July 9, 2013 — A new website launched at ESE this year by Maria Damanaki, the European commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, looks set to improve market transparency for fisheries and aquaculture products.
The European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture (EUMOFA) is a market intelligence tool that provides access to information on the sale and marketing of seafood, enabling users to analyze and determine the price at each stage of the supply chain.
The website is currently undergoing final amendments before going live, but a temporary website hosts a wide range of data on the first sale price at auction, on wholesale and retail prices, and on imports. Provided by FAO Globefish, DG MARE, EUROSTAT and DG TAXUD, as well as member states and private organizations, the data covers around 90 percent of EU catches and also includes information on aquaculture products. A spokesperson for EUMOFA told SeafoodSource that everything should be in full working order by the end of the month.
The aim of the website is to increase market transparency and efficiency, enable analysis of EU market dynamics, and support business decisions and policy-making. To make this possible, it hosts data from all EU countries, plus Norway and Iceland, as well as from European institutions.
This is the first time that all such data has been brought together in one place, in compatible format, and available in four different languages, English, French, German and Spanish.
The new tool is part of efforts by the commission to give European Producer Organizations (POs) greater information to help them develop a more market-oriented approach to landings and to “sell smarter” instead of being “price takers.”
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com