European seafood consumption has been on an upward growth trend since 2013 with the bloc’s overall per capita consumption now registering at around 25.8 kg and moving steadily closer to the 2008 pre-economic crisis level of 26 kg, and yet closer scrutiny of regional eating patterns finds that people in many key areas are eating less fish and shellfish products than they were 10 years ago.
The new study, “EU Consumer Habits Regarding Fishery and Aquaculture Products,” compiled by the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture products (EUMOFA), establishes that in the Western, Southern and Central EU countries, average consumption declined by 0.5 percent between 2005 and 2014.
Within the Western EU sub-region, the United Kingdom and Germany – two of the top five member states in terms of consumption – reported opposite variations, with a decline of 0.8 percent in the U.K. market and a rise of 1.1 percent in Germany.
The biggest variations within the Southern EU were Greece (down 4.5 percent) and Croatia (up 9.2 percent). EUMOFA attributes Greece’s decline to the economic and financial crisis the country has undergone; while the positive trend in Croatia is linked to its economic development in recent years following the breakdown of Yugoslavia and its EU accession. This sub region also includes France, Italy and Spain – three of the top five member states in terms of consumption – where there were declines of 0.2 percent, 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.
A decrease of 2.3 percent in the Czech Republic led the declining per capita consumption in the Central EU sub-region, highlighted the study.
There were, however, increasing consumption patterns in both the Eastern EU (up 0.8 percent) and Northern EU (up 0.1 percent) during the 10-year period. In the former, Poland was the only Baltic country to report a marked increase in its per capita consumption – up 2 percent, while Finland (up 0.5 percent) was primarily responsible for the marginal upturn in the Northern EU sub-region.
The study confirmed that the Southern EU led the bloc’s seafood consumption with an average of around 35 kg per capita. It was followed by the Northern sub-region with an average 28 kg and the Western sub-region with just under 20 kg. Meanwhile, the lowest consumption was seen in the Eastern and Central sub-regions with averages of around 12.5 kg and 8 kg per capita respectively.
Portugal was the EU’s No.1 seafood consuming member state with the nation eating 55.3 kg per capita in 2014, while the population of Hungary, with just 4.6 kg per capita, consumed the least.
According to the European Commission (EC), EU households spent a total of EUR 54 billion (USD 57.3 billion) on seafood products in 2015.
