Hatchery International’s editorial staff from around the world share brief reports of each region’s developments, priorities and challenges. 

North America

Year 2025 brought several notable challenges and successes for the North American hatchery industry.  

Despite a cautious post-Canadian-election optimism, whether Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new growth and investment-oriented government would pivot on the British Columbia open net-pen salmon farming ban, true developments have yet to come. This uncertainty trickles down to hatcheries and manifests as hesitation on investment in western Canada.  

On Canada’s east coast, MOWI’s Indian Head hatchery expansion project was released from the environmental assessment process with conditions, marking a major milestone in their years-long approval process. 

The United States’ tariff activities sparked concern about the flow of aquaculture inputs and products between Canada and the United States, but up to the end of the third quarter, the impact has been minimal.  

The federal government shutdown has also impacted operations at several federally funded hatcheries. On a positive note, however, Trump’s executive order, “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s release of two final programmatic environment impact statements for the Gulf of America and Southern California have improved general confidence in the opportunity for America hatchery operators to grow.  

Year 2025 has also brought further adoption of RAS technology, and the higher degree of control it offers, in many traditionally flowthrough facilities and markets, such as American state hatcheries and the Quebec trout segment. 

Regulatory focus on the impact of effluent – specifically phosphorus levels – have sharpened the focus on the next generation of low-phosphorus feeds. 

– Ben Normand

Latin America

Aquaculture across Latin America and the Caribbean continues to expand at the world’s fastest pace, accounting for 4.46 million tonnes in 2023, or 28 per cent of the region’s total fish production, according to FAO. 

Growth reached 20 per cent in South America but declined in Central America and the Caribbean, reflecting uneven institutional support and policy execution. 

Three countries – Chile, Ecuador, and Brazil – concentrate nearly 80 per cent of Latin America’s aquaculture output and lead in hatchery development, yet their trajectories diverge. 

In Chile, salmon hatchery construction has slowed markedly, with fewer than five new sites built in the past five years. The sector has achieved near self-sufficiency in egg production, sharply reducing imports, but investors remain cautious amid legal uncertainty, instability, and excessive regulation, as SalmonChile president Arturo Clément has warned.

Brazil and Ecuador have advanced under stronger institutional frameworks. Brazil’s 2009 National Aquaculture and Fisheries Policy simplified licensing, spurring tilapia and native fish hatcheries, while Ecuador’s 2020 law reinforced traceability and biosecurity systems, mainly for shrimp broodstock.

By contrast, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Perú struggle with fragmented governance, limited financing, and poor enforcement, leaving most hatchery operations small-scale and domestically oriented.

Regionally, aquaculture provides over 400,000 direct jobs and 1.2 million indirect ones, yet per capita fish consumption remains low, about 11 kilograms per year. Strengthening extension services, biosecurity, and climate resilience will be crucial to sustain growth projected at 13 per cent by 2050.

Latin America’s hatchery industry thus stands at a crossroads: capable of driving food security and rural development, but dependent on coherent governance and renewed investment to unlock its biological and technological diversity.

– Christian Pérez-Mallea

Europe

So far, 2025 has been another year of stagnation for European aquaculture, but for the first time in many years, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic, Javier Ojeda, General Secretary of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP). 

“After several years marked by uncertainty, stemming from rising production costs, complex regulatory frameworks, and market volatility, the sector is showing cautious signs of improvement, particularly in terms of improved technical and environmental performance, market stability, and renewed investment interest,” Ojeda said. 

According to FEAP, production volumes have remained broadly stable, but many operators report slightly better margins thanks to easing feed prices and more predictable energy costs compared to the highs experienced in 2022-2023.

The sector’s resilience continues to rest on its capacity to innovate, Ojeda emphasized. 

“Across Europe, hatcheries and growout farms alike are investing in technological upgrades, digital monitoring systems, and more efficient water management solutions. Selective breeding and genetics programs are also gaining momentum, contributing to better performance and survival rates,” Ojeda said. 

