total from H1 2020, when Chile exported 381,735 MT of salmon and trout.
Chile’s Q1 2023 exporters were down 1 percent year over year by volume, which the council said was due to the preference for formats with a lower yield per harvested piece, such as fillets, over formats like higher-weighing whole salmom. In volume terms, Chile saw 5.6 percent year-over-year growth in Q2 2023, with a 37 percent increase in coho salmon exports. In Q2 2023, shipments fell 0.6 percent in value despite the boost in volume, owing to a significant drop in international prices, most notably in the U.S. – the primary global market for Chilean salmon, according to the council,
In H1 2023, Chile exported its farmed salmon and trout to more than 70 countries. The U.S. was the top destination, representing 34.1 percent of the total, on increasing demand for fresh Atlantic salmon fillets. Brazil, which prefers whole fresh Atlantic salmon, followed at 17.2 percent, and Japan’s share was 15.7 percent, mostly comprising whole and fillet frozen coho. Russia bought 5.2 percent of Chile’s salmonid exports, and China purchased 5.1 percent of its total.
Compared to H1 2022, U.S. demand slipped 0.5 percent year over year. Sales to Brazil, conversely, increased by 4.4 percent. Japan’s purchases declined 21 percent.
The council said the economic forecast for Chile’s salmon exports was muddled. It noted the U.S. Federal Reserve’s raising of interest rates in its bid to control inflation could have a negative impact on prices, and recent wobbles in the Chinese economy have also made that market less predictable.
To make up for some of those potential problems, the council said it was hopeful a mid-July compact India signed pledging to reduce tariffs on Chilean salmon by 15 percent will provide a boost. Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) confirmed that Chilean frozen and chilled salmon and crustacean products recently received official approval for tariff reductions under a trade agreement signed between the two countries. Under the previous agreement between the two countries, dating from 2006, Chilean salmon received a 5 percent tariff discount in India.
“This will drive the export of fresh and frozen Chilean salmon to that country, providing access to a constantly growing market and expanding the industry reach,” the Salmon Council said, citing IMF data that India’s economy is expected to grow 6.1 percent this year.
Photo courtesy of Chilean Salmon Marketing Council
