CANADA/CHILE: Surge in Chilean salmon production hits Canadian market-share in US

The salmon farming industry in British Columbia, Canada, has posted losses, with a significant drop in its share of the US market, according to annual performance results. The loss of market share from 32% to 25% last year, said the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, is due to the rapid global growth in salmon farming which has doubled in production between 1995 and 2000. Chile alone posted a 35% increase in production in 2000, and increased its US market share from 38% to 50%. Nonetheless, salmon farming remained the Canadian province’s largest agricultural export in 2000 despite the drop in production by 7% to 43,440 metric tonnes.