The hatchery segment, Ojeda added, benefits in particular from these advances, as biosecurity, nutrition, and larval rearing technologies become increasingly sophisticated and standardised. The trend toward specialisation and regional cooperation is strengthening, which bodes well for the long-term competitiveness of this initial part of the value chain.

The industry is also upbeat about the prospects for 2026. 

“If the macroeconomic climate stabilises and Member States progress in streamlining licensing procedures, as foreseen in parts of the EU Aquaculture Strategic Guidelines, EU aquaculture could finally enter a modest growth phase,” Ojeda said. 

“The hatchery sector will likely play a central role in this evolution, supplying resilient, high-performance juveniles that underpin both environmental and economic sustainability.”

– Vlad Vorotnikov

Northern Eurasia

Russia and Kazakhstan have embarked on plans to support independent hatcheries, targeting to encourage growth in aquaculture. 

Around 15 hatcheries breeding salmon smolt can seek state aid in the form of capital reimbursement for the capital costs associated with the construction and modernization of their capacities, Rosrybolovstvo, the Russian federal agency for fisheries, has recently revealed. 

Salmon smolt is one of the few segments in which Russian aquaculture still depends on imports, though a campaign aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in this area is picking up pace. 

In 2024, Russian hatcheries met nearly 15 per cent of domestic demand in salmon smolt, compared to only two per cent in 2021, Rosrybolovstvo estimated. 

Under the government plan, the hatcheries scheduled to be built or expanded in the coming years will ramp up Russian smolt production by 160 million pieces per year. This will be sufficient to meet about 80 per cent of local market demand. 

Russia prioritizes smolt production amid headwinds for its aquaculture industry. In 2024, industry output declined following a decade of consistent growth, driven by a mix of economic and environmental factors. 

In Kazakhstan, where the government aims to dramatically expand fish farming through 2030, the Agricultural Ministry has recently adopted a new decree that introduces a 50 per cent reimbursement of costs associated with purchasing broodstock. 

In addition, the Ministry plans to compensate 30 per cent of feed costs to fish farms. 

These measures are expected to strengthen the profitability of aquacultural business in Kazakhstan and create favourable conditions for its sustainable development, the Ministry said in an explanatory note to the decree. 

Russia and Kazakhstan are expected to drive growth in the aquaculture industry in Northern Eurasia, though the outlook remains uncertain for both countries. Russia is struggling with a widening budget deficit, which forces it to raise taxes and cut budget spending, while observers often say that the Kazakhstan industry development program is unrealistic.

– Vlad Vorotnikov

Africa

Across Africa, hatchery development is gaining momentum as governments, research institutions, and private investors look to aquaculture to strengthen food security and create rural employment. 

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that aquaculture now contributes more than 20 per cent of Africa’s total fish supply, with production increasing by nearly eight to 10 per cent annually over the past decade. 

FAO estimates also indicate aquaculture production is projected to grow significantly from 1.82 million tons in 2015 to 2.86 million tons by 2050 with the leading producers being Egypt, Nigeria, and Uganda. Tilapia and African catfish remain the dominant species but interest is growing in shrimp, trout and ornamental fish hatcheries.

In 2025, several African nations made significant strides in hatchery management and broodstock improvement. Egypt expanded its large-scale tilapia hatchery network using temperature-controlled recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) under projects Fayrouz Fish Farm a large-scale project in Port Said that a hatchery with a capacity for 20 million fish with a goal of producing over 150,000 tons of fish annually. 

In addition to large projects, Egypt is supporting smaller local hatcheries to improve the quality and supply of fish fry throughout the country, while Nigeria’s federal government in collaboration with FAO, launched a national aquaculture seed certification scheme worth 200 million Nigerian naira (about US$138,500) to curb the distribution of substandard fry. 

In East Africa, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania prioritized training programs to enhance hatchery biosecurity and water-quality management. 

Elsewhere, emerging private ventures in West and Southern Africa are piloting solar-powered systems to replace expensive, unreliable petrol pumps, especially in regions like Mali to reduce costs and improve water access for aquaculture

Looking ahead to 2026, the focus is shifting toward digitalization and regional collaboration. African hatcheries are adopting low-cost sensors and mobile apps for real-time monitoring of water parameters and stock performance. Regional bodies such as the African Union-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) are also working to harmonize seed certification standards to boost cross-border trade in quality fingerlings.

