EU aquaculture 2023: 1.1 million tonnes produced

In 2023, aquaculture production in the EU was almost 1.1 million tonnes of live weight, valued at €4.8 billion. Aquaculture involves the controlled cultivation of fish, molluscs, algae and crustaceans.

The 3 largest EU producers of farmed aquatic organisms were Spain (242 754 tonnes; 23.1% of the EU total), France (186 561 tonnes; 17.8%) and Greece (140 908 tonnes; 13.4%).

This information comes from data on aquaculture published by Eurostat today. This article presents a selection of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on aquaculture.

Top EU aquaculture producers in 2023, tonnes of live weight compared with 2008 and 2018. Chart. See link tot he full dataset below.

Source dataset: fish_aq2a

Between 2008 and 2023, the volume of EU aquaculture production remained relatively stable at around 1.1 million tonnes. This reflected contrasting developments in key producer countries; aquaculture production in Greece grew relatively steadily, in Spain it declined sharply compared with 2018, and it remained relatively stable in France after 2018.

Main species: trout in terms of value, mussels in terms of live weight

Production in the EU is focused primarily on finfish such as trout, seabream, seabass, carp, tuna and salmon, and molluscs, including mussels, oysters, and clams. Together these accounted for most of the aquaculture production by weight in 2023.

Slightly more than a third of the EU’s total aquaculture production in live weight were mussels (34.5%), followed by trout (15.8%) and gilthead seabream (10.0%).

Trout was the most valuable species produced in 2023 (17.7% of all aquaculture value), followed by seabass (13.3%) and gilthead seabream (12.0%).

Main species in the EU aquacluture production by weight and value, 2023, %, live weight in tonnes and value in €. Chart. See link to the full dataset below.