Trout, seabass and seabream value chains overview in Europe

Farmed fish products in Europe are mainly addressed to the market of live and fresh whole fishes. Only for the trout sector, due to their vertical integration, is it common to process/transform the fish, offering a wider range of products to final consumers. One key factor that makes the supply chain of aquaculture shorter than the fishing sector is a more direct contact between producers and the large retailers. For the seabass and seabream production, the larger share of the production is originated from few large businesses. Although supermarkets represent the largest share of retail sales, traditional channels such as fishmongers and municipal retail markets are relatively more frequent in Italy than in most other European countries. In Spain, supermarkets and traditional channels represents the 90% of market share (68% and 22% respectively) for trout, seabass and seabream. Remarkably, traditional channels achieve highest prices for seabass and seabream products (+15%).Currently, in Italy there seems to be a low probability of seeing new big companies entering in the aquaculture sector of seabream, seabass and trout. It seems not to be attractive (from a profitability point of view) and requires significant investments. With respect to Spain it is a similar situation for the trout production, however it differs for seabass and seabream. Their production is carried out by a consolidated sector with only a few firms and only one with an income higher than 100.000 €, 13 firms among 10.000 and 50.000 € and the rest obtaining lower profits.