September 23, 2003

Outlook On French Seafood Import & Export

French official statistics show an overall increase in seafood export volumes by 5 percent for the first six months of 2003. Export values, however have dropped by 3 percent.

Salmon imports remained stable in volume and increased 3% in value compared to the first 6 months of 2002. Generally, frozen fish imports from China were on the rise.

Cod, shrimps, whitefish, scallops and mussels showed increased in import volume, although average prices went in the opposite direction with cod down by 3 percent and scallops by as much as 14 percent. Sole was the only fish to register an import price increase at 19%.

One notable trend was the decrease in intra-EU trade for all categories of seafood except Dutch-origin mussels. Imports outside the EU registered strong growth, with shrimps from Madagascar, frozen fish from China and both shrimps and fish from Brazil showing strong rises.