Mapping the industry and supply chain for farmed fish in Europe (Animal Ask)

Several organisations, including Rethink Priorities, Welfare Footprint, Animal Ask, and others, are conducting a year-long project to guide the strategy of the fish welfare movement for the coming decades.

As part of this project, Animal Ask conducted mapping of the industry and supply chain for fish production in European aquaculture.

In this report, we present key results from this industry and supply chain mapping. The goal of this report is to provide fish welfare advocates with an easy-to-understand guide to the aquaculture industry and supply chain in Europe.

Specifically, we examine the following sources of information:

• Production. Numbers of fish farmed across Europe, as well as common on-farm practices, can help inform which countries are the highest priorities for fish welfare advocacy. We provide country profiles for 16 fish-producing countries/territories in Europe.
• Trade. Import and export information can help identify points of leverage across national borders. For example, pressure on retailers in a trout-importing country might be more effective in some cases than pressure in the trout-producing country.
• Certification. Information on rates of certification (e.g. Aquaculture Stewardship Council) can help identify which areas of production might be higher priority for campaigns and how to best run those campaigns.