Study on the economic importance of activities ancillary to fishing in the EU

This study aims to analyse and collect economic and social data to assist DG MARE in assessing the impact of future policy orientations and to provide information for policymakers on the potential economic and social impact of different policy options, as well as the cost effectiveness of these.  

In the European Union, both marine fishing and aquaculture are heavily regulated sectors. Consequently, a considerable amount of data is collected about the primary sector, e.g. the species caught or produced, employment, income generated and other sector-specific indicators. However, much less is known about the activities ancillary to marine fishing and aquaculture, including their contribution to the local and national economies. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the economic importance of these activities, taking into account both upstream and downstream activities up to the first point of sale.  

In addition, the study identifies the most important trends in this sector and places them in the context of the primary sectors of marine fishing and aquaculture. To obtain a better understanding of the underlying data, different segments and subsectors of marine fishing and aquaculture were also considered, as were data and key trends in the sector complementary to marine fishing and aquaculture in order also to assess the economic importance of this sector. Finally, this study also researched the economic importance of other sectors closely related to marine fishing and aquaculture, namely shellfish gathering, inland fishing, ice fishing and the seaweed industry.  

While the research into marine fishing and aquaculture focused on the economic importance of the sector ancillary and complementary to marine fishing and aquaculture, given the size of these sectors, the work on other sectors focused on the economic importance of the primary sector.