May 31, 2013 — EU aquaculture production has stagnated over the last decade. Today, it produces a modest 1.3 million metric tons (MT) of products with a value of EUR 3.1 billion (USD 4 billion). The sector’s underperformance is further illustrated by the widening gap between production and consumption: 10 percent of seafood consumption comes from EU aquaculture, 25 percent from EU fisheries and the remaining 65 percent from non-EU imports.
In the European Commission’s eyes, though, European aquaculture has significant growth potential, which is why aquaculture reform is an “essential opportunity” of the incoming Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), said Viktoria Varga Lencses, DG Mare, EU Commission.
In her keynote address, “EU Aquaculture in the CFP Reform: challenges and opportunities,” given at the recent Shellfish Association of Great Britain’s (SAGB’s) 44th annual conference in London, Lencses said 50 percent of global seafood consumption is already being satisfied by aquaculture and this figure is set to rise to 65 percent by 2030.
“Europe has many different species and many different production systems. We are leaders in technological research, we have a strong entrepreneurial base but the main target should be to help satisfy consumer needs because capture fisheries alone are not able to meet our growing seafood demands,” she said.
“In addition to providing fish for the market, aquaculture is an important source of coastal economic development. Each additional percentage point of EU consumption produced internally through aquaculture could create between 3,000 and 4,000 full-time jobs, most of which will be in coastal areas.”
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com