Chile salmon export volume up, value down

The value of Chilean seafood exports decreased 6.8% on-year to US$3.463 billion from January to November, while volumes rose 9.2% to 1.2 million tonnes during January to September.

Sales of fishmeal and frozen seafood products were the largest contributors in terms of volume, accounting for 43.3% and 35.6% of total seafood sales, respectively.

The average price of seafood products through November was US$2.6 per kg, down 14.7% from the same period in 2008.

An estimated 891,000 tonnes of wild seafood product exports generated a total of US$1.37 billion through November. This figure represents a 6.7% increase compared to the same period the year before.

Fishmeal exports during January to November totalled US$539 million, up 31.4% on-year. About 47.3% of total exports were of prime quality fishmeal, 32.7% of super prime, and 18.9% of standard quality. The most prominent market for fishmeal sales was China, which registered hikes in volume and value compared to November 2008.

Export sales of frozen seafood products totalled US$496.2 million during January to November, up only 0.4% from the same period in 2008. The main markets for these products included Japan, the US and Spain.

The aquaculture sector exported 452,700 tonnes of products valued at US$2.09 billion from January to November 2009. This represented 33.7% of the value and 60.4% of the total exported volume through the first eleven months of 2009.

The market share of the aquaculture sector within the frozen product exports total was 74.2% of the value and 60.5% of the volume.

From January to November 2009, 290,000 tonnes of frozen aquaculture products worth US$1.428 billion were exported, up 14.3% in volume and up 9.1% in value from the same period in 2008.