Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2022

This report is based on the returns of an annual survey questionnaire sent to all active authorised fish farming businesses in Scotland during 2022. Statistics on employment, production and value are presented.


Executive summary

The tables below summarise the results from the 2022 fish farms annual production survey (slight differences in these summary figures from figures in the main report are due to rounding).

Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

2021 2022
Total production (tonnes) 8,156 8,757
Production for the table (tonnes) 7,655 8,184
Production for restocking (tonnes) 501 573
Number of staff employed 146 138
Mean productivity (tonnes/person) 55.9 63.5
Number of ova laid down to hatch (millions) 4.9 4.2
Number of ova imported (millions) 3.6 2.6

In 2022, the production of rainbow trout increased by 601 tonnes. Employment decreased by eight staff and mean productivity increased to 63.5 tonnes per person. The number of ova laid down to hatch decreased by 0.7 million and the number of ova imported decreased by 1.0 million.

Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)

Ova and Smolts
    2021 2022
Number of ova produced (millions) 46.3 53.2
Number of ova laid down to hatch (millions) 72.8 78.5
Number of ova exported (millions) 0 0
Number of ova imported (millions) 50.7 43.9
Number of smolts produced (millions) 51.2 55.1
Number of smolts put to sea (millions) 51.1 55.3
Number of staff employed 291 295
Mean productivity (000's smolts/person) 175.9 186.6

The production of ova increased by 5.9 million in 2022 and the number of ova laid down to hatch increased by 5.7 million. No ova were exported in 2022 and the number of ova imported decreased by 6.8 million from the 2021 figure. The number of smolts produced increased by 3.9 million. In 2022 the number of staff employed increased by four and mean productivity increased by 10,700 smolts per person.

Production fish
    2021 2022
Total production (tonnes) 205,393 169,194
Production of 0-year fish (tonnes) 34 135
Production of grilse (tonnes) 93,346 65,163
Production of pre-salmon (tonnes) 51,349 52,738
Production of year 2 salmon (tonnes) 60,664 51,158
Mean fish weight 0-year (kg) 2.1 1.7
Mean fish weight grilse (kg) 5.0 4.4
Mean fish weight pre-salmon (kg) 4.6 4.8
Mean fish weight year 2 salmon (kg) 5.7 5.2
Number of staff employed 1,495 1,508
Mean productivity tonnes/person 137.4 112.2

Production tonnage decreased by 36,199 tonnes with a decrease in the mean harvest weight of year 0, grilse, pre-salmon and year 2 salmon. Staff numbers decreased by 13 and mean productivity decreased to 112.2 tonnes per person.

Smolt survival (percentage harvested)
Survival (%) Years 0+1 Year 2 Total
2019 input year class 54.4 20.0 74.4
2020 input year class 57.2 18.7 75.9

The smolt survival rate for the 2020 input year class increased to 75.9%. Mortality is included in the number of fish not harvested for human consumption, which also consists of fish which have escaped, been culled for production reasons, removed for sampling purposes, statutory culls or selected for broodstock production.

Other Species

Including brown/sea trout (Salmo trutta); halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus); lumpsucker(Cyclopterus lumpus)andseveral species of wrasse(Labridae).

    2021 2022
Total production (tonnes) 61a 46a
Number of staff employed (full-time) 28 28
(part-time) 13 14
Number of ova laid down to hatch (millions) 60.0 3.5b
Number of ova imported (millions) 0.7 0.9

Some figures are excluded from this report as providing them would reveal production information from an individual company.

aExcluding halibut production.

bExcluding halibut ova laid down to hatch.

In 2022, the production of other species decreased by 15 tonnes from the 2021 total, although this figure does not include halibut production. Overall, employment increased by one in 2022. There was a decrease in the number of ova laid down to hatch during 2022 but any halibut ova laid down to hatch in 2022 were not included in the 2022 figure.

Number of Confirmed Escape Incidents from Fish Farms Notified to the Scottish Government
Species Number of reported incidents which could have led to an escape of farmed fish Number of reported incidents which did lead to an escape of farmed fish Number of fish escaped
Rainbow trout 2 1 3,918
Atlantic salmon (freshwater stages) 0 0 0
Atlantic salmon (seawater stages) 6 2 52,463

Contact

Email: lorna.munro@gov.scot

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