Seafood industry

Marine fisheries

Definition

All categories of marine fisheries are taken into account, from small coastal fisheries to high sea tuna fisheries. They land fresh and frozen fish, cephalopods, crustacean, shellfish and seaweed products.

Observations

• The French fishing industry generates a turnover of over EUR 600 millions.
• The fleet has an overall power of about 750,000 kW and employs 11,000 seamen (full time equivalents).
• Downward trend in production tonnage and value, in employment and in the number of vessels.
• But the overall fleet power remains at the same level approximately.
• Production of overseas fisheries: about 215,000 tonnes with an overall fleet of more than 2,400 vessels.

Trends in activity

The marine fisheries production structure has hardly changed over the recent years. Tune is the most important species in terms of seafood product sales (nearly 20% of landed tonnage and about 13% of overall sales), but fresh fish products account for almost two thirds of landed tonnage and more than 80% of total sales.

Mariculture

The mariculture industry for human consumption includes two subsets:
• shellfish farming (mainly oysters and mussels),
• "new" aquaculture to produce fish (sea bass, bream, salmonids, turbot) and shrimp or prawn (mainly shrimp in New Caledonia).
In addition, there is oyster farming in Polynesia for pearl production.

Observations

• Production remains stable around the same level but yearly variations may be important.
• Progress in the activity is reported through administrative surveys.
• Employment in mariculture (a little more than 10,000 full time equivalents in 2009) mainly comes from shellfish farming (95% of the jobs), which is the most important component of the activity.

European aquaculture: the main producing countries

Observations

• Six member states account for nearly 80% of the European Union's production in terms of tonnage and value: Spain, Greeece, France, Italy, the Netherlands and UK.
• Norway alone produces almost the same amount, in tonnage and value, as those six countries overall. Its yield has more than tripled since the 1990s.
• From modest levels in the 1990s, Greece's and Turkey's productions have also recorded a considerable increase over 15 years and have become major contributors to Europe's production.
• As compared to the other European countries, France's production appears to be stable over the studied period and has even slightly decreased in terms of tonnage. Its share of the overall European production has decreased.
• The figures presented in this section combine shellfish and fish farming.

Seafood trade

The activity includes:
• fish auctions,
• fish traders,
• a number of small trading businesses.
Fish auctions are where fishermen offer their supply to buyers, fishmongers and wholesale traders. They are also the place where producer organisations exercise their authority and control to set withdrawal prices. Fish traders are, together with processors and wholesale traders, the main middlemen between fishermen and retail fishmongers. They perform technical (batching, processing and packaging) and commercial operations. Their status is set out in the 1997 law on marine fisheries and mariculture.

Seaweed harvesting and processing

Seaweed production is mainly used for extracting gelling agents (colloids), and has also outlets in farming, pharmaceuticals and the food industry. Seaweed processing is an R&D intensive industry. The companies are principally located in Brittany. Outlets are mainly found in the fields of:
• cosmetics (production of alginates, colloids and natural gelling agents, some of which are also used by the food industry),
• food industry (processing, canning and packaging of certain fish species and products),
• farming, to a lesser extent (natural fertilisers).

Seaweed harvesting

• Seaweed harvesting by vessel produces 40,000 to 60,000 t/yr for a turnover of about 1.7 to 2.7 million euros.
• For harvesting on foot, a survey was made of seaweed buying companies in 2008. It indicated that:
  • black kelp was collected on foot by some 20 people, for a total turnover of 300,000 euros;
  • seaweed used as food was mainly collected by about 300 occasionnal harvesters, making a turnover of about 300,000 euros.

Seaweed processing

• Involves about 65 establishments,
• 1,630 non-agribusiness jobs,
• a turnover of about 420 million euros, and
• a value added estimated at about 100 million euros (source: Ifremer, estimate based on industry sector accounts).
Colloid production is operated by establishments belonging to international chemical companies while small-sized enterprises are involved in the processing of edible seaweed.

Seafood processing industry

The seafood processing industry includes companies whose main or secondary activity consists in manufacturing products for human consumption from fish, crustaceans, molluscs and cephalopods. It uses various preserving technics and manufacturing processes. The activity does not include those enterprises which only fillet fish (classified as fish trading enterprises) or seaweed processing enterprises.

Breakdown of 2009 turnover

• Seafood industry
• Marine fisheries
• Definition
• Trends in activity
• The fishing fleet of metropolitan France from 1990 to 2009
• Mariculture
• European aquaculture: the main producing countries
• Seafood trade
• Seaweed harvesting and processing
• Seafood processing industry