October 7, 2013
Chile''s seafood exports up in Jan-Jul
In January-July of 2013, Chile''s fishery and aquaculture product exports reached a value of US$3,059 million, representing an increase of 8.7% over the same period of 2012, when US$2,813 million was obtained.
The volume of exports between January and July 2013 also rose, at 6.2% increase, changing from 771,170 in 2012 to 819,170 tonnes this year, according to the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca). This rise was mainly due to higher shipments of frozen products, which accounted for 54.7% of the total.
Subpesca''s statistics indicate that the main export was Atlantic salmon, which accounted for 40.1% of total exports. It was followed by the rainbow trout and the Pacific salmon, among others.
Chilean products were destined for 103 countries, of which the nine major ones concentrated 77.1% of total exports. Among them are the US, Japan, China, Brazil and Russia.
Between January and July of this year, the accumulated value of fish exports at 371,700 tonnes reached to US$819.2 million, reflecting a positive variation of 8.2% compared to the same period the previous year.
During the same period, 155,385 tonnes of fishmeal were sold abroad for US$286.9 million while a year earlier a total of 193,010 tonnes had been exported for US$251.2 million. The most important destinations of fishmeal were China, Japan and Spain. Out of the exported fishmeal, 57.4% had prime quality, 28.3% had super prime quality and 12.6% was standard.
Export of frozen seafood products totalled US$346.5 million, an amount that accounts for an increase of 2.5% on-year. These products were mainly directed to Nigeria, the US and Japan, with participations in value of 20.5%, 15% and 11.3%, respectively.
The sales performance of the canned products in the first seven months of 2013 totalled US$46.8 million, representing 5.6% more than a year earlier. The main markets were Venezuela, Spain and the US, with participations of 28.2%, 19.1% and 5.7%, respectively.
Between January and July of 2013, aquaculture sector exports accounted for 73.2% of total sales abroad and 54.6% of total exports, with US$2,240 million and about 447,000 tonnes.