Foreign trade in fish, 3/2021 (preliminary)

In March 2021, fish and fish products were imported to Finland worth approximately EUR 37 million; 6.7 million kilos. Of this, 1.3 million kilos were transit imports of fresh whole salmon, where salmon was exported to other parts of Europe via Finland. In March, 2.4 million kilos of salmon imported to Finland remained in the country.
The value of imports decreased by 12 percent from the corresponding period of the previous year, the volume of imports by 22 percent. The main import countries in terms of value of imports were Norway, Sweden and Poland. Salmon and shrimp were mainly imported from Norway, rainbow trout and fish products and preserves from Sweden. Frozen saithe and various fish products and preserves were imported from Poland. Norway accounted for 71% of imports.
97% of the imported fish was food fish. A small proportion (3%) was feed fish for animal consumption (200,000 kg). The amount of feed fish in March was only a third of what was imported at the same time last year.
In March, the most important import items were fresh whole salmon (3.7 million kg) and canned fish, which mainly consists of tuna (0.6 million kg). Other important imports were salmon and trout fillets (0.3 million kg) and fresh whole rainbow trout (0.3 million kg).
In March, about 7.5 million kilos of fish and fish products were exported from Finland. Transit exports of fresh whole salmon accounted for 17% of this. In total, the value of exports in March was almost 13 million euros. The value of salmon transit exports was 58 percent of this.
95% of exported fish were food fish. 359,000 kilos of fish were exported as feed, which was about half of the export volume in the corresponding period of the previous year.
In March, most frozen whole herring (4 million kg), fresh whole salmon (1.3 million kg) and fresh whole herring (1.2 million kg) were exported.
The value of exports fell by about 27% in March compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, while the volume of exports rose by a fifth. The main exporting countries in terms of export value were Estonia, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. According to the volume of exports, the main countries were Estonia, Germany, Belarus, Australia and France.