Two thirds of seafood consumed in EU is imported. Although capture fisheries in Europe have declined, the aquaculture sector has not grown to meet the increased demand for seafood. Seafood producers in Europe are in fierce competition with imports; prices of seafood products fluctuate and destabilise markets; unsuitable regulations influence the competitiveness of seafood producers; some producers are unable to meet the demands and expectations of consumers and many new fish products fail on markets. These and other challenges affecting the economic sustainability of European seafood producers are addressed in PrimeFish, a four year Horizon 2020 funded research project with 14 participants from Europe. For comparative investigation PrimeFish has 2 participants outside Europe, from Vietnam and Canada.
The overall objective of PrimeFish is to improve the economic sustainability and competitiveness of European fisheries and aquaculture sectors. To reach the objective, information is being gathered and analysed on economic performance and prices, supply chain relations and regulations, products, consumers and seafood market trends; to generate new knowledge and insights into the performance of European fisheries and aquaculture sectors on local and international markets. PrimeFish is also assessing the non-market value associated with aquaculture and captured fisheries as well as the effectiveness of regulatory systems and thereby will provide a basis for improved societal decision making in the future.
As there is a lack of appropriate production and socio-economic data, the project is gathering data not only on aggregate level, obtained from publically available sources, but also from individual production companies, industry organisations, sales organisations and marketing channels. To facilitate data access for the specific case studies and to create added value, the project has a large industry reference group within Europe, Vietnam and Canada.
The main outcome of the project will be models that can be used to compare competitiveness and to predict possible “boom and bust” price cycles, for strategic positioning within the value chain, on success analysis for new products and for innovation and price analysis for specific species. The implementation of the simulation and prediction models into a web-based market intelligence toolbox for seafood operators and policymakers is one of the key concepts of the project. The toolbox will provide peer comparison to both fishermen, aquaculture producers and processing companies (on a supply-chain level) and to public stakeholders on a country or species level. The toolbox should also support producers in product development and in spotting market needs. By improving strategic decision making for industry players and policymakers the long term economic sustainability of EU fisheries and aquaculture sectors will be enhanced.
