Spain is surrounded by almost 8,000 kilometers of coast, it has a profuse cuisine in dishes based on fish and maricos and its fishing sector generates every year tens of thousands of jobs and billions of euros. Not to count on how weird the town (at least in the coastal areas) that does not have a market in which to buy a hake, a golden, trout, mussels or a good fresh lubina. Despite all that, Spain is less and less a country of fish.
Its weight on the refrigerators is descending. A lot. And for a long time.
A percentage: -4.3%. He last report of the government about fish consumption does not leave good news. In March we Spaniards have bought 2.9% less than during the same month last year, a bad fact that really hides another worst: what has “punctured” really is the consumption of fresh fishing, which has fallen 4.9%. In fact, that percentage has been softened in part due to an increase in frozen fish, which has grown around 4%.
The thing does not improve when we expand the focus. If we analyze The last mobile year (from April 2024 to March 2025) The consumption of marine products in general has fallen 2.7% and that of fish in particular 4.3%. The behavior of frozen products during that period was somewhat better than that of fresh merchandise, but still both have lost weight in purchase baskets.
The protagonists: cod and gold. The report allows you to go further and take a look at how the different products have responded throughout the last year. And there are some that go particularly poorly stopped. Golden purchases have collapsed 23.5% and mackerel and cod around 21%.
In general it has also been a bad year for seafood, molluscs and frozen and fresh crustaceans, although more cooked varieties have been bought. “They click” the preserves and win other products, such as salmon or smoked trout.
One question: Is it a punctual fall? No. And that is the big problem. The sector It takes time Seeing how fish consumption falls, which has already taken him to claim to institutions measured to reverse that trend. Under the “fishing products” label enters a range of foods that range from fresh or frozen fish to the seafood or preserves and not all evolve the same, but statistics show that, together, consumption is going back.
According to government data, in 2003 the per capita consumption of products related to fishing touched the 27.8 kilos per year And in 2009 he even reached stroke the 30 kg. In 2013 that same data was already in 27.2 kgbefore the pandemic had fallen to 22.5 kgin 2023 marked 18.9 And last year that same average had descended to 17.9. Now the last map report with the March values lead to think that the trend will remain this exercise.
A figure: 19 million. Those of the Ministry are not the only data that account for the fall in fish consumption in Spain. In October the statista portal published Another report which reflects the same trend from a somewhat different perspective: that of tons of fish consumed in the whole country.
Its tables reflect that if in 2023 consumption amounted to 887.4 million kilos, last year that data had already descended until it was 868.3, which reflects a fall of 19 million In just one year. The consumption curve has been descending since 2009, with a slight rebound in 2020, coinciding with the pandemic.
The great unknown: Why do you go down? The million dollar question. And it does not have a simple answer. One of the possible keys is the price. The statistics Officers also show that, on average and in general terms, fresh fish comes out more expensive than meat of the same type. The latest map report also reflects that throughout the last year, between April 2024 and March, the average price of fish -related products had increased 3.5%. The technicians of calculating that in March fresh fish increased 4.9% compared to 2024.
Another key: education. Fish is not, however, the only thing that has become more expensive. In recent years he has also done it (and sometimes clearly) The meat. Hence, when explaining the trend It is indicated Often other factors, such as changes in consumption habits, a certain ignorance of the product, the search for more comfortable options or the loss of habit, especially among the youngest, to go to the markets to buy fish.
A report On the subject elaborated a few years ago by the Ministry and AECOC in fact identifies four profiles of young people in front of the fish: that of those who reject it flat, who are inclined to other options such as meat, a more “pragmatic” profile that is not willing to invest the time it requires buying and cooking fish and the “distrustful”, with doubts about the origin or conservation.
A notice: “It is essential”. With that backdrop a long time ago that the fishing employer demands to institutions that promote fish consumption. In 2023 the Secretary General of Cepesca insisted that it is “essential” to promote healthy eating and support sea food. “We still do not understand why the consumption of fishing products with VAT reduction,” I cried. In his favor the guild has the advice of the health experts, which They advise Eat between three and four rations every week.
Images | Grupo Eroski S.Coop (Flickr) and Doğan Alpaslan Demi̇r (Unspash)
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