Greek fish farms overperform compared to other European nations

Meanwhile in Greece, the world’s largest farmer of seabass and seabream, was the only significant European producer to experience any growth, driven by a 16% hike in seabass output.

The FEAP 2014 report shows that European countries harvested 2.187 million metric tons of finfish in 2013. That represents a 3% or 68,000t drop from the previous year’s 2.255m tons.

Norway had the biggest drop, with volumes dropping by 55,000t from 1.325m to 1.27m tons. Nearly all the major producers experienced drops — Turkey, the second largest, saw volumes fall by some 3,000t to 208,000t, while the third largest, the UK, fell by some 8,500t to 166,700t.

Greece, the only other producer to harvest over 100,000t, was a notable exception, with production rising by some 9,500t or 8% to 125,742t. This was thanks to a 6,500t hike in its seabass volumes, further boosted by a 3,000t increase in seabream.