In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 762/2008, the
Commission presents a report on the submission by Member States of
statistics on aquaculture. The report documents the progress made
by Member States and EEA countries, together with the Commission,
on implementation of the Regulation. The information supplied by
Member States in their asessments forms the basis of the
report.
Main findings: the main
results of the analysis are the following:
- 21 Member States and Norway provided information for
Eurostat's cost-effectiveness analysis for fields covered by the
2008-2012 Community Statistical Programme. Of the countries not
providing aquaculture data under transitional arrangements,
more than half assessed the burden of responding to
Eurostat as being low with the remainder assessing the burden as
being medium. As not all Member States are currently sending
data, a more detailed cost benefit analysis would not be useful at
this stage.
- In addition to this Regulation, there are a number of
other EC requirements for collecting and providing information on
the aquaculture sector and for which a monitoring and reporting
infrastructure will already have been established. This partially
explains why the statistical reporting burden is not seen by Member
States as being particularly heavy.
- In 2009, the volume of production in the EU
amounted to nearly 1.3 million tonnes, 77% of which came from
marine areas: 52% from the Atlantic and 24% from the Mediterranean
and Black Sea.
- Four countries, Spain, France, the United
Kingdom and Italy accounted for more than 66% of EU production in
2009. Spain with production of over 268 thousand tonnes (22%)
made the major contribution followed by France, over 236 thousand
tonnes (21%), the United Kingdom, nearly 197 thousand tonnes (15%),
and Italy, more than 162 thousand tonnes (13%). Norwegian
production at nearly 962 thousand tonnes, is equal to more than 74%
of total EU production.
- In 2009 molluscs (mainly Mediterranean and Blue
mussels) accounted for more than half of total volume of
production. Of the marine fish cultivated, Atlantic Salmon,
Gilthead Seabream and European Seabass were the most significant in
terms of production volume, and Trouts and Common Carp the most
important freshwater species.
- A number of Member States report economically
significant production of fish eggs for human consumption
totalling just under 1,000 tonnes for those countries reporting
with a value of more than EUR 22 million. Production of trout eggs
accounted for nearly 98% of production by volume but less than half
of the value of production. Production of sturgeon caviar although
less than 2% of production made up more than half of the total
reported value.
- Information on capture-based aquaculture was
provided for eight Member States. The most significant species are
mussels (Blue Mussel and Mediterranean Mussel) and Bluefin
Tuna.
- Information supplied on production of hatcheries and
nuseries in terms of volume by country, largely follows that for
overall production, with Spain and France being the most
important producers.
Recommendations: as a
number of Member States are still operating under transitional
arrangments for implementing Regulation (EC) No. 762/2008 a
comprehensive evaluation of the costs and benefits associated with
producing the data has not been possible at this time. A more
detailed evaluation will be conducted at the end of the
transitional period under the auspices of the Working Group on
Fisheries Statistics.
As not all Member States are yet supplying data under
the Aquaculture Statistics Regulation, it has not been possible to
compile full figures for the EU for aquaculture data except for
production. A number of Member States have encountered issues with
collecting the full data in compliance with the new requirements
when implementing their data collection systems but are addressing
these in consultation with Eurostat and as part of their own
processes of continuous improvement. Data quality at the aggregate
level appears to be quite high for production data and for input to
hatcheries and nurseries for most Member States. However this is
less good at the more detailed level and more needs to be done
to ensure data consistency in the future. Specific problems
with definitions for stages in lifecycle need to be
addressed.
There are outstanding issues with data quality for
some Member States particularly for structure data. These are
being addressed bilaterally with Member States. Eurostat is
currently involved in implementing new information systems which
will flag up quality problems early and allow them to be more
speedily rectified and the data published. For structure data, some
are supplied annually to FAO between years where Eurostat collects
data, and these reports should be used to cross-check the Eurostat
structure reports.
Eurostat is developing a 'Confidentiality
Charter' which will define how data will be treated by
Eurostat to preserve confidentiality and how data may be shared
within the Commission services and other interested bodies,
including the FAO.