Farmed Salmon Takes Over Top Place From Bluefin Tunaff

Bluefin tuna has dropped off the perch as Australia’s most valuable finfish, with farmed salmon from Tasmania taking over when it comes to both production and value.

Rocklobster still sits on the top of the ladder for being the highest valued fishery in Australia, but sardines rule the roost when it comes to volume.

The Australian fisheries statistics for 2006/07, released in late June by Abare Economics, overall showed fishing production had decreased, but values had not reflected this drop.

Australia-wide there was a 2 per cent drop to 240,000 tons in production, but the gross value increased by 2 per cent to $2.18 billion in nominal terms (value expressed in money of the day), but fell by 1 per cent in real terms (value adjusted for inflation).

The top five for value were rocklobster ($441m), salmon ($281m), prawns ($265m), abalone ($216m) and tuna ($161m).

When it came to volume it went sardines with 33,000 tons, followed by salmon (25,300t), prawns (20,600t), rocklobster (13,700t) and tuna (13,100t).

“The real unit price of southern bluefin tuna (SBT) from South Australian aquaculture farms has almost halved since 2000/01, with production value falling by $174 million over this period,” the report said.

“The value of SBT, which typically accounts for a large proportion of aquaculture production, fell $18 million to $138 million (in 2006/07). “Te main factor contributing to this decline has been lower prices, affected by the appreciation of the Australian dollar against the Japanese yen.”

South Australia came third for the largest share of production value with 18 per cent, following Western Australia and Tasmania on 22 per cent each.

“Since 1999/00 the driving factor behind the fall in production value has been the decline in the value of rocklobster, prawns, abalone and tuna,” the report said. “The combined value of these four species has fallen by $700 million (in real terms) over this period.”

Mainly caught in South Australian waters as feed for farmed tuna, production in the SA sardine fishery rose by more than 1000 per cent between 1999/00 to 2004/05.