Introduction
Although global aquaculture is setting production records , the organic aquaculture still represents a niche market. Indeed, the total organic aquaculture production of EU-27 is only accounting for 6.4% of the total production, and this appears to be not sufficient to fit the objectives of at least 25% of the agricultural land by 2030 according to the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. Historically , the organic aquaculture sector has faced many difficulties hampering the development of the sector as e.g., technical difficulties in production, lower profitability, limited market demand, strict regulations or competition with other certification schemes. In this study, we have conducted a meta-analysis of the available literature to investigate the enabling but also constraining factors on the organic aquaculture development in the EU. We focused particularly on the main farmed species, including freshwater and marine species (i.e. shellfish, salmon, trout, carp, sea bass and sea bream).
Materials and methods
Impact factors (IF s) were retrieved from the 82 documents reviewed, which include scientific papers, national, European reports and classed them as enabling or constraining as presented in the documents. List of IFs able to support/constrain the development of the EU organic aquaculture used in this study was defined according to
. Briefly, the IFs (n=59 ) were defined to encompass the interrelationship between the farmer and the institutional environment by conceptualizing society to be composed of three parts: the state (based on political authority), the market (based on economic competition) and civil society (e.g. based on civil solidarity within families, social groups) at micro-, meso- and macro level.
Each mentioning of IF was coded according to the document content and to the way the factor was defined in the document: " Supporting" or "Constraining" with three sub-categories which were "Supporting/Constraining but insufficient", "Supporting/Constraining" or "Very Supporting/Constraining". In more details, an IF was coded as "Supporting/constraining but insufficient", when the authors did not explicitly refer to the IF as supporting or constraining but when this was implicit or when there was some specific caution about the IF made by the authors. IF was coded as "Supporting/constraining" when the authors explicitly referred to the IF as supporting/constraining . An IF was coded as "Very supporting/constraining" when the authors explicitly referred to the IF as main supporting/constraining factor to the development of organic aquaculture.
Results and discussion
We have identified 470 impacting factors (IF ) as supporting or constraining to the development of organic aquaculture in the EU . Overall, the five most mentioned supporting factors to the development of the organic aquaculture in the EU were the “consumer demand and/or willingness to buy” (n=35), the “marketing strategies for organic products” (n=24), “accessibility to communication and marketing” (n=20), “consumer attitude & belief” (n=19) and “innovation in farming” (n=17). Other significant supporting factors (n>10 mentions) highlighted are related to the “price relation between organic and conventional products” (n=14), “offer of organic products/sortiment” (n=12), the “need of research effort, funds for organic research and development” (n=12), “private label and criteria” (n=11), “need for clearer and simpler organic farming regulation/rules” (n=10), “public awareness” (n=11), and “environmental benefit and ecosystem services” (n=10) and the “availability of incentives (e.g., eco-premium)” (n=14) (Figure 1).
At the contrary, the most mentioned constraining factors to the development of the organic aquaculture in the EU were the “(quality) requirements for organic products and/or price” (n=32), the “price relation between organic and conventional products” (n=29), the “high bureaucracy level in organic farming regulation/rules, including high cost for certification” (n=18), the “unavailability of organically produced inputs (e.g. animals, seeds, feeds)” (n=16), the “competition and/or confusion with other labels (e.g. MSC, ASC, label rouge)” (n=15), “consumer demand, willingness to buy” (n=15) and the “lack of public awareness” (n=13) (Figure 2) .
In conclusion, results showed a certain demand for aquaculture organic product does exist and is expected to growth in the EU. There still are, however, important constraining factors to the development of the organic aquaculture, i.e., quality requirements for organic products , harmonization of the standard for certification, competition with other sustainable labels (e.g., ASC, MSC) and the price relation between organic and conventional products. Strong effort from the EU policy will be needed in term of incentives, simplification of regulation, harmonization of standard, effective marketing strategies and availability of research funds to support innovation. In addition, institutions to support organic aquaculture need to be built at different policy levels in collaboration with different stakeholders to promote sound development of the organic aquaculture sector
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by OrganicTargets4EU funded by the European Union (Grant no. 101060368) and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) (Grant no. 22.00155).
References
EUMOFA (2022). Organic Aquaculture in the EU Current Situation. Current situation, drivers, barriers, potential for growth. doi:10.2771/327564.
Michelsen, J. (2001). Recent development and political acceptance of organic farming in Europe. Sociol. Ruralis41, 3–20. doi:10.1111/1467-9523.00167.