Aquaculture 2010

The amount of food fish cultivated in Finland in 2010 was about 11.8 million kilograms. This represented a decrease of about 1.8 million kilograms over 2009, although the value of food fish production (44.0 million €) decreased only slightly (0.4 million €). The food fish supply consisted of 11.0 million kilograms of rainbow trout, about 0.7 million kilograms of whitefish and just under 0.1 million kilograms of other food fish species.

In addition to food fish, fish culture produces fry totalling 61 million individuals, of different ages, both for stocking and further rearing. The production of rainbow trout fry on fish farms was about 20 million individuals, supplied almost exclusively for food fish farming. Fish farms also produced Baltic salmon (2.9 million individuals), landlocked salmon (0.5 million), brown trout (2.1 million), sea trout (2.2 million) and char and brook trout fry (0.6 million). Approximately 80% of the salmon and trout fry production was supplied for stocking purposes.

Natural food ponds and fish farms produced a total of about 25.4 million whitefish fry. The fry reared on fish farms (4.0 million individuals) were mainly supplied for further rearing as food fish, whereas those reared in natural food ponds went mainly for stocking. The next largest productions in natural food ponds after whitefish were pike perch (9.2 million) and grayling (1.2 million), almost exclusively supplied for stocking purposes. Small amounts of pike, Cyprinids and crayfish fry were also produced.

Altogether 341 fish farming enterprises were in operation in 2010, made up of 485 fish farms and natural food pond farmers. Of these, 178 farms operated in food fish production and 95 farms concentrated on fry, with some farms representing both production lines. A total of 213 farmers operated natural food ponds.