There has been a strong demand for both bass and bream throughout the summer season, putting the industry on a strong footing as we move through the latter half of the year. There continues to be a deficit in the supply of bass, while prices and production of bream are stable.

Production

Seabass production in 2021 looks to be almost identical to levels seen in 2020, with tight supply throughout the year. Turkey, which accounts for more than half of farmed European bass, saw little change in production between 2020 and 2021. Turkish production for 2021 remained at around 15 000 tonnes (13 percent) less than 2019. Spanish production was badly affected by storm Gloria in 2020, and the volume harvested in 2021 is estimated at 7 000 tonnes (25 percent) below 2019 levels. While there have been modest increases in bass production in Greece, Italy and Croatia, this has not been enough to offset the aforementioned shortfalls, and overall harvest volumes for 2021 remain on par with 2020 levels at about 10 percent below 2019 levels.

Bream production increased by around 5 percent in 2021, with Greece seeing particularly strong growth and Spain seeing moderate growth. Greece and Turkey are the main producers of farmed gilthead seabream, together accounting for close to 70 percent of output. Turkish production in 2021 looks consistent with 2020 levels at around 90 000 tonnes. Greek seabream production has continued to rise throughout 2021, and with monthly feed sales consistently above those seen in recent years this trend is expected to continue into the latter months of the year. Greek production is expected to reach close to 80 000 tonnes in 2021, compared to 55 000 tonnes in 2019. Spanish production of seabream in the wake of storm Gloria showed a stronger recovery compared to seabass, mustering an increase of close to 5 000 tonnes between 2020 and 2021.

Trade and markets

With restrictions easing in many of the major markets there has been a strong demand for both seabass and seabream. The impacts of storm Gloria are still being felt in Spain, with imports of bass and bream reached a record high in August 2021, with monthly volumes almost 4 000 tonnes. Trade volumes between March and August 2021 were up significantly on 2020 levels, with a cumulative increase of around 16 percent of volume.

Italy remains the most important market for both bass and bream, and in the second quarter of 2021 accounted for around 42 percent of total imports of each. Italian imports of bass and bream reached an all-time high in July 2021, with monthly imports of 6 600 tonnes, up 6 percent on the same period in 2020. Imports from Greece, having fallen in the first half of 2020, were able to reassert themselves in the Italian market and increased their market share by 10 percent of total supply in 2021 relative to 2020.

Prices

Bass has seen mixed prices in the second half of 2021. Small seabass in the Spanish market were selling for an average of EUR 5.00 per kg at the beginning of July, which rose to EUR 5.60 by early November. Prices for large seabass fell during the same period, from EUR 8.80 per kg to EUR 8.10 per kg.

Prices for bream have been practically static in the second half of the year across all sources and sizes. They currently stand at EUR 4.90 per kg for fish weighing between 300-400 g and EUR 6.40 per kg for fish above 600 g.

Wild caught seabass saw prices peak towards the end of July at EUR 30 per kg, before falling to EUR 20 per kg at the end of August and then picking up again to rise to EUR 25 per kg in early November. Wild caught seabream saw similar price patterns, peaking at EUR 29 per kg towards the end of July, but falling to EUR 19 per kg by early November.

Outlook

Bass and Bream have seen strong recovery, starting in the third quarter of 2020 and continuing into the latter months of 2021. As trade winds typically weaken towards the end of the year, producers will be taking stock of a largely successful year. Bream is coming to represent a progressively larger proportion of production and trade. Before 2019 the production volumes of these two species were roughly equal, but 2021 is expected to see a further widening of the gap between the two species to close to 10 percent. This gap is likely to continue to widen, although the increased supply of bream has had a dampening effect on prices.