However, challenges remain – particularly limited access to finance, infrastructure gaps and climate related water stress – but the outlook is promising. With continued investment, training and research partnerships, Africa’s hatchery sector is moving from a largely subsistence base toward a more technology-driven and export-ready industry poised to play a central role in the continent’s blue-economy ambitions.

– Bob Atwiine

Southeast Asia

Pundits are expecting Vietnam to grow its pangasius global share and reach even more, based on the emerging participation of second-generation (F2) exporters. From traditional frozen fillets, they have started pushing for value-added products such as breaded pangasius, canned products, and byproducts.

The F2 were very visible at the Vietfish 2025. They frontlined their respective booths and engaging importers from overseas with innovative products.

Vietnam is the world’s biggest producer of pangasius, supplying over 40 per cent of global supply. Sustainability is propped up by developments in the breeding facility, hatchery and nursery sectors. Broodstock development trust is set at improving growth and disease resistance traits.

Thailand’s shrimp industry is being challenged by animal welfare concerns, just as it has been for the past decade. Early mortality syndrome (EMS) is source of major concern. The reach of the disease is so serious that that it could stagnate “growth prospects” in 2025, Thai Times reported in October 2025.

Industry stakeholders have called out for government intervention. Among the proposal is a budget allocation for a program to fight the disease. 

Milkfish growers in the Philippines step into 2026 looking forward to possibly cutting their production time.

A research breakthrough from the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC/AQD) has shortened production time by almost 50 per cent. 

From the standard 120-150 days, market-sized harvest at 440 grams may be done in 85 days. Probiotics and high-proteins feeds provided during the critical growth stage made this possible.

In Q4 of 2025, SEAFDEC/AQD Chief Dan Baliao said further trials were ongoing to confirm research results. Farming protocols will be shared with the milkfish growers once these confirm the results.

Milkfish is second only to tilapia as the Philippines’ top aquaculture product in terms of volume.

– Ruby Gonzalez

Australia

The economic outlook for hatcheries in Australia is dependent on the economic viability of the growout sector. 

While most hatcheries are climate-proofed, over the last 12 months regional weather conditions have made it hard going for several sectors, leaving gaps is production timetables and supply lines. Overall, however, the industry appears resilient, and the short-term commercial expectations are positive.

The weather prevailing across an island continent that stretches from 10oS to 43oS and is almost 4,000 kilometres from east to west vary widely, and the species grown range accordingly. The surface water temperatures of the three surrounding oceans, the Indian, the Pacific and the Southern, determine the weather patterns. 

As more of the atmospheric temperatures being recorded are absorbed by the oceans, disruptive weather events are becoming more frequent and extreme. In this context, climate must be considered as an intermediate to long-term risk to open aquaculture systems. 

RAS farms are buffered against climate variables, however, most of Australia’s controlled atmosphere technology is dedicated to hatchery production, with only a few RAS farms strategically situated in capital cities.

At this point, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is expected to be neutral which is comforting news for northern shrimp, freshwater crayfish, grouper and barramundi growers. It should also mean a cooler East Australia Current driving down the east coast into Tasmania’s salmon and shellfish waters. That said, some forecasting bodies are finding signs trending to La Niña later in the year. The Indian Ocean Dipole is predicted to be negative, bringing drier and cooler conditions to the west coast.

While the influence of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is short-term and less predictable, it has a significant bearing on conditions across the southern reaches of the continent, including its role in blocking warm moist southbound air, which can become damaging storm cells.

A worrying sign of the impact climate change can have began in the waters off the South Australian coast last March. A marine heat wave moving west across the Great Australian Bight ran into the agricultural and domestic effluent washed out of the Murray Darling Basin in a biblical flood following 10 years of relative stagnation caused by low rainfall and over exploitation. The effect of the toxic algal bloom (Karenia mikimotoi) this triggered is still being felt across the shellfish aquaculture sector.

– John Mosig