Scottish fish farm production survey 2017

1. Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Production survey information was collected from all 23 companies actively involved in rainbow trout production, farming 44 active sites. This figure represents the entire industry operating in Scotland.

Production

Table 1a: Annual production (tonnes) of rainbow trout during 2003-2017 and projected production in 2018

Year	Tonnes	Year	Tonnes
2003	7,085	2011	4,619
2004	6,352	2012	5,670
2005	6,989	2013	5,611
2006	7,492	2014	5,882
2007	7,414	2015	8,588
2008	7,670	2016	8,096
2009	6,766	2017	7,637
2010	5,139	2018	6,361*

* Industry estimate based on stocks currently being on-grown.

Production decreased in 2017 by 459 tonnes, a decrease of 6%, to 7,637 tonnes.

Table 1b: Production (tonnes) for the table trade during 2007-2017 according to weight category

Year	<450 g	450-900 g	>900 g	Total
	<1 lb	1-2 lbs	>2 lbs	Tonnes
2007	2,499	1,663	2,407	6,569
2008	2,375	1,950	2,487	6,812
2009	2,232	1,143	2,620	5,995
2010	2,125	727	1,606	4,458
2011	1,421	1,004	1,433	3,858
2012	1,195	1,655	2,209	5,059
2013	1,908	825	2,268	5,001
2014	2,334	290	2,704	5,328
2015	2,299	258	5,476	8,033
2016	2,393	234	4,810	7,437
2017	2,000	544	4,453	6,997

Production for the table in 2017 was 6,997 tonnes, a decrease of 440 tonnes (6%) on the 2016 total. This accounted for 92% of the total rainbow trout production, the same proportion as was produced in 2016. Also, an increase in the number of fish in the medium size range and decreases in the number of fish in the small and large size ranges were highlighted.

Table 1c: Production (tonnes) for the restocking trade during 2007-2017 according to weight category

Year	<450 g	450-900 g	>900 g	Total
	<1 lb	1-2 lbs	>2 lbs	Tonnes
2007	24	413	408	845
2008	27	351	480	858
2009	32	294	444	770
2010	19	201	461	681
2011	8	419	334	761
2012	22	266	323	611
2013	24	221	365	610
2014	28	256	270	554
2015	15	158	382	555
2016	35	183	441	659
2017	10	150	480	640

In 2017, production for the restocking of angling waters decreased to 640 tonnes representing a decrease of 19 tonnes (3%) on the 2016 total. This accounted for 8% of total rainbow trout production in 2017. These figures represent the tonnage of fish supplied to angling waters for restocking purposes; they do not account for the catch taken by anglers. The production of small and medium sized fish showed decreases while there was an increase in the production of large sized fish.

Production by Site

Table 2: Numbers of sites grouped by tonnage produced during 2007-2017

Year	Number of sites per production tonnage				Total number of sites
	<1-25	26-100	101-200	>200
2007	14	15	3	16	48
2008	8	15	7	14	44
2009	10	11	7	11	39
2010	7	13	9	7	36
2011	9	10	6	8	33
2012	10	10	6	8	34
2013	6	11	5	8	30
2014	6	11	5	9	31
2015	4	10	5	11	30
2016	6	10	3	13	32
2017	4	8	5	11	28

Production was reported from 28 of the 44 active sites. The number of producers in the size bracket 101-200 tonnes increased while those in the <1-25 tonnes, 26-100 tonnes and >200 tonnes size brackets decreased. These figures do not include those sites specialising in the production of ova or young fish for on-growing.

Production by Method

Table 3: Grouping of rainbow trout sites by production tonnages, main methods of production in 2017 and comparison with production in 2016

Production method	Production grouping (tonnes) in 2017					Total tonnage and (%) by method		Number of sites
	<10	10-25	26-50	51-100	>100	2016	2017	2016	2017
FW cages	1	0	0	0	5	2,836 (35.0%)	2,592 (34.0%)	6	6
FW ponds and raceways	0	1	3	4	5	1,420 (17.6%)	1,484 (19.4%)	15	13
FW tanks and hatcheries	2	0	0	1	0	81 (1.0%)	79 (1.0%)	4	3
SW cages	0	0	0	0	6	3,759 (46.4%)	3,482 (45.6%)	7	6
SW tanks	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	3	1	3	5	16	8,096	7,637	32	28

Freshwater production accounted for 4,155 tonnes (54.4%) and seawater production for the remaining 3,482 tonnes (45.6%). Production from freshwater ponds and raceways increased whilst there were small decreases in production from freshwater cages, freshwater tanks and hatcheries and seawater cages.

