While the global production of mussels for human consumption continues on an upward trend, exceeding two million metric tons (MT) for the first time in 2016, the European Union's output has been static for more than a decade, a new report compiled by the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA) has found.
According to EUMOFA’s “Fresh Mussel in the E.U.” study, with 522,000 MT, the E.U. is the second-largest producer of these bivalves after China (879,000 MT in 2016), but production by the E.U.-28 was on a stagnating trend between 2007 and 2016 (the latest data available). China, meanwhile, almost doubled its mussel production over that same period to meet its own huge domestic demand.
The E.U. mussel sector focuses on two main species: the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), produced by Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United-Kingdom; and the Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis), produced mainly in Spain, France, Greece, and Italy.
Spain produces more than 200,000 MT of mussels each year and is the bloc’s largest producer, followed by Italy, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. According to FAO statistics, mussel production mainly comes from aquaculture in most E.U countries, except for Denmark, where wild catches accounted for 95 percent of the production.
In Italy, the Netherlands, and in Germany, aquaculture accounts for the entire mussel production.
In 2016, the E.U.’s apparent consumption of mussels amounted to 577,240 MT, which were mostly consumed fresh, and with the top-three markets of Spain, France, and Italy accounting for 75 percent of the total E.U. consumption. While there is a considerable intra-E.U. trade, in order to meet the overall consumer demand, member-states have steadily increased their imports of all mussel product formats from third countries.
Fresh mussel imports from non-E.U. producers increased by 30 percent over a decade to reach 163,000 MT in 2017.
EUMOFA’s report states that the world production of mussels reached 2.14 million MT in 2016, which represented a 35 percent increase since 2007. Of this total, 94 percent was farmed and 6 percent was wild-caught. It also confirmed that Chile (313,607 MT in 2016), Thailand (115,000 MT), New Zealand (94,000 MT) and the Republic of Korea (64,000 MT) were the four next-largest producers behind China and the E.U.
Image courtesy of EUMOFA
