The head of the EU Fish Processors and Traders Association (AIPCE-CEP) expressed that measures that seek to protect EU markets from third country competition are outdated and should no longer be part of EU policy. Guus Pastor, president of the AIPCE-CEP, informed that currently the majority of seafood raw material imported into the EU for processing is subject to trade barriers such as import duties.
Pastor added that the present situation is not conducive for the processors and could eventually be their death-knell. He cited the reason that the EU is not self-sufficient in seafood supply and even less in sustainable seafood supply. The EU’s self-sufficiency rate for fishery products has tumbled to 36 percent, according to a 2009 document by the European Council.
According to a report by Ocean 2012 the EU relied on imports for 50 percent of its seafood consumption in 2007. Pastor said that imports are aim to protect the EU fishing industry but the fact is that the EU is not able to meet its own demand — and its own products sometimes fail to meet a market due to a lack of certification. Pastor said that if import tariffs are waived then there is a great possibility to get products in the correct way that means processing companies in Europe will be able to have a normal economic profit and will thus be able to pay normal prices to the fishermen in the EU.
Import duties increases the chance of getting more of unsustainable supply from EU vessels, a growing problem as the market demands more MSC-certified products. The lack of sustainable seafood has already taken its toll on EU fisheries and processors, Pastor said. Dutch plaice, for instance, has lost a lot of markets in the last years because it was not MSC-certified.
The AICPE-CEP hopes its message will ring with the commission as it prepares the reform of the CFP. EU processing revenues in 2007 included more than €4 billion from Spain and more than €3 billion from the United Kingdom, France and Italy each.