Company and Site Data

Table 4: Number of companies and sites in production during 2004-2017

Year	No. of companies	No. of sites
2004	38	62
2005	42	70
2006	36	66
2007	38	70
2008	31	66
2009	27	56
2010	25	51
2011	23	48
2012	25	48
2013	24	46
2014	24	46
2015	24	45
2016	24	44
2017	23	44

In 2017 the number of companies authorised by the Scottish Government and actively engaged in rainbow trout production was 23. The number of sites registered and in production was 44.

Staffing and Productivity

Table 5: Number of staff employed and productivity per person during 2004-2017

Year	Full-time	Part-time	Total	Productivity (tonnes/person)
2004	115	37	152	41.8
2005	108	35	143	48.9
2006	112	35	147	51.0
2007	111	32	143	51.8
2008	107	34	141	54.4
2009	111	27	138	49.0
2010	98	31	129	39.8
2011	95	23	118	39.1
2012	79	28	107	53.0
2013	89	21	110	51.0
2014	93	20	113	52.1
2015	110	16	126	68.2
2016	100	21	121	66.9
2017	110	22	132	57.9

The overall number of staff employed in 2017 increased by 11 to 132. The number of full-time staff increased by 10 while the number of part-time staff increased by one. Productivity, measured as tonnes produced per person, decreased by 13.5% in 2017 with no distinction between full and part-time employees being made for this calculation.

Production by Area

Table 6: Production and staffing by area in 2017

Area	No. of sites	Table production (tonnes)	Restocking production (tonnes)	Mean tonnes per site	Staffing			Productivity (tonnes/person)
					F/T	P/T	Total
North	4	2	31	8.3	4	2	6	5.5
East	13	1,032	333	105.0	38	7	45	30.3
West	16	5,198	25	326.4	50	5	55	95.0
South	11	765	251	92.4	18	8	26	39.1
All	44	6,997	640	173.6	110	22	132	57.9

Productivity was greatest in the West at 326.4 tonnes per site and 95.0 tonnes per person.

Figure 1: The distribution of active rainbow trout sites in 2017

Type of Ova Laid Down

Table 7: Number (000’s) and proportions (%) of eyed ova types laid down to hatch during 2006-2017

Year	All female diploid no. (%)	Triploid no. (%)	Mixed sex diploid no. (%)	Total ova
2006	22,378 (84)	2,804 (10)	1,626 (6)	26,808
2007	23,630 (83)	2,531 (9)	2,140 (8)	28,301
2008	22,978 (88)	2,526 (9)	725 (3)	26,229
2009	15,469 (87)	2,341 (13)	35 (<1)	17,845
2010	13,352 (89)	1,052 (7)	675 (4)	15,079
2011	12,673 (84)	2,254 (15)	215 (1)	15,142
2012	10,967 (85)	2,005 (15)	7 (<1)	12,979
2013	7,857 (80)	1,955 (20)	77 (<1)	9,889
2014	8,321 (75)	2,710 (25)	9 (<1)	11,040
2015	10,245 (85)	1,800 (15)	76 (<1)	12,121
2016	7,986 (80)	1,943 (20)	5 (<1)	9,934
2017	2,366 (34)	4,670 (66)	5 (<1)	7,041

Source of Ova Laid Down

Table 8: Number (000’s) and sources of eyed ova laid down to hatch in 2006-2017

Year	Ova produced in Great Britain (GB)			Imported ova			Total
	Own stock	Other stock	Total	Northern hemisphere	Southern hemisphere	Total
2006	541	2,169	2,710	22,588	1,510	24,098	26,808
2007	936	230	1,166	26,650	485	27,135	28,301
2008	582	487	1,069	25,160	0	25,160	26,229
2009	603	220	823	17,022	0	17,022	17,845
2010	415	50	465	14,614	0	14,614	15,079
2011	215	189	404	14,738	0	14,738	15,142
2012	14	230	244	12,735	0	12,735	12,979
2013	77	537	614	9,275	0	9,275	9,889
2014	9	655	664	10,376	0	10,376	11,040
2015	6	888	894	11,227	0	11,227	12,121
2016	35	349	384	9,550	0	9,550	9,934
2017	20	547	567	6,474	0	6,474	7,041

In 2017, the total number of eyed ova laid down to hatch decreased by almost 2.9 million (29%) on the 2016 figure. The proportion of ova from GB broodstock increased to 8.1% of the total and the rainbow trout industry remained reliant on imported ova. Data on the importation of ova into Scotland are also available from the health certificates and are shown in Table 9a. Any discrepancy between the figures in Tables 8 and 9a is due to data being obtained from two independent sources.

