Near the end of 2022, Statistics Canada released a final update for Canadian aquaculture in 2021, highlighting a large increase in sales, price and production from the previous year.
This major uptick is mostly due to a steady recovery of the food service and hospitality industries as most of the country eased COVID-19 restrictions. Sales of aquaculture rose by 28.1 per cent to $1.4 billion in 2021.
Due to increases in salmon prices, finfish production in Canada rose by 5.5 per cent to over 148,000 tonnes, with prices increasing 21.2 per cent from $6.78/pound to $8.22 in 2021. Atlantic Canada saw an especially large rise in finfish production after two years of mass mortality, algae blooms and infectious salmon anemia, with the region as a whole increasing production by 35.2 per cent.
Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest increase at 167.8 per cent, followed by New Brunswick at 90.6 per cent. Exports of Atlantic salmon also increased by 11.5 per cent with export sales increasing by 2.6 per cent, reflecting a 14.4 per cent overall sale increase from pandemic levels.
Prince Edward Island also saw a strong recovery in aquaculture, particularly in shellfish production. P.E.I. is Canada’s largest shellfish producer, accounting for over half of all farmed shellfish in the country. The province’s shellfish production rose 39.6 per cent in 2021, with sales increasing by 38.3 per cent up to $122.3 million.
Canadian mussels, most of which come from P.E.I., saw increased global demand in 2021, with a 36.4 per cent jump in export quantities. While mussel prices were down slightly, the overall export value of mussels jumped to $48.2 million.
Industry stakeholders are encouraged by the bounceback.
“There was over 100 per cent growth over the year previous, which you may recall was a lockdown year. So, everybody in every sector lost a lot of money and opportunity during that particular year, and we ended up being no different,” said Jamie Baker, executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association.
“What we really did last year was a return to our pre-pandemic levels, which is really good, actually.”
Baker says that salmon production benefitted slightly from the lack of product harvesting during the lockdown. Many fish that were left in the water, which gave them extra time to grow.
“It ended up being a positive, because if you have a million fish and they’re all half a pound heavier each, well that matters,” said Baker.
Baker believes that now that the industry has righted its course post-lockdown, aquaculture is set to see steady growth.
He highlighted new development in Newfoundland and Labrador, such as a new facility by Grieg Seafood, as an indicator of this.
“I think now over the next couple years we’ll start to see some steady growth in both finfish and shellfish,” said Baker.
“We’re starting to see producers ramp up their effort. We’ve got a couple of new producers now that are doing some things on both sides. On the finfish side, Grieg has now finally got fish in the water, so in the next year or two we should see some exciting things happening there.
