The EU Blue Economy essential for EU populations and economy

The European Commission has just published its 2025 EU Blue Economy Report, presenting the latest data on the economic performance of sectors connected to the ocean, seas, and coasts. The blue economy includes a wide range of industries such as fisheries and aquaculture, coastal tourism, shipping, ports, and marine renewable energy.

You can find the report here 

The EU blue economy is on an upward trajectory, showing strong recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. In 2022, it directly employed 4.82 million people, generated nearly €890 billion in turnover, and contributed €250.7 billion in gross value added (GVA). Estimates for 2023 indicate continued growth, with GVA rising to €263 billion and employment reaching 4.88 million.

Marine Living Resources and Blue biotechnology

The marine living resources sector covers the sustainable use of marine biological resources—from the harvesting of renewable organisms (primary production) and their conversion into food, feed, bio-based products, and bioenergy (processing), to their distribution along the supply chain.

This year’s report is the first to include figures for blue biotechnology, supermarket seafood retail, and out-of-home seafood consumption. The EU is currently the seventh-largest global producer of fishery and aquaculture products, behind China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Peru, and Russia. EU production has remained stable over recent decades. In 2022, EU vessels landed around 3.9 million tonnes of seafood worth €6.6 billion, while aquaculture produced nearly 1.2 million tonnes, valued at €4.8 billion—accounting for roughly a quarter of total EU seafood production.

Trends and Drivers

Consumer demand continues to rise. In 2023, household expenditure on fishery and aquaculture products in the EU reached €60.2 billion—a 4.5% increase from 2022. Most sales occurred through supermarkets, with fishmongers accounting for just 12%. Per capita seafood consumption in 2022 stood at 23.5 kg, of which approximately 70% came from imported wild-capture products.

EU self-sufficiency in seafood has declined, reaching a record low of 37.5% in 2022. This decline is driven by rising demand and limited domestic supply, and reflects the EU processing industry’s growing reliance on imports from countries such as Norway, the UK, China, Morocco, and nations in South and Central America and Southeast Asia.

Policy initiatives like the strategic guidelines for a sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture sector and the energy transition communication for fisheries aim to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint and fossil fuel dependency. In this context, European fishmeal production is expected to play an increasingly important role—particularly through its contribution to IFFO’s Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) project. This initiative aims to establish the carbon footprint of global batches of fishmeal and fish oil. Marine ingredients often compare favourably in lifecycle analyses, typically showing lower carbon footprints than many terrestrial alternatives.