Austria's aquaculture industry produced a total of 5,170 tonnes of fish in 2023, a 9.6% increase on the previous year, new data from Statistics Austria has found.
Rainbow and salmon trout accounted for the highest segment of production, up 13.5% to 1,920 tonnes, followed by brook trout (+2.7% to 679 tonnes), common carp (−0.4% to 557 tonnes), brown and lake trout (+8.4% to 554 tonnes), and other varieties.
Organic Certification
Of the total amount of fish produced, 483 tonnes was certified as organic, with Statistics Austria segmenting organic production as a percentage of overall production for the first time.
The production of fish eggs declined significantly, by 29.7% to 12.1 million eggs, while juvenile fish production rose by 21.5% to 37.2 million.
While production increased, the number of businesses active in this area remained largely unchanged, year-on-year, rising by 0.2% to 545.
In addition, Austrian aquaculture operators also cited a number of production losses, due to environmental factors such as heat waves, water shortage and flooding, as well as predators (otters, herons and cormorants) and issues with water quality.
European Fish Catch
Separate recent data from Eurostat indicated that the total European Union's total fish catch from seven marine areas reached approximately 3.3 million tonnes of live weight, continuing a steady decline from 4.6 million tonnes in 2018.
Spain led member states in fish catches, contributing 21% (698,000 tonnes) of the EU total, followed by Denmark at 15% (495,000 tonnes) and France at 14% (470,000 tonnes), the data showed.
Around 72% of the total catch for the European Union was taken in the Northeast Atlantic area. The key species caught in this area were herring (18%), blue whiting (16%), sprat (13%) and mackerel (10%). About one-fifth of the EU’s total live weight catch in this area was taken by Denmark’s fishing fleet (21%), followed by fleetss from France (15%) and Spain (11%).
