The fisheries and aquaculture sector in the European Union contributes approximately EUR 5,500,000,000 annually

Omissions

• The €5.5 billion figure refers specifically to fisheries products landed (catch value) and does not include aquaculture production. Aquaculture alone contributed an additional €4.6 billion in 2024. The combined total would be approximately €10 billion.
• The source for this data (Eurostat Facebook post) was published after the session date, though it references 2024 data which would have been available to the MEP.
• The claim uses the value of landed fisheries products rather than the broader economic contribution metric (value added to GDP), which EUMOFA estimated at €6 billion for the fisheries sector alone in 2023.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat Fisheries Statistics (via Facebook post)In 2024, the total value of fisheries products landed in the EU was €5.5 billion. The EU's fish catch was estimated at 3.2 million tonnes.
• PrimaryEurostat Aquaculture StatisticsAquaculture farming in the EU yielded about 1.0 million tonnes of aquatic organisms in 2024, worth €4.6 billion.
• PrimaryEUMOFA - EU Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture ProductsThe sector recorded in 2023 a value added of 6 billion euros, covering 2% of the value added of total manufacture of food products.