The E.U. held on to its position as the world’s third-largest seafood seafood-buying market in volume terms in 2022 behind China and Indonesia, as the bloc received close to 11.6 million metric tons (MT) of fisheries and aquaculture products.
Presented as part of an annual study from the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA), the total marks an increase compared to recent years, despite inflationary pressures facing many European nations.
The study, “The EU Fish Market – 2023 Edition,” found the E.U.’s 2022 per capita consumption of 24.55 kilograms makes it the 12th-highest-ranked consumption market in the world, but the analysis also noted the rising price of fish – up 10 percent between 2021 and 2022 – is affecting these trends.
E.U. household expenditures on seafood products reached EUR 62.9 billion (USD 68.9 billion) in 2022, representing an 11 percent increase on 2021, and accelerating a trend that began in 2018. As a result, at-home fish consumption volumes fell nearly 17 percent in the highest-consuming E.U. countries in 2022.
By comparison, E.U. households spent EUR 244 billion (USD 267.3 billion) on meat products in 2022, even though fish prices increased less than the prices of meat (11.6 percent) and food in general (12 percent) last year.
In the report’s foreword, E.U. Commissioner for Environment, Oceans, and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius wrote that imports have been important to Europe because the continent’s seafood industry has faced a succession of crises in recent years, ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“The impact of these crises was often severe, particularly affecting energy and production costs and, ultimately, inflation,” he said. “But, despite these challenges, the E.U. remains a leading global player.”
According to Sinkevičius, a major strength of the continent’s industry is that the region’s producers and processors can draw on centuries of tradition and lessons learned through open collaboration.
“This knowledge, combined with innovative thinking and the sustainable management of our resources, allows [European producers] to supply the market with a wide variety of products of the highest quality,” he said. “At the same time, however, our appetite for seafood makes us also extremely dependent on imports from non-E.U. countries. This is especially the case with salmon, cod, and shrimp.”
The bloc’s 2022 imports increased 23 percent by value year over year to EUR 31.9 billion (USD 34.9 billion), even as the volume decreased 3 percent to 6.1 million MT, sending the total below pre-pandemic levels.
EUMOFA attributed the decline in import volumes and their increased value to 2022’s food price increases.
E.U. imports of salmon – the bloc’s most-consumed species – decreased 3 percent in volume, but its value increased by 28 percent to reach a 10-year high of EUR 8.4 billion (USD 9.2 billion) last year as prices skyrocketed. Salmon imports from Norway accounted for 83 percent of the value increase seen in 2022, with a 33 percent increase in their average import price compared to 2021.
Shrimp represented 10 percent of the volume and 15 percent of the value of E.U. seafood imports in 2022, with a 2 percent increase in volume and a 17 percent rise in value compared with 2021, respectively. In 2022, Ecuador, India, and Vietnam elevated their market shares by between 1 percent and 2 percent each in terms of volume and accounted for 89 percent of the overall value increase as a group.
Tuna accounted for 10 percent of the total volume and value of fish imported into the bloc, with a 1 percent rise in volume and a 29 percent spike in value compared with 2021. Specifically, skipjack tuna represented 53 percent of the imported volume and 49 percent of the imported value, followed by yellowfin with 32 percent of volume and value.
E.U. exports to third countries totaled EUR 8 billion (USD 8.8 billion) – a 19 percent increase from 2021, while volume fell 5 percent to 2.3 million MT.
Intra-E.U. exchanges amounted to 6.1 million MT in volume and EUR 31.5 billion (USD 34.5 billion) in value, representing a 17 percent jump in value, but remaining almost unchanged in volume compared to 2021.
The report found as the value of imports grew more than exports, the E.U. trade deficit was 25 percent higher, or more than EUR 4.7 billion (USD 5.1 billion), in 2022 than in 2021, adding that in the decade between 2013 and 2022, the deficit grew by 56 percent and that all E.U. countries with deficits greater than EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) saw the situation worsen from 2021 to 2022.
Most E.U. countries observed value increases in both exports and imports while volumes decreased, the newest edition of the study stated, adding that the deficit also increased in the U.S. and Japan, the second- and third-largest net importers of fishery and aquaculture products in the world after the E.U., respectively. In the U.S., the deficit grew to EUR 22 billion (USD 24.1 billion), while Japan’s was slightly above EUR 12 billion (USD 13.1 billion). These represented nearly 20 percent increases from 2021 for both countries, EUMOFA stated.
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