Spain’s fishing industry federation CEPESCA states that the maintenance aid to balance sky-rocketing fuels costs in the wake of the war in Ukraine are appreciated – but the Spanish government has missed an opportunity in maintaining VAT on seafood.
According to Cepesca, the government’s attitude is that seafood is seen as a non-basic foodstuff, and the 10% VAT on it remains in place.
‘This does nothing to reverse the 25% decrease in household consumption of fish and shellfish over the last 14 years in Spain,’ said Cepesca general secretary Javier Garat, commenting that this discourages consumers from opting for fish, with its excellent quality and nutritional properties.
He added that as the healthy Mediterranean diet has been progressively abandoned in Spain, poor nutrition resulting in obesity and cardiovascular illnesses have become increasingly common, and these add a burden to the country’s health system costing more than €7 billion annually, while Cepesca calculates that reducing VAT on seafood from 10% to 4% would cost €500 million in reduced revenue.
Javier Garat points out that Ireland, the UK and Malta do not levy VAT on seafood, and in other European countries the rate varies between 3-6%.
Industry aid package
Cepesca states that the €120 million aid package approved by the Spanish government has yet to be examined in detail, and Javier Garat commented that this support is vital so as not to see a loss of ‘a large part of the inshore and offshore fleets, which have been hit by increased running costs, cuts in the Mediterranean, the unilateral closure of 87 fishing areas background in the European waters of the northwest Atlantic, the reduction of quotas for some species, and unfair competition from sectors such as Asian fleets.’
