Chile farmed salmon exports suffer contrasting fortunes in key markets in 2022

Chile's global salmon and trout exports rose 3.8 percent in 2022, helped by growth in the key US market and rebounding demand in China.

Shipments came in at 751,259 metric tons, up from 723,690 metric tons in the previous 12 months, the Chile Salmon Council trade body reported, citing customs data.

The value of the those shipments climbed 27.3 percent to $6.6 billion (€6.1 billion).

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Exports to the United States rose 4.8 percent by volume to 251,132 metric tons, while the value of those shipments rose 24.7 percent to $2.85 billion (€2.61 billion), helped by inflation.

Shipments to Chile's second-biggest customer, Japan, were up by under 1 percent to 160,400 metric tons.

However, exports to Chile's other main market in neighboring Brazil fell 3.7 percent by volume to 122,567 metric tons, contrasting with a 20.4 percent increase in the value of shipments to $804 million ($739 million).

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The Salmon Council did not provide commentary on these main markets but said it will do so in its next bulletin.

There was better news from China, where demand has rebounded since plummeting at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shipments climbed 58 percent to 25,416 metric tons in 2022, with their value nearly 83 percent higher than a year earlier at $188 million (€172.9 million).

Exports to China slid in 2020 at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic after traces of the deadly virus were found on a chopping board in a Beijing wholesale market in June that year.

It is unclear which Chilean salmon producers are continuing to export to Russia following its widely condemned invasion of Ukraine last February, but shipments were down just over 30 percent at 35,386 metric tons.