Documentation of statistics aquaculture

Data description

The statistics give volumes and value of food fish, fish roe and fish fry production, as well as the number of fish farms and enterprises and natural nutrition pond farmers and quantity of production facilities.

Classification system

Food fish production data is given separately for inland waters and maritime area. The statistics also use a regional division based on the fishery units of the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY-Centre) and the Province of Åland. The statistics provide data on fish fry production for stocking and further rearing.

Sector coverage

The statistics cover practically all farmed fish and crayfish species. The production of new species is included in the statistics as they appear in the responses. 

Statistical concepts and definitions

Aquaculture production includes fish, crawfish, and food roe farmed in Finland for consumption, further rearing or stocking. Products included in the statistics are for consumption and were not processed further. The deliveries of roe or newly hatched larvae and the production of food crayfish are not included in the statistics.

Food fish production is given in ungutted weight. Food fish producers declare their production in either gutted or ungutted weight. Gutted rainbow trout and European whitefish are converted into ungutted fish in the estimate on fish production by using the factors of 1.20 and 1.10 respectively. Food fish production also includes fish delivered to fishing ponds.

The production values are given excluding VAT. They are calculated by combining the data provided by aquaculture companies with the species-specific value of food fish, food roe and fry production as well as facility-specific data on the volume of corresponding production.

The regional division used for recording statistics follows the regional division of fishery units of ELY-Centres.

Statistical unit

Data in the Aquacultural statistics is based on data provided to the Natural Resources Institute Finland by farmers. Data is collected from all enterprises farming fish or crayfish. Enterprises may own multiple fish farms, the production quantities of each one are collected separately. Fish farms include all separate production units, each of which usually holds a license for fish production from the Water Court.

Statistical population

The statistical population includes all enterprises in the register of approved aquacultural establishments at the end of the statistical year.

Unit of measure

The volumes of food fish production are given in thousands of kilogrammes.

The value of food fish production is given in millions of Euros. 

Reference period

Calendar year

Reference area

The whole of Finland and ELY-Centres (aquaculture)

Time coverage

Information is available starting from the beginning of the 1980s.

Frequency of disseminations

Yearly

Base period

The statistics are not an index. 

The statistics are compiled based on the Act on the Natural Resources Institute Finland (561/2014), the Act on Food and Natural Resource Statistics (562/2014), and the Regulation No 762/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The EU data collection programme for aquaculture (EU) 2017/1004, (EU) 2019/909, and (EU) 2019/910 requires data collection on aquaculture.

More information: Statistics legislation

Confidentiality is a base principle of statistics and assures the confidential processing of data provided by informants, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland has undertaken to follow this principle.

More information: Privacy policy – Statistics

The disseminations of the Natural Resources Institute Finland are published online on weekdays at 9:00. Data is public after it has been published on the website.

Release calendar

Publication dates are confirmed in autumn together with the action plans. The release calendar of the following year is published for users in the end of the year. The release calendar contains data on the dates of future publications. The calendar also contains direct links to already published statistical publication.

Release calendar access

Statistical releases calendar | Natural Resources Institute Finland

Quality assurance

The Natural Resources Institute Finland follows the Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of European statistics when compiling statistics.

Quality assessment

The response material of the statistics is reviewed and edited yearly. Additionally, the non-response is investigated based on variable background information. The statistics are based on the registers of the Finnish Food Authority.

User satisfaction

Feedback is collected from the users of the statistics, especially when revising the statistics. Feedback is also received directly. In addition, we investigated the wishes of users for developing the statistics in the autumn of 2021 and beginning of 2022, when updating the work programme for the Natural Resources Institute Finland. We follow the received feedback and take it into consideration in developing the statistics.

Overall accuracy and reliability

Reporting agents answering the survey sent to them is crucial for the reliability of the statistics. However, the response rate may vary greatly between years and production lines. By adding more rounds of surveys and phone interviews in the aquaculture statistics, we have reached a response rate of approximately 80–98 %.

Uncertainty due to non-response is the highest for species with low production volumes. In these cases, the production estimates are statistically more inaccurate as only few establishments grow the species in question. For example, in the fish juvenile statistics the production volumes of landlocked salmon and arctic charr, which are not farmed much, might be slightly over- or underestimated. The occurrence of measurement error is being monitored by, for example, comparing responses to ones from previous years. Results are confirmed by contacting the respondents, if necessary.

