The fish and seafood market - Italy

1.2 A steadily growing global market despite obstacles to expansion

According to Allied Market Research, the market for fish and seafood products is expected to grow at a CAGR of about *.* percent from ****-**** to reach $*** billion.

Globally, the market is benefiting from a number of factors that are driving demand. Among the factors driving demand growth are:

The steady increase in world population,[***]; Increasing disposable income; Changing consumer lifestyles and food preferences.

Turnover of the fish and seafood market World, ****-****, in billions of U.S. dollars Source: ****

However, the depletion of marine species[***] has slowed market growth. Overfishing of species continues to increase.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (***) is declining, from ** percent in **** to ** percent in ****. On the other hand, over the same period, the proportion of the world's fish stocks fished at biologically unsustainable levels has increased from **% in **** to **% in ****.

Global trends in the status of marine fish stocks World, ****-****, in % Source: ****

**% of fish consumption is for food use and **% for non-food use. Over the past decade, food use has increased the most (***) while non-food use has remained stable.

Per capita food consumption of fish has increased from * kg in **** to ** kg in ****, an average annual growth rate of ...

1.3 Zoom on the European Union

Source: ****

The table above shows which fish are the most consumed in the EU; we can see that tuna accounts for the largest share (***).

On the other hand, the highest self-sufficiency rate (***), the EU depends on imports from other parts of the world.

Fish consumption per capita by EU country European Union, ****, in kg/inhab Source: ****

Finally, the graph above depicts per capita consumption in the EU. At the top of the graph, the Portuguese consume ** kg of fish per year. They are followed by the Spanish, Maltese and Luxembourgers.

Italy's consumption is relatively high: Italians consume an average of ** kg per person per year, placing them sixth in Europe.

1.4 The national market for fish and fish products

Italy is a strategic country in Europe and the world in terms of the sale of fish and fish products. As also seen in the previous part (***), Italy is the sixth country in Europe in terms of fish consumption.

The strength of the Bel Paese is also having a very well-developed and fast-growing domestic market. In fact, sales of seafood products increased in value in ****, despite this, the Italian increase is one of the lowest in Europe:

Change in the value of sales of fish and fish products Europe, ****-****, in % Source: ****

The graph above shows the change in some European countries in the value of sales of fish products. It can be seen that Italy is the country with the lowest variation. Despite this, the country has a much higher value than the first six countries in the graph, with a sales value of **.* million euros in ****.

The change in sales of the main species marketed in Italy were:

Sales of the main commercial species Italy, ****-****, in % Source: ****

From the graph above, therefore, it can be seen that shrimp and squid are the only species that had a positive change in both volume and sales between **** and ****.

1.5 International trade

Italian trade with the world translates into imports and exports. As seen in Part *.*, Italy is among the world's largest importers, accounting for * percent of the total value. In concrete terms, in ****, the value of Italian imports was* *** *** *** USD.

As for exports, on the other hand, the value in **** was .*** *** *** USD. In detail, the following two charts show the countries with which Italy traded the most in ****:

Imports of fish and fish products (***) Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

Exports of fish and fish products (***) Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

Regarding exports, it is interesting to note that the most important countries are all European, while for imports this is not the case, with three non-European countries.

2.1 Italian household spending

An Italian family, on average, spends the following on the purchase of seafood products, ECOiCop Code ****:

Spending on seafood products per household Italy, ****-****, in Source: ****

From the graph below, it can be deduced that in **** the average monthly expenditure of an Italian household on fish products was €**.**.

The European agency EUMOFA has published data on consumption and spending on fish and fish products for households in Europe. Italian data have also come out, which can be summarized in the following lines.

Regarding nominal per capita household spending, Italians spend €*** on fish and seafood products, an increase of +* percent over last year.

In contrast, in terms of nominal household spending more generally, Italians spent ** ***€ on fish and seafood products in ****. This represents a +*% increase and places Italians in second place in Europe of the countries that spend the most.

2.2 The Italian consumer

According to the report published in **** by EUMOFA on the state of fish and fish products in Europe, Italian consumption of fish and fish products in **** was **.** kg per capita, a very slight increase of +*%.

Italian consumer spending on fish and fish products has been as follows over the past decade:

Real spending on fish products in purchasing power standards Italy, ****-****, in € Source: ****

The graph above was created from Eurostat's European database. It expresses the per capita expenditures of Italians infunction of their purchasing power (***), is a Eurostat unit of measurement. More information about this unit can be found here.

Italians' consumption of fish and fish products, on the other hand, is:

Consumption of fish products Italy, ****-****, in tons Source: ****

Spain, Italy, and France accounted for more than ** percent of the total volume of fresh fishery products consumed by households in ****.

The trend in household consumption in Italy over the period analyzed in the graph was volatile: a growth between **** and ****, followed by a decline from **** to ****, then a recovery in ****, when it peaked at €*.** billion.

In ****, the trend changed again, with an * percent decline in volume consumed, due to declines recorded for five species: anchovy, hake, mussel, European ...

2.3 Italians' seafood purchasing habits

The consumption of fish products enunciated in the previous part (***) covers all mixed consumption. However, there is to take into consideration that fish is consumed in different ways. The main ones are:

Seafood sales by channel Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

From the graph, however, it is clear that retail to the particulars is the most popular sales channel for seafood products.

