Processors sourcing more seafood from outside EU

EU - With less seafood being reaped from the EU's rapidly depleting stocks, processors are sourcing more imports from outside the bloc for their supplies.

The EU has one of the world's highest trade deficits in fish and fishery products. The poor state of certain EU fishery stocks and the reduction in annual catch quotas make the EU's processing sector more and more dependent on imports from third countries for supplies.

Proposed quota reductions for this year in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean fishing areas will make processors even more dependent on imports.

In 2004, EU imports of fish and fishery products totaled € 12 billion while exports totaled €2 billion, a trade deficit of € 10 billion, a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report stated.

In 2004, 82 per cent of total EU fish imports were non-processed fishery products. Processed products classified as "fish fillets and other fish meat” account for 25 per cent of total EU fish imports.

The UK is the largest fish processor in the EU, followed by France, Spain and Germany.

France is a major seafood consumer and a net importer of many seafood products, including salmon, shellfish, surimi, and a variety of whitefish. France is the largest market for salmon, scallops in Europe.

France's largest supplier is other EU countries, followed by Madagascar and the US. The US is the country's largest supplier of lobster and surimi products.

Germany sources only 25 per cent of its unprocessed fish domestically. German imports of fish and fishery products in 2004 totaled 774,095 tonnes, valued at €2.12 billion. About 40 per cent of the country's imports originated from other EU countries, with third countries accounting for the remaining 60 per cent.

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Source: Food Production Daily

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