Salmon 2

In 2013, for the first time salmon overtook shrimp, accounting for 17 per cent of the total traded value of seafood. Shrimp, meanwhile, had a 15 per cent share, according to new figures from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.

Seafood is the highest traded food commodity by value, and shrimp has been the most traded species for decades. However, production and price volatility due to disease has reduced its share in international trade. Growing demand in the producers’ own domestic markets has also led to lower exports, according to the FAO.

“Salmon is very versatile — it can be canned, smoked and processed in other ways. Shrimp has more issues in production volatility,” said Audun Lem, a seafood official at the FAO.

Over the past few years the international trade in shrimp and prawns has been affected by disease, which has hit the industry in Thailand, one of the leading producers and exporters.

Production had been falling in the Asian producer since 2012 due to the so-called early mortality syndrome, with prices hitting a record high in 2014. In 2015, output recovered for the first time in 3 years, pushing prices down by 15 to 20 per cent.

Expectations of steady demand growth have attracted new entrants into the fish farming sector. Mitsubishi of Japan bought Norwegian salmon producer Cermaq for $1.4bn in 2014, while last year Cargill, the US commodities trader, acquired EWOS, the Norwegian fish-feed company, for $1.5bn.

World fish consumption per person between 2011 and 2015 has risen from 18.7kg to 20kg, according to the FAO. Although the international trade for seafood declined in value to about $130bn in 2015 from $144bn the year before, volumes are expected to remain stable or slightly increase, the organisation said.