The production volumes of a species or a product are not published if data is reported by fewer than three establishments, or if the production volumes of one establishment are significantly higher compared to other establishments. Data for individual regions can often not be given as there are relatively few establishments in the industry. These regulations aim to maintain the confidentiality of reporting agents.

The statistics cover practically all farmed fish and crayfish species. The production of new species is included in the statistics as they appear in the responses. Usually, the production of new species is at first concentrated only a few producers, and, as a result, the production volumes often cannot be published for confidentiality reasons. The production is then included in a category including multiple species.

Addresses in the survey are based on the register of approved aquacultural establishments maintained by ELY-Centres and the Finnish Food Authority. Everyone practising aquaculture must be registered and declare changes in operation to the register (MMM/533/2011). In practice, the register of approved aquacultural establishments is continuously being refreshed. However, before conducting the survey the Natural Resources Institute Finland ensures that information in the register is up-to-date and will update outdated information.

Timeliness

The aquaculture statistics are published yearly by the end of June, following the statistical year. No preliminary data is published.

Comparability - geographical

Data between national regions included in the statistics is comparable. Data is also comparable with data on aquaculture published by FAO and Eurostat.

Comparability - over time

Aquacultural statistics close to the current form have been recorded since 1988. In 1988–1992 the combined number of fish juveniles for stocking and further rearing was recorded. Since 1993, the numbers of fish juveniles for stocking and further rearing have been given separately. Until 1996, landlocked salmon was included in the production figures of salmon. In statistics between 1978 and 1987 only the production of fish juveniles for stocking was given by age group. Thus, the fish juvenile numbers of salmon and trout from this time period are not directly comparable with subsequent statistics. The register of approved aquacultural establishments taken into use in 1996 caused an increase in the number of establishments in 1996.

In some years the fry production numbers of rainbow salmon have included deliveries inside establishments. In these cases, the production volumes may have been recorded twice. Since 1996 we have tried to avoid this error by defining the measurements in the statistical survey. In 1998–2000 crayfish juveniles also included freshly hatched larvae. For this reason, the number of common crayfish and signal crayfish juveniles delivered to further rearing in 1998–2000 should not be directly compared to other years. Since 2016, signal crayfish has been included in the EU List of Invasive Alien Species, and thus farming of the species has been banned.

Coherence - cross domain

The production figures of the aquacultural statistics describe the ungutted weight of fish and the number of crayfish and fish juveniles sold, or otherwise delivered for consumption, not the increase in sales. For this reason, the statistics are not comparable to the increases in sales of the corresponding year. Fish production of one year is often moved winter storage for sales during the next year, if possible. Thus, sales are recorded for a different year than increases in sales. However, sales production and increases in sales from fish usually get closer to each other over larger time periods.

Coherence between sub annual and annual statistics

Only annual statistics are published, no sub annual releases.

Source data

The data sources of the statistics are the register of approved aquacultural establishments and data provided yearly by the county administration of Åland.

Frequency of data collection

Yearly

Data collection

The aquacultural statistics are a census study, and the statistical population includes all enterprises in the register of approved aquacultural establishments at the end of the statistical year. The Natural Resources Institute Finland collects production data from fish and crayfish farmers with a mail survey, which can also be responded to online. The survey is conducted at the beginning of each year, and it concerns the production of the previous calendar year. Survey forms are mailed to all aquacultural enterprises, which may have one or more production facilities. Data is collected with facility-specific forms. Production in natural nutrition ponds makes an exception to this with its data collection by enterprise. Data collection usually uses at least two contact persons. Additionally, data from establishments that did not respond to the mail survey may be collected with a phone interview. Data on the production figures of Ahvenanmaa is received from the county administration of Ahvenanmaa.

The statistical survey also collects data on damage caused by seals from farmers on sea areas. Additionally, a separate form is used to collect data on, for example, employment and financial information required for EU data collection.

Data compilation

To account for non-response, food fish enterprises are stratified afterwards. Stratification is done based on the locations of establishments and information on business activities in the register of approved aquacultural establishments. Stratification in fry production is done based on the locations of establishments and information on business activities in the register of approved aquacultural establishments. Non-response is taken into account by using strata-specific expansion factors. Data received from the county administration of Ahvenanmaa is processed as total data. In production estimates of fish juveniles by species, missing data is estimated using linear regression models.