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Oceans and fisheries

Fishing plays a crucial role in employment and economic activity in several EU regions – in some European coastal communities the fishing sector accounts for as many as half the local jobs.

Employment in the fishing sector tends to be concentrated in a handful of Member States. Spain alone accounts for a quarter of the total employment, and the three Member States with the highest levels of employment – Spain, Greece and Italy – make up around 62%.

Aquaculture employs roughly 75,000 people, including part-time and full-time jobs in both marine and freshwater aquaculture.

The processing industry consists of approximately 3,500 companies. The mainstay of EU production is canned products and ready meals consisting of fish, crustaceans and molluscs.

Employment in the fisheries, aquaculture and processing sectors (measured in full-time equivalents)

Fisheries (2019) 
BE207
BG938
CZ N/A
DK984
DE991
EE326
IE2 758
EL16 109
ES27 805
FR7 533
HR3 125
IT17 124
CY741
LV262
LT396
LUN/A
HU-
MT564
NL 1 673
AT N/A
PL2 252
PT7 408
RO59
SI56
SKN/A
FI258
SE729
UK7 984
Aquaculture (2018)
BE48
BG1 023
CZ901
DK358
DE1 254
EE33
IE1 099
EL3 534
ES6 528
FR 9 535
HR1 730
IT3 287
CY406
LV166
LT220
LUN/A
HU877
MT283
NL201
AT186
PL3 459
PT921
RO2 560
SI22
SK698
FI348
SE267
UKN/A
Processing (2017) 
BE1 373
BG1 490
CZ (*)741
DK3 153
DE5 885
EE  (*)1 348
IE3 138
EL2 130
ES19 826
FR (*)11 021
HR1 672
IT4 568
CY14
LV3 125
LT3 744
LUN/A
HU  (*)14
MT72
NL  (*)2 227
AT  (*)117
PL17 578
PT  (*)7 415
RO1 006
SI130
SK569
FI760
SE1 591
UK19 118

NB: Aquaculture figures include marine, shellfish and freshwater.
(*) Eurostat data as Member States did not submit data for the data call.

Sources:

For fisheries: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), The 2020 Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet (STECF-20-06), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020, ISBN 978-92-76-27164-2, doi:10.2760/500525, JRC123089.
For aquaculture: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), Economic Report of the EU Aquaculture Sector (STECF-20-12), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-36192-3, doi:10.2760/441510, JRC124931.
For processing: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), The EU Fish Processing Sector – Economic report (STECF-19-15), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-14666-7, doi:10.2760/30373, JRC119498.