New study and Talk: Impact of seafood imports on the EU Small-Scale Coastal Fleet

EUMOFA has released a study entitled “Impact of seafood imports on the EU Small-Scale Coastal Fleet”. The study will be presented in a TALK, which will be held on Tuesday 27 April, at 10:00 am.

The Talk

EUMOFA is organising a Talk on its recently released publication "Impact of seafood imports on the EU Small-Scale Coastal Fleet". The TALK will take place on Tuesday 27 April, at 10:00 am.

The panel of experts will include Griffin Carpenter and Sebastian Metz, and Raymond Maes (European Commission-DG MARE). Valentina Sannino (COGEA/EUMOFA) will moderate the event.

Throughout the webinar, it will be possible to interact with speakers.

The event is free, but please register here to receive the link to join.

The study in brief

The EU plays a significant role in the international seafood market as the world’s largest seafood importer. Growing quantities of seafood imports into the EU have brought a large volume and variety of seafood to store shelves, fish counters and restaurant plates, but may also be impacting the EU’s own production – and consequently the businesses and lives of EU fishers and the value chains they supply. The impact of seafood imports on domestic production has received much less research and policy attention than the impact of (terrestrial) food imports on agricultural production.

This study explores the impact of seafood imports on the EU Small-Scale Coastal Fleet (SSCF) namely, vessels under 12 meters in length which use passive gear, through thirteen case studies.

In three cases analysed (cod in southern Sweden, lobster in northern France, and lobster in the United Kingdom*), SSCF production was found to be moderately integrated with extra-EU imports. In the other ten cases, market integration was found to be loose or non-existent. In two of the three moderately integrated cases (cod in southern Sweden and lobster in the UK), the SSCF was a price taker in the market, meaning that extra-EU imports may be having an impact on the EU SSCF through affecting market prices.

The study also includes an overview of the SSCF fleets of 22 European countries, covering SSCF vessels and employment, their landings by value and quantity, main commercial species, economic performance and intra- and extra-EU seafood trade data.

The analysis is available in English.

*The study was carried out prior to the UK leaving the internal market