Producer Prices for Fish 2008

In 2008, the producer prices of European whitefish, pikeperch, perch, vendace and burbot showed a good 10% increase on the previous year. The average price paid for whitefish in 2008 was EUR 4.44/kg, for pikeperch 4.53/kg, for perch 1.35/kg and for burbot 3.76/kg. The average price paid for vendace was EUR 1.48/kg in the sea areas and EUR 2.11/kg in the inland waters. The average prices paid for salmon, trout and farmed rainbow trout fell slightly on 2007. The average price for salmon in 2008 was EUR 3.85/kg, EUR 3.36/kg for trout and EUR 3.37/kg for farmed rainbow trout.

The price of European whitefish depends on its size. The average price for large whitefish (over 800 g in size-class I) was EUR 5.77/kg, while the price for small whitefish (under 250 g size-class IV) was EUR 3.24/kg on average. The price rose in all size classes. The producer price for farmed European whitefish was EUR 7.37/kg.

The average price paid for Baltic herring for food, EUR 0.20/kg, was equal to that in two previous years, including both the Baltic herring sold for human consumption on the domestic market and exports. The price paid to fishermen for Baltic herring rose or remained at its 2007 level in each size class, yet the average size of fish was smaller than previous years. EUR 0.50-0.52/kg was paid for the fairly large size-class 00 or 0 Baltic herring, while sizeclass 1 brought EUR 0.26/kg. Size-class 2 brought EUR 0.15/kg and the smallest size-class, 3, brought EUR 0.14/kg. Very few notifications were received on the largest size-class 000. The Baltic herring for food was fairly small in size: nearly 80% of all purchasing notifications were size-class 2 or 3.

The average price paid for Baltic herring and sprat for industrial use as feed was EUR 0.10/kg.

Producer prices are given excluding VAT, which is 17 %. The average prices for European whitefish, salmon, rainbow trout and brown trout refer to gutted, the other species to ungutted.