The Economic Performance of the EU Aquaculture Sector – 2012 exercise (STECF-13-03).

This EWG‐12‐13 report, on the Economic Performance of the European Union (EU) Aquaculture sector, is the second report of this type produced for the sector. It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest information available on the structure, social, economic and competitive performance of the aquaculture sector at both national and EU level. The data used in this publication was collected under the Data Collection Framework (DCF). In 2010, the aquaculture sector production in the EU‐27 accounted for 1.36 million tonnes, with an estimated turnover of 3.58 billion Euros. In the EU there are about 15,000 companies, whose main activity is the aquaculture production, producing a Gross Value Added of about 1.5 billion Euros. Available data confirms the profitability improvement in 2010, after two years of suffering losses. Profitability based on the Return On Investment calculated from the EBIT was 5.7 %. The EU aquaculture sector gave direct employment to more than 85,000 people in Europe, with an annual average wage of around 19,400 Euro. Women accounted for 29 % of these jobs. The large percentage of part‐time work in the sector should be highlighted, as can be seen through comparison of the total employment numbers with employment expressed in Full Time Equivalents (FTE is 47 % of the total number of employees). Part‐time employment is important in the shellfish and freshwater aquaculture subsectors. The economic performance and the productivity differ enormously by subsector and segment. The cost structures of the different subsectors (i.e. shellfish, marine and freshwater aquaculture) are also analysed on the report.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair