Recognising the need to strengthen resilience, reduce strategic dependencies and support more sustainable food production, the EU Seafood Alliance stresses that Europe’s protein strategy will remain incomplete if aquatic foods are fail to be recognised.
Bringing together EAPO, Europêche, FEAP, Seafood Europe and EMPA, the European Union Seafood Alliance (EUSeA) has welcomed the European Commission’s renewed focus on protein resilience, strategic autonomy and sustainable food systems, following the publication of the Action Plan for resilience, strategic autonomy and sustainability of the EU protein system and the EU Strategy on Livestock, describing these initiatives as setting an important direction for Europe’s food future. This underscores the failure in excluding aquatic foods from the EU protein agenda.
‘Aquatic foods are already available, nutritious and high-quality sources of protein. They contribute to healthy diets, coastal communities, responsible production, processing activities, employment, trade, consumer choice and food-system resilience,’ an EUSeA representative commented.
‘Seafood must be part of Europe’s protein conversation. If the EU wants a resilient, sustainable and strategically autonomous protein system, aquatic foods cannot remain at the margins. Fisheries, aquaculture, processing and trade are part of Europe’s food security and competitiveness agenda.’
EUSeA points out that the recent shift in the Commission’s approach towards livestock is particularly noteworthy. Whereas livestock was long considered mainly a source of emissions, it is now recognised as critical element for Europe’s food security.
‘Fisheries and aquaculture deserve the same strategic recognition,’EUSeA states.
‘A genuine paradigm shift is needed – one that sees aquatic food production not as part of the problem, but as an essential contributor to food security, coastal resilience, strategic autonomy and the sustainable management of marine resources. These objectives remain crucial, and the EU protein agenda should therefore ensure stronger coherence between the different Commission services.’
EUSeA is calling for an EU Action Plan for Blue Foods to be fully reflected in the forthcoming Vision for Fisheries and Aquaculture 2040, stating that this vision should be ambitious and become the Commission’s main strategic framework for recognising and strengthening the contribution of aquatic foods to Europe’s food system.
‘It should also ensure that aquatic foods are properly integrated into the wider EU protein and livestock agendas, which explicitly exclude fisheries, aquaculture, and their processing sectors despite being an important source and user of protein in the EU’s food and feed system,’ EUSeA states.
‘We want to ensure that Europe’s food and protein strategy reflects the full diversity of responsible protein sources available to European consumers. The Alliance highlights the potential of making full and responsible use of aquatic biological resources. EU initiatives demonstrate how fisheries and aquaculture by-products can be transformed into high-value food ingredients, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, biomaterials, packaging, construction materials, water treatment solutions, soil amendments and bio-based fertilisers.’
The EU Seafood Alliance also points out the potential to create new value chains for invasive species and species for which there is limited or no commercial demand
