Introduction
The European seafood market is highly dependent on capture fisheries, while domestic aquaculture, apart from the Norwegian (European Economic Area) Atlantic salmon sector, is lacking scale. Growth capacity is undermined by bureaucracy, industry structure, and cheaper (imported) wild and farmed seafood. Additionally, an estimated 42% of feed ingredients are imported, while aquafeed drives most costs and environmental impact in fed aquaculture value chains. Enhancing European aquatic food autonomy requires system-based policy options. Industry data and linkages with fisheries and agriculture were considered to formulate a resource efficiency framework for European aquaculture. Seafood supply could be enhanced by efficient processing to maximise flesh yield, reclaiming 2 thousand tonnes of EPA+DHA and other nutrients currently discarded, while utilising fish (by-products) without a "food" market in aquafeed. Responsible ingredient sourcing to diversify and grow marine finfish aquaculture should be prioritised, along with co-developing lower trophic (shell)fish species, thereby enhancing the resilience of the European seafood market.
Figure
Figure 1: A simplified upstream (blue pattern) and downstream (yellow pattern) aquaculture value chain with opportunities for horizontal expansion (blue) and sustainable intensification (green). Material flow and main farm production in blue, seafood processing and co-products in orange, such as heads, frames (the central skeleton of the fish including the tail), trimmings (fin offcuts), skin (incl. scales), viscera (internal organs) and shells (dark grey) suitable for food, feed or industrial applications. The by-product recovery hierarchy (reversed pyramid) is based on the Stevens et al.9 fish recovery hierarchy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was funded by GAIN (European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Research and Innovation Programme under GA n. 773330) and SAFE (European Union's Horizon Europe programme under grant agreement no. 101084549).