Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2023

Introduction

The annual production survey of fish farms in Scotland for 2023 was carried out by the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government. This survey collates annual production data from Scottish fin fish farm sites operated by authorised aquaculture production businesses. These are Official Statistics published in accordance with the Code of Practice for official Statistics. The production tonnage obtained is for the wet weight (i.e. weight of live fish) at harvest.

Responses to questionnaires from Scottish fish farming companies covering the period 1st January to 31st December 2023 are summarised in this report and returns are consistently received from 100% of companies. The questionnaires are given in the Supplementary Questionnaire Documentation. The survey is structured to allow readers to follow trends within the rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon and other farmed species sectors. Data from previous years have been reassessed and updated where necessary. To allow direct comparison to data provided in previous surveys, production information by region is presented in defined areas.

To meet current accessibility legislation parts of this report have been reformatted. Where tables have had to be reduced in size to meet accessibility requirements the full data sets are now available in the Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2023, Supplementary Tables. Historic data, up to and including 2022 are available on the Marine Directorate Data pages, Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey Data | Marine Scotland Data Publications, as well as in the new Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2023, Supplementary Tables. Also, Table 40 and Table 42 now exclude production figures for larval stage cleaner fish which may be traded for on-growing at facilities outside of Scotland, shortly after hatching. These tables now refer only to cleaner fish large enough to deploy on salmon farms. Trade in larval stage fish are included in Table 44, Trade in small fish table.

The cooperation of the Scottish fish farming sector in completing the questionnaires is gratefully acknowledged. The author also acknowledges William Ellison, Joanne Murphy, Sandy Murray, Ronald Smith, Peter van der Meulen, Stuart Wallace and Andrea Warwick for their contributions to the production of this report.

L A Munro

October 2024

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are designated as Official Statistics in accordance with the Statistics and Service Registration Act 2007. They have been produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Further information on Official Statistics is published by the UK Statistics Authority.