Shrinking production of trout

Siri Elise Dybdal

According to the survey, production decreased in 2011 by 520 tonnes to 4619tonnes, a decrease of 10.1 per cent. This was the lowest figure recorded in the survey, which showed production output in Scotland back to 1998.

3858 tonnes of this production was for the table trade. In 2011, production for the restocking of angling waters increased by 80 tonnes to 761 tonnes, representing an increase of 11.7 per cent on the 2010 total. This accounted for 16.5 per cent of total rainbow trout production. 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 large sized fish showed decreases, while this increased for medium sized.

The production survey information was collected from all 23 companies actively involved in rainbow trout production, farming 48 active sites. This figure represents the entire industry operating in Scotland

Employment decreased by 11 staff and productivity per person decreased to 39.1 tonnes. The number of ova laid down to hatch remained the same and the number of ova imported increased by 0.1 million.

There were five incidents involving the loss of a total of 12,820 fish from rainbow trout sites in 2011.