Aquaculture industry grew by 19% last year

Malta’s aquaculture industry grew by 18.9% last year compared to 2017, reaching a total output of €239.2 million.

The annual census conducted by enterprises operating in the local aquaculture industry shows that the combined output generated by the farming of tuna and closed cycle species increased €38.0 million in 2018 over the previous year.

On the other hand, the intermediate consumption, which comprises the main expenses incurred by the industry, increased by €27.3 million or 13.4% over that registered in 2017.

As a result, the industry’s gross value added stood at €7.6 million.

The information emerged from figures published by the National Statistics Office on Monday.

The gross fixed capital consumption of assets held by the aquaculture industry increased by €2.2 million to a total of €4.2 million, while compensation of employees rose by €3.7 million, reaching €8.6 million.

Overall, the industry registered a net operating loss of €5.2 million.

In volume terms, the total sales of fish amounted to 19.3 million tonnes, an increase of 22.7% over the preceding year.

The marketed tonnage of tuna accounted for 89.8% of the total sales, up from an 83.5% recorded in 2017.

This was also reflected in the tonnage of sold tuna which rose by 32.1% over the relative quantity sold a year before.

In terms of value, the total marketed amount of farmed fish rose by €62.3 million or 34.5% to a total of €242.7 million.

On the expenditure side, purchases of live tuna and fingerlings amounted to €109.9 million, an increase of €8.8 million or 8.7% over 2017.

This accounted for 47.5% of the entire intermediate consumption recorded by the industry.

Similarly, variable production costs increased by 16.6% over 2017 as a result of higher expenses related to fish feed supplies, insurance and licences fees as well as other variable costs respectively.

Moreover, further increases of 39.1% and 17.2% were registered in selling costs and overheads respectively