SANTIAGO: In the first five months of 2015, fishery and aquaculture product exports from Chile reached a value of USD 2,192 million, 24 per cent less than in the same period of 2014, when USD 2697.6 million was obtained.
The volume of exports fell by 12.5 per cent, changing from 568,800 tonnes in 2014 to 497,800 tonnes this year, the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SUBPESCA) reported.
Frozen products were those having a higher participation in export volumes, as they represented 52.2 per cent of the total.
They were followed by fresh refrigerated products (18.4 per cent) and fishmeal (14.3 per cent), according to the latest Sector Report on the Fisheries and Aquaculture issued by SUBPESCA.
The main export was Atlantic salmon, which accounted for 49.7 per cent (USD 1,088 million) of income from sales abroad.
Further back the Pacific salmon (13.5 per cent of the total) and rainbow trout were located.
Chilean products were destined for 93 countries, of which the nine major ones accounted for 79.7 per cent of total exports. These included the United States, Brazil, China, Russia and South Korea.
For the capture sector, the accumulated value of fish exports reached USD 416.1 million, which represents a 20.8 per cent drop. The volume of exports fell by 30 per cent, to 172,800 tonnes.
In the first five months of this year, 71,423 tonnes of fishmeal were sold abroad for USD 148.8 million while a year earlier 107,505 tonnes worth USD 159.9 million had been exported. The most important destinations of fishmeal were China, Korea, Canada, Japan and Germany.
Out of the total exported fishmeal, 62.5 per cent had prime quality, 32 per cent had super prime quality and 2.5 per cent was standard.
Sales of frozen seafood products abroad totalled USD 157.9 million, which represented a decline of 17.6 per cent year on year. These products were directed mostly to the United States, Peru and Spain, with participations in value of 20.5 per cent, 11 per cent and 8.2 per cent, respectively.
As for canned products, sales in the first five months of 2015 totalled USD 34.2 million, 4.4 per cent lower than a year earlier (USD 35.8 million).
The aquaculture sector exports represented 81 per cent of the total value of sales abroad and 65.3 per cent of total exports in the first five months of this year, with USD 1,776 million and about 325,000 tonnes.
The current value shows a decrease of 18.3 per cent compared to that recorded in the same period last year.
