According to a new European Commission report, the EU fishing fleet’s economic performance has been declining steadily in recent years.
Released on Friday, “The 2010 Annual Economic Report on the European Fishing Fleet” found that the EU’s fishing fleet generated profits of around EUR 250 million in 2008, if subsidies are included in the calculation. If subsidies are excluded, it made just EUR 157 million.
“Significantly lower profits are observed in 2008 compared to earlier years, partly due to the deterioration in economic performance observed through the decreases in both GVA (gross value added) and OCF (operating cash flow),” said the report. Changes in calculation methodology also contributed to the decline.
Excluding Spain, Greece and Ireland due to incomplete data, the EU fishing fleet in 2008 generated EUR 2.1 billion in GVA, down around 23 percent from 2007, and EUR 1 billion in OCF, down around 8 percent from 2007, according to the report.
Of the member states that submitted data for the report, a total of 46,707 vessels were observed in 2008 with a catch of 1.3 million metric tons. In comparison, the EU fleet register contains 88,115 vessels as 1 January 2008, at a catch of 1.86 million metric tons.
The report was complied by the EC’s Joint Research Centre, the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee of Fisheries and EU Fisheries Commissioner Marine Damanaki’s staff at DG MARE (Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries).
“We need to bring EU fleets back to profitability and we must avoid keeping subsidizing overfishing, at a high cost to taxpayers. We need to reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, to provide sustainable solutions to turn this situation around and ensure a viable economic future for the EU fisheries sector,” said Damanaki.
