Along with Europeans’ increasing fish consumption, a majority believe the government should do more to support commercial fishermen and the seafood sector, according to a new survey.
Eighty-four percent of 4,000 consumers surveyed in eight major European nations said their governments should do more to support the sector and fishermen in Europêche’s independent April survey. The organization represents 80,000 fishermen and 45,000 vessels in the EU fleet.
In positive news for the European seafood industry, the survey also found that 70 percent of Europeans eat fish at least once a week, both for health reasons and because they like the taste. Spanish consumers are the most prolific seafood buyers; nearly 75 percent of them eat fish at least two to three times per week.
Most consumers – 84 percent – preferred to eat fish at home rather than in restaurants. And 73 percent said they bought fish at the supermarket rather than at a fishmonger. However, they also said that most stores don’t offer a wide selection of seafood.
Sixty-eight percent of consumers said they would like to know more about where and how their fish had been caught and who had caught it. And 54 percent of consumers said the knowledge that a species was sustainably caught would influence their buying decision.
While the fishing industry contributes EUR 71.3 billion (USD 77 billion) to the EU economy, only 1.7 percent or EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) of funding of the EU’s 2014 budget for sustainable growth in natural resources was allocated to the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, compared to 97.5 percent of funding allocated to European agriculture, according to Europeche.
“There is a huge disparity between the level of support provided to the agricultural and fishing sectors and what’s important now is that governments recognize this and provide a more level playing field to assist those who frequently work in difficult and dangerous conditions to put food on our plates,” said Europêche managing director Kathryn Stack.