In terms of the type of seafood product purchased, Italians' preferences for **** were:

Type of seafood product purchased Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

When buying the product in the store, just over half of Italians prefer to buy canned fish. The other half prefer it fresh or frozen. In detail, the statistics are as follows:

Mode of purchase of seafood products Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

3.1 The Italian production of fish and fish products

The national output of all fish and fish products companies was as follows:

Sold production of fish and fish products Italy, ****-****, in billions of euros Source: ****

Note: Ateco Code **** retail trade in fish, crustaceans and molluscs was used to compile the graph above.

The graph above shows the evolution of the value of fish and fish products production in Italy over a time frame from **** to ****

The Italian value of fish and fish products is thus *.** billion euros in ****

The map above shows the breakdown of fisheries production by region in percentages. The regions that are not colored, with the exception of Basilicata, are not washed by the Mediterranean Sea, which is why they do not fish. As for Basilicata, Istat provides no further information on the absence of fisheries data.

From the map, it can be concluded on the fact that Sicily is the region that produces the most fish in terms of quantity in tons, and revenues in euros, being the region that produces ** percent of Italian fisheries-related revenues

Finally, the table below shows the production of fish by species and by sea in which it was caught:

Source: ****

The production value per fish caught in the table ...

3.2 The companies in the industry

There were a total of **** companies distributing fish and fish products in Italy in ****. The breakdown of the chosen legal form is as follows:

Legal forms of companies distributing fish products Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

The Ateco Code of the companies in this sector used is **.**.

It can be seen from the graph that the vast majority of companies in the market are sole proprietors, freelancers or self-employed. The least chosen type, accounting for *% of the total, is the social cooperative society.

There were **,*** employees in the sector in ****, broken down as follows:

Breakdown of occupants of fish market companies Italy, ****, in whole numbers Source: ****

From the following graph, it can be seen that the majority of employees in a farm are equal to or less than *.

3.3 The most effective fishing system

Seven different types of fishing are practiced in the Mediterranean Sea:

Bottom trawling Fly Circumvention Hydraulic dredges Small-scale fishing Passive polyvalent Palanagari

The fishery of the most produced fish in Italy (***) is then broken down as follows regarding the type of fishery:

Source: ****

Note: M=million, m=thousand.

The table above shows revenues in € by type of fish caught and as a function of fishery type, in ****. This makes clear the most effective type of fishing according to the fish sought.

The most cost-effective method is trawling.

4.1 Seafood prices by type

Source: ****

4.2 The recognized PGI and PDO products

There are ** names registered under EU quality schemes in the seafood sector in ****. Two schemes refer to Geographical Indications (***).

More than two-thirds of the designations are PGIs, about a quarter are PDOs, and * percent are TSGs

The number of GIs has largely increased over the past decade, from ** PDOs and PGIs in **** to ** in ****. The pace of registration has also increased over the past couple of years, with * new PGI names and * PDOs registered during ****-****. The ** new GIs include:

Four GIs from Hungary. All for farmed products, including one PDO and three PGIs covering carp, brown trout, and zander One Italian PDO: "Colatura di alici di Cetara" regarding salted anchovies One Croatian PDO: the "Malostonska kamenica" on the oyster A Belgian PGI: "Escavèche de Chimay" is a cold cooked fish preparation A Romanian PGI - "Salată cu icre de știucă de Tulcea" covers a cream prepared with pike roe and other fish from the Danube Delta

The member states with the most registered names are Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Hungary with *-* registered names each.

4.3 Sustainable fishing

Fishing, and therefore all the products of the catch, have been the subject of several scandals in recent years. In fact, the environmental issue revolves a lot around this market, with great waste being carried out every year of fish products. From data published by WWF, in **** there were about ** percent of the fish caught that were discarded in the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason, the need has arisen to have and create a sustainable fishery to ensure the continuity of the market and the sought-after animal species.

This practice comes in contrast to overfishing, which is still practiced in some countries. Illegal fishing is also part of this type of fishing, which each year generate large losses to the global market turnover. Again WWF, estimates that these losses amount to between $** billion and $**.* billion.

The trend of buying products derived from sustainable fishing is increasingly a reality in Italy: according to the MSC report published in ****, sales of seafood products from sustainable fishing in Italy during **** increased by +**%, reaching ** thousand tons sold.

The trends that were most popular among Italians were:

Variation in sales trends of fish and seafood products Italy, ****-****, in % Source: ****

The graph above shows the sales ...

5.1 Primarily European fisheries legislation

European Fisheries Policy

Since ****, the Common Fisheries Policy (***) has regulated and organized the entire fisheries sector. Several reforms have been implemented, most recently in January ****.

According to the European Commission, the CFP covers four areas:

Fisheries management ; International policy; Markets and trade policy; Financing the policy.

Production quotas

European law established the TAC (***), which aims to regulate the maximum amount of fishing allowed in each area and for each species of fish. The European Commission is responsible for adopting the TAC, which is based in particular on the evolution of stocks through scientific studies carried out beforehand.

The European Commission then sets quotas for each member state, which are then distributed among all fishermen. These quotas are calculated according to a distribution key that takes into account the evolution of fish stocks.

This system allows quotas to be exchanged into a common "pool," which allows member states to ensure that their respective fishermen do not find themselves without fishing opportunities. To learn about European data, you can find all fishing opportunities on the website of Cobrenord, the producer organization that includes national coastal fishermen.

At the national level, the distribution of the main TACs by species for the year **** is available ...

6.1 Segmentation

Companies in the sector, more than *,***, are members of the Italian Fisheries Cooperative Alliance

• Findus France
• Coop
• Leroy Sea Food
• GIÓ MARE S.P.A.
• Iliopesca
• Alemar
• FIORITAL GELO