In this report the PrimeFish project provides an overview on the European seafood sector at large, in comparison with global development. Through a descriptive analysis based largely on FAO statistics from 1950 up until recent years, trends in fisheries and aquaculture quantities (supplies) are presented and compared across continents and to some degree with respect to countries.

Ethical approvals for the collection of personal data in the framework of PrimeFish were obtained from the Commission Nationale de l’Information et des Libertés (CNIL) Paris, France. The approval was required for collection of information on consumer behaviour and preferences in five European markets (France, Germany, Spain, Italy and UK). The application for the ethical approval was prepared by the leader of WP4 (Products and consumer preferences), Stephane Ganassali at the University of Savoie, France.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the data analysis methods used by the different research groups. Participants in PrimeFish, who are involved in the analysis of different types of data, have detailed what methods they use when alanlysing data. This is needed to enable harmonization between similar data sets in order to produce a more congruent result.

All participants involved in PrimeFish who generate data have participated in the creation of the Data Management Plan. This DMP outlines what sort of data the project is expected to generate, how it will be preserved and whether and how it will be made accessible. This includes already existing data extracted from different sources, as well as new data developed. 

In 2012, the food and drink manufacturing industry in the European Union was the largest manufacturing sector in terms of value of the output with 15% of the total manufacturing turnover. However, it is widely perceived as not highly innovative. In addition, the commonly reported figures for new food product failure are between 70% and 90%.

Here a summary of the most impacting results of the first 18 moths of PrimeFish project, highlighting the analysis on economic performance and competitiveness, market research and global value chains!

Based on input from the project participants, this report serves as guidelines to provide consistency between data sets originated or managed by PrimeFish. Further, it functions as an aid for future work on data collection and data processing.This includes data collection, analysis of methods or procedures, and extending the methodology to cover specific species.

The PrimeFish newsletter delivers the latest news about the project and related topics, keeping the reader updated on the major findings, work development and collaboration actions with other projects. We are expecting your suggestions, questions and doubts in the e-mail primefish@cetmar.org.