In 2021, European seabass production reached 305.000 tonnes globally, 98% from aquaculture and 2% from fisheries. Farmed production mainly took place in Türkiye (155.000 tonnes), the EU-27 (97.000 tonnes, a 10-year peak) and Egypt (33.000 tonnes). Over the last 10 years (2012-2021), global production of farmed European seabass doubled. The production increased much faster in Türkiye (+137%) and Egypt (+144%) than in the EU-27 (+52%).
Greece (51.232 tonnes) and Spain (23.037 tonnes) dominated the EU production with 76% of the total output. However, the sharpest increase in production over the last decade occurred in Croatia (+270%) which now represents 9% of EU production (9.083 tonnes). Italy, Cyprus and France followed with 7.282 tonnes, 2.680 tonnes and 2.615 tonnes respectively.
By contrast, wild seabass production decreased over the same period, by 38% globally and by 42% at EU level, mostly due to the strong decline of the resource in the Atlantic, and the implementation of drastic management measures after 2015. With 4.730 tonnes in 2021, the EU-27 represents 85% of world catches. Despite a strong decline of its catches over the period, France is still leading the EU production.
The EU apparent consumption for seabass amounted to 110.723 tonnes in 2021, mainly including fresh products. Extra-EU imports reached 21.594 tonnes of live weight equivalent (LWE) in 2021 (mainly from Türkiye) and extra-EU exports amounted to 12.560 tonnes LWE (mainly to the United States and the UK). There are also significant intra-EU flows between Member States (65.588 tonnes in 2022), the main exporters being Greece, Spain and Croatia and the main importers being Italy, Spain and France. The two biggest markets were Italy and Spain, accounting for 62% of the EU apparent consumption when combined (respectively 35.130 tonnes and 33.742 tonnes).
The present report focuses on Greece, Spain and Italy:
- Greece is the main EU producer of seabass (51.611 tonnes in 2021, including both farmed and wild caught seabass), with high exports (48.260 tonnes LWE) and limited apparent consumption at national level (7.120 tonnes LWE). The price structure analysis covers fresh whole seabass sold in large-scale retail, with an ex-farm price of 5,64 EUR/kg and a final price of 10,99 EUR/kg.
Spain is the second EU market, equally supplied by national production (24.300 tonnes in 2022, including both farmed and wild caught seabass) and imports (23.900 tonnes LWE). Seabass is an affordable fish in Spain and prices are determined by import prices to a large extent. The following two detailed price structure analyses cover Spanish seabass:
- sold in large scale-retail (ex-farm price at 5,50 EUR/kg and final price at 8,25 EUR/kg);
- sold in a fishmonger shop (ex-farm price at 5,40 EUR/kg and final price at 7,48 EUR/kg).
In the present analysis, the final price of seabass in Spain emerged to be lower in the fishmonger shops than in large-scale retail; however, this is not a general rule, and it may vary between years (the procurement strategies are different for large-scale retail and fishmongers) and shop location.
- Italy is the biggest EU market for seabass. It is largely supplied by imports (31.207 tonnes LWE imported in 2021) and to a lesser extent by national production (7.501 tonnes in 2021, including both farmed and wild caught seabass). In this context, the country of origin plays an important role for market segmentation in Italy, with higher prices for Italian seabass compared to imported products at all stages of the value chain. Two price structure analyses are detailed, both for fresh seabass sold in large-scale retail:
- Seabass imported from Greece (import price at 6,0 EUR/kg and final price at 12,0 EUR/kg)
- Italian seabass (ex-farm price at 9,70 EUR/kg and final price at 19,0 EUR/kg).