April 14, 2025

EU aquaculture production at close to 1.1 million tonnes live weight in 2023

In 2023, aquaculture production in the European Union was almost 1.1 million tonnes of live weight, valued at €4.8 billion (US$5.18 billion), according to Eurostat.

The three largest EU producers of farmed aquatic organisms were Spain (242 754 tonnes; 23.1% of the EU total), France (186 561 tonnes; 17.8%) and Greece (140 908 tonnes; 13.4%).

Between 2008 and 2023, the volume of EU aquaculture production remained relatively stable at around 1.1 million tonnes. This reflected contrasting developments in key producer countries; aquaculture production in Greece grew relatively steadily while in Spain, it declined sharply compared with 2018. Aquaculture production remained relatively stable in France after 2018.

Production in the EU is focused primarily on finfish such as trout, seabream, seabass, carp, tuna, and salmon, and molluscs, including mussels, oysters, and clams. Together, these accounted for most of the aquaculture production by weight in 2023.

Slightly more than a third of the EU's total aquaculture production in live weight were mussels (34.5%), followed by trout (15.8%) and gilthead seabream (10.0%).

Trout was the most valuable species produced in 2023 (17.7% of all aquaculture value), followed by seabass (13.3%) and gilthead seabream (12.0%).

- Eurostat