Smallest mussel harvest in 30 years

First mussel seed harvested in the open sea. These are the first mussel seeds harvested at a test site for mussel farming in the North Sea.
© ANP / Frank van Beek Fotografie
A total of 21.7 thousand tonnes of mussels were cultivated in 2024, nearly 30 percent less than in 2023. That was the smallest harvest in 30 years: down by nearly 80 percent compared to 1994. In 2024, 27.3 million oysters were cultivated, mainly the Zeeland Creuse or hollow oyster. This is according to provisional figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

The decline in the mussel harvest was mainly caused by natural factor: increased rainfall has led to more fresh water flowing through the area where mussels are grown, resulting in less food being available for the mussels.

Over two-thirds of the mussels produced are organically farmed (68 percent).

Majority of shellfish farming plots are used primarily for mussel cultivation

In 2024, shellfish farming covered a total area of 12.4 thousand hectares. 84 percent of this area is used for mussel cultivation (10.4 thousand hectares) and 16 percent for oyster farming (2 thousand hectares).

Mussels are grown on seabed plots in the Oosterschelde river estuary in the southwest of the Netherlands and in the Wadden Sea on the north coast. In the Netherlands, the hanging culture method is also used on a small scale, whereby mussels are grown on lines.

Cultivation of two types of oysters

Oysters are grown on plots in the Oosterschelde and Grevelingenmeer in the province of Zeeland. A quarter of the area is located in the Grevelingenmeer, an enclosed lake in the Rhine-Meuse estuary. Two types of oysters are cultivated in the Netherlands, the flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) and the Zeeland Creuse, also known as the Japanese oyster(Crassostrea gigas).

In 2024, 27.3 million flat and Creuse oysters were cultivated (2.7 thousand tonnes), 94 percent of which were Creuse oysters.