May 16, 2014 — With Europe’s wild fisheries finding a much steadier footing, thanks in part to strategies contained within the reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the European Commission’s attentions are turning toward farmed fish and boosting EU aquaculture production.
The EU’s aquaculture industry produces a fairly diverse range of species with about half its output comprising varieties of shellfish, whereas marine fish such as salmon, seabream and seabass represent around 27 percent and freshwater fish such as trout and carp account for the remaining 23 percent.
However, just 10 percent of Europeans’ seafood consumption comes from EU aquaculture. In total, it produces less than 1.3 million metric tons (MT) of products with a combined value of EUR 3.6 billion (USD 4.9 billion), which is about 20 percent of total EU fisheries production.
According to the commission, on a global scale, the EU’s share of total world aquaculture production is only 1.5 percent of volume and just under 4 percent of value.
At the same time, the EU is the world’s largest importer of seafood. It now brings in 68 percent of the seafood it consumes and these imports represent 24 percent of the total value of the global seafood trade.
In recent weeks, the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, has set about reminding industry and consumers that seafood farmed in the EU is “healthy, fresh and local.” This campaign of communicating the sustainability, high-quality and healthy nature of EU aquaculture products was first announced last year with members of DG Mare pointing to third-party market surveys that claimed consumers are often ready to pay more for food products if they know they have been produced according to high standards.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com