This report supplies information on the aquaculture Italian market and its competitors: market trends, SWOT and key success factors analysis, major companies performance indicators (total turnover, sector specific turnover, market shares and export quotas), business prospects and trends.
Scope
The sector is comprised of companies whose main business is aquaculture, that is, all activities carried out to produce and market aquatic organisms (both freshwater and marine species) by controlling their reproductive cycles and growth processes until they reach the legal commercial size.
Production techniques
Based on the type of species and on reproductive and growth processes, one of the following three main categories of aquaculture is employed:
- Intensive farming: fish are reproduced artificially or in captivity, then provided all dietary needs as well as environmental requirements for reproduction and growth. This may involve, among other things, the
- use of force to change water, aeration by injecting liquid oxygen and regulating the water temperature and salinity. Many intensive farming facilities are located on land: the animals are raised in large tanks
- made of cement or PVC. Other facilities use floating or submerged offshore cages: newly hatched fries are placed into the cages, fed and then captured once they have grown to the legal commercial size.
- Semi-intensive farming: used for all farmable species of aquatic life, these are generally not fully autonomous farms, but rather establishments that supplement the natural diet with feeding solutions
- that are generally low-tech and have a reduced protein content.
- Extensive farming: in this form of aquaculture, human activity is directed mainly towards creating and/or maintaining habitats that will be favourable to the growth of juvenile fish, which are either placed
- into the area or enter it naturally. Extensive farming is in progressive decline, however, because of both deteriorating water quality and disease outbreaks that have depleted the populations of some species.
Intensive aquaculture is conducted in warm and cold freshwater, brackish water and saltwater, while extensive aquaculture is generally conducted in either saltwater or brackish water, mainly to farm molluscs like mussels and clams, but also numerous species of fish like sea bass, gilt-head bream, eels, mullets and sole.
The sector can also be subdivided based on the two main categories of species produced: fish farming (conducted in saltwater, brackish water and freshwater) and mollusc farming (conducted in saltwater and
brackish water).
The main function common to all forms of aquaculture is to make numerous species of aquatic life available to the market. However, the destination of these products can either be consumers or businesses
that use the products as raw materials for filleting or as feed to bring larger fish up to legal commercial size. For intermediate clients, one basic function of aquaculture is to provide regular, qualitatively consistent supplies throughout the year, something that is not always possible to do in “wild” fishing.
Intermediate clients include:
- - large supermarkets and chain stores
- - discount retailers
- - wholesalers
- - fishmongers
- - catering companies
- - recreational and commercial fishing businesses
- - other businesses
Segments
The following segments of the sector will be analysed in this report:
Saltwater fish farming:
- hatcheries (fries)
- sea bass
- gilt-head bream
- seabreams
- corb
- greater amberjack
- other species, e.g. mullets and sole
Freshwater fish farming:
- trout
- sturgeon
- eels
- other species, e.g. carp, pike and perch
Mollusc farming:
- mussels
- clams
- other species, e.g. scallops and oysters
Molluscs, as well as numerous species of fish (sea bass, eels, gilt-head bream, corb and others) are also farmed in brackish water, which is water with a variable but moderate salt content (such as lagoons,
brackish lakes and marshes and estuaries, or areas where a body of freshwater meets a body of saltwater).
This report will not cover either the farming of aquarium fish or the production of aquatic plants.
Methodology
Databank’s methodology for Competitors reports begins with a careful screening to identify the main organisations that are representative of a given sector. Several one-to-one interviews are then conducted with the selected organisations. Questionnaires are sent to all the leading companies on an annual basis. The information collected is then verified by an expert in the particular sector using a system of counterchecks to guarantee that the information is entirely reliable and consistent. The process is then completed using Cerved Group’s proprietary information about Italian enterprises. All Competitors reports also include details concerning the strategies and performances of the leading companies in each sector.
Wherever no specific source is indicated, the information published in these reports can be assumed to have been taken from Cerved Group’s proprietary information bank. Coverage of any sector in Competitors products may be used in company presentations or in training courses on the subject.
