estonian agriculture, rural economy and food industry

7.
Estonia has 40 fishing ports
In 1999, 83,000 tonnes of fish were caught in the
Baltic Sea and 3,900 tonnes were caught in inland
water bodies, in addition to this, 37,400 tonnes
were caught in deep sea fishing. Estonia has 40
fishing ports; the fishing fleet consists of 258 ships,
including 23 in deep sea fishing. According to the
data of the Veterinary and Food Board, 107 enterprises
operate in Estonia in the field of fish processing
and production of fish meat products.
Twenty-seven enterprises and 13 cold-storage ships
have been approved by the European Union.
The fish industry employed 4,200 persons in
2001, which accounted for 5% of all people working
in the processing industry.
Of the fish caught and fish products made,
90% is exported, including 34% to European
Union countries.
The main products are canned fish and fish preserves.
In the first half of 2001, companies
belonging to the Estonian Fishing Association produced
33,063.4 tonnes of fish food products.
Canned fish and fish preserves accounted for the
majority of these. Smoked sprats in oil and fish in
tomato sauce were the most common canned fish
products (Figure 1).
Export and import of fish and
fish products
In terms of quantity, the greatest export article is
frozen fish, but in monetary terms, canned fish
takes first place. Cans are exported mainly to the
eastern market and CEEC markets. Filleted fish is
exported to the western markets (Table 1).
There are 25 operating fish farms. At present,
25 professional fish farms whose main income is
derived from fish operate in Estonia. Rainbow
FIGURE 1.
Cans and preserves 63%
Other products 24%
TABLE 2.
Production of fish products in 2001 (%)
297
43
340
Fish farming production (t)
Species 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Salmon
trout
Carp
Total
278
136
414
278
30
308
194
61
355
227
trout farms take the fist place (12 farms), followed
by carp farms, and a few farms produce population
material for the restoration of fish resources. Three
or four crayfish farms being established, and there
is one eel farm.
Besides these numbers, there is a large number
(approximately 100) small fish farmers, each of
which produces a few hundred kilograms of fish a
year.
Seven species of fish (salmon, salmon trout,
brown trout, whitefish, pike, pike perch, tench)
and crayfish were bred for the restoration of fish
resources, which activity is financed from sums
received for the sale of fishing rights (Table 2).
28
255
Filleted fish 5%
285
23
312
Breaded
products
4%
Surimi
products
4%
147
30
177
* Data of Fisheries Department of the Ministry of the Environment
313
47
360
TABLE 1.
HS
code
0301
0302
0303
0304
0305
0306
0307
1604
1605
Export of fish and fish products, exclusive of customs warehouses, and
import for free circulation on the domestic market in January–June 2001
export
import
Product group
Live fish
Cooled fish
Frozen fish
Fish fillets
Dried,
salted, and
smoked
fish
Crustaceans
Molluscs
Canned fish
Canned
crustaceans
Unit
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
Quantity
0,1
806,9
37117,9
2651,4
19786,4
186,4
5,4
23306,9
56,0
Amount
(EEK '000)
17,2
41387,2
122331,8
247906,1
100174,3
5760,8
128,7
492472,0
7726,2
Unit price
(EEK '000)
118587
51289
3296
93501
5063
30905
24020
21130
137861
Quantity
6,6
10154,2
10377,0
2010,9
104,2
255,7
10,7
1066,2
34,0
Amount
(EEK '000)
1541,5
74701,2
68298,5
59899,5
4349,1
12273,1
698,3
24127,1
2713,0
Unit price
(EEK '000)
232835
7357
6582
29787
41722
47996
65423
22629
79608
Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture
26