Imports from Official Import Health Certificates

Table 9a: Number (000’s) and sources of ova imported into Scotland from outwith GB during 2010-2017

Source	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Denmark	1,715	5,250	1,950	1,315	2,500	2,330	5,535	3,518
Isle of Man	1,400	520	300	800	1,000	175	20	300
N. Ireland	9,247	7,320	8,332	5,125	4,780	6,535	3,040	1,240
Norway	200	130	300	175	710	670	500	774
USA	2,340	1,580	1,800	2,350	1,700	1,675	750	0
Totals	14,902	14,800	12,682	9,765	10,690	11,385	9,845	5,832

Table 9b: Seasonal variation in numbers (000’s) and sources of ova imported into Scotland from outwith GB during 2017

Month	Denmark	Isle of Man	N. Ireland	Norway
January	420	0	740	350
February	730	300	0	0
March	60	0	110	424
April	0	0	0	0
May	930	0	20	0
June	0	0	0	0
July	0	0	120	0
August	0	0	0	0
September	0	0	0	0
October	230	0	250	0
November	298	0	0	0
December	850	0	0	0
Totals	3,518	300	1,240	774

Table 9c: Number (000’s) and sources of fish imported into Scotland from outwith GB during 2010-2017

Source	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
N. Ireland	<1	72	155	537	674	746	592	486
Republic of Ireland	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Suppliers within the European Union (EU) accounted for 86.7% of ova imported into Scotland during 2017 with Norway accounting for the remaining 13.3%. To maintain their ability to regulate production throughout the year and produce a constant supply of fish for their markets, producers have to rely upon supplies of out of season ova. In recent years there has been a trend for producers to import part grown rainbow trout into Scotland from outwith GB.

Trade in Fry and Fingerlings

Table 10: Number (000’s) of fry and fingerlings traded during 2006-2017

Year	Fry and fingerlings bought			Total number bought	Total number sold
	All female diploid no. (%)	Triploid no. (%)	Mixed sex diploid no. (%)
2006	19,731 (89)	1,675 (7)	790 (4)	22,196	20,460
2007	14,830 (89)	1,140 (7)	675 (4)	16,645	23,631
2008	24,298 (95)	1,082 (4)	118 (0.5)	25,498	31,036
2009	21,113 (94)	1,358 (6)	0	22,471	20,597
2010	15,539 (95)	585 (4)	141 (1)	16,265	14,686
2011	16,288 (88.5)	1,970 (10.7)	138 (0.8)	18,396	16,612
2012	12,543 (91)	1,226 (9)	0	13,769	12,088
2013	6,734 (84)	1,239 (16)	0	7,973	6,749
2014	5,911 (81)	1,423 (19)	0	7,334	6,719
2015	6,104 (87)	598 (9)	290 (4)	6,992	6,971
2016	6,452 (85)	1,125 (15)	0	7,577	6,779
2017	3,989 (73)	1,446 (27)	0	5,435	4,145

The established trade between hatcheries and on-growing farms continued in 2017. Some companies specialised in the production of fry and fingerlings. The total number of fry and fingerlings bought decreased by 28.3% while the number sold decreased by 38.9%. The disparity between supply and demand is due to trade with England and Wales.

Use of Vaccines

Table 11: Number of sites rearing fish vaccinated against enteric redmouth disease (ERM) and number of fish vaccinated (millions) during 2006-2017

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
No. of sites	31	28	28	31	27	26	24	19	21	17	18	18
No. of fish	36.4	41.4	29.1	27.5	20.0	20.3	20.4	9.9	10.0	8.3	7.3	5.4

Vaccines continued to be used as a preventative treatment against enteric redmouth disease (ERM), a potentially serious bacterial infection, caused by Yersinia ruckeri. Vaccination is generally carried out as a bath treatment at the fingerling stage, although some vaccines are administered by intra-peritoneal injection. A total of 5.4 million fish were vaccinated on 18 sites.

Organic Production

Of the 44 sites recorded as being active in rainbow trout production in 2017, none were certified as organic.

Escapes

There was one incident involving the loss of 216 fish from a rainbow trout site in 2017.