By Danai Alexaki

 

 

For the last several decades Greek aquaculture sector has gained a leading presence in Mediterranean aquaculture and now, in a new era of its history, it claims even higher performance.

 

The achievement of a complete financial restructuring of the three major Greek companies (Nireus, Selonda, Dias) has resulted new capital flowing into the sector.

 

Greek aquaculture sector is moving towards modernisation in terms of both infrastructure and know-how and, above all, in terms of an increase in production capacity.  

 

The domestic aquaculture sector maintains a "leading" role in sea bream and sea bass production, and estimates for this year foresee a continuation of the positive performance trend of 2021, when a decade-long record was recorded.

 

According to data from the 8th Annual Aquaculture Report, published by the Hellenic Organisation of Aquaculture Producers (ELOPY), this year's production of the two main species: sea bass and sea bream - which account for 96% of sales - is estimated to show an increase of at least 2% compared to 2021. 

 

The strengthened production boosts the prospects of maintaining last year's record decade-long performance this year, when total Greek farmed fish production reached 131,250 tonnes, worth ¢ã636 million, showing a 7% increase in terms of volume and almost 10% in terms of sales value compared to the previous year. 

 

Sea bream and sea bass account for 96% of production, while other species such as skipjack and shortfin bass are farmed in smaller quantities and account for 4% of production. 

 

More specifically, the production of sea bream and sea bass in 2021 amounted to 125 550 tonnes (73 050 tonnes of sea bream and 52 500 tonnes of sea bass) with a total value of ¢ã 604.6 million. Compared to 2020, there is an increase of 7.3% in terms of production volume and 10% in terms of sales value. Sea bream accounts for 58% of production volume and sea bass for 42%. By species, sea bream production showed a significant increase of 12.3% while sea bass increased by only 1% compared to the previous year. It is worth noting that in 2021 the production of these two species returned to pre-2010 levels.

 

The prospects are great as fish may become the main pillar for meeting the protein needs of Europeans in the future. Currently, the EU only meets 25% of its needs for fish products from European countries, which means that the scope for growth is great. Especially as fish farming has both a strong green footprint and a relatively lower exposure to energy risk than other sectors.

 

However, "turbulence" in the market continues to be caused by the attraction of spatial planning - which, although institutionalised in 2011, has not been completed yet.

 

It is worth pointing out that by fulfilling the spatial planning, the Greek fish farming sector has the potential to even double its productivity up to 200-250 thousand tonnes from 120-140 thousand tonnes nowadays.