US importers spent nearly $14.9 billion (€12.9 billion) on seafood through the first eight months of the year.

The overall value was a 3.8 percent rise over the same period last year, thanks in part to strong prices for Atlantic salmon, tuna and crab.

Atlantic salmon imports were at $2.3 billion (€2 billion) through August, up nearly 7.7 percent over the $2.1 billion (€1.8 billion) during the same period last year.

Import volumes, too, continued to climb, reaching 216,966 metric tons, a rise of 10 percent.

Shrimp imports, including both coldwater and warmwater, were up in volume by 4 percent to 426,345 metric tons in the period, but the value of those imports declined by 2.7 percent to $3.9 billion (€3.4 billion) from this time last year.

Crab import volumes were down 10 percent to 75,332 metric tons, but the value of imports rose by a little more than 1 percent to just over $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion).

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Tuna imports rose sharply through August by both volume and value, to 186,401 metric tons worth $1.2 billion (€1 billion), an increase of 5.2 percent and 16.7 percent respectively.

Whitefish imports declined slightly to 120,978 metric tons, but the $661.3 million (€573.9 million) in value was a 7 percent rise over the same period last year.

Overall seafood import volumes remained flat through August at 1.9 billion metric tons.