Eurostat, Statistical Office of the European Union

E1: Agriculture and fisheries

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

Landings of fishery products in the ports of EEA member countries (quantity and value)

The 3-alpha species identifier is a unique three letter code (according to the FAO ASFIS List of Species for Fishery Statistics Purposes) that is widely used for the exchange of data with national correspondents and among fishery agencies. More information on other code lists  used for landings statistics can be found in the Fisheries statistics

( Handbookhttps://circabc.europa.eu/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/7ec85d47-a239-485a-92ec-63db9ee5aefc/FISH_Handbook_v0.9_20190426.pdf )

NACE class 03.11 'Marine fishing'

The concepts and definitions used in the submission of these landing statistics are those developed by the Eurostat Working Group "Fishery Statistics".

Species. The species are basically those covered by the EU market regulations although national authorities submit information for other species that they consider important on their markets. All species are identified in the data-base by the internationally assigned ASFIS (Aquatic Sciences and Fishery Information System) three letter (3-alpha) identifier (e.g. COD = Atlantic cod, PLE = European plaice).

The following are definitions which the national authorities are required to apply in application of Council Regulation no 2104/93:

Presentation. For each of the species the national authorities are requested to submit information on each of the forms in which the species is presented on the market.

Fillets refers to strips of flesh cut parallel to the backbone of the fish and consisting of the right or left side of the fish, provided that the head, viscera, fins (dorsal, anal, caudal, ventral, pectoral) and bones (vertebrae or large backbone, ventral or costal, bronchial or stirrup bones, etc.) have been removed and the two sides are not connected, for example by the back or stomach.

Whole fish refers to ungutted fish

Cleaned refers to squid where the arms, head and internal organs have been removed from the body.

Frozen fish are fish that have been subjected to freezing in a manner to preserve the inherent quality of the fish by reducing the average temperature to -18ºC or lower and which are then kept at a temperature of -18º or lower.

Fresh fish are fish that have not been preserved, cured, frozen or otherwise treated other than chilled. They are generally presented whole or gutted.

Salted fish are fish often in gutted or headed form that are preserved in salt or brine.

Destination. The landings are divided into those destined for human consumption and those destined for other uses (for example, animal feed and reduction to meal and oil).

Human consumption is defined to include all products which are sold at first sale for human consumption or which are landed under contract or other agreement for human consumption. Excluded are quantities destined for human consumption but which, at the moment of sale, due to market conditions, hygiene regulations or similar causes are withdrawn from the market for human consumption.

Industrial uses is defined to include all products specifically landed for reduction to meal and oil or for consumption by animals plus quantities which, although originally intended for human consumption, are not sold for this purpose at first sale.

Units

Weight: The weight recorded is the weight of the product as landed (landed weight).

Average price. The price quoted is that at the time of the first sale of the product. For products which are not immediately sold or which are subject to a contract or other arrangement, the average price has been estimated by the national authorities using a method appropriate for that particular situation.

The data refer to a range of fishery products (combinations of species and their presentation form)

Under the terms of Council Regulation no 2104/93, the reporting country is required to include data for all products landed by Community and EFTA fishing vessels in ports of that country. Under the provisions of the Regulation the reporting country is not required to report landings by its vessels in ports other than the national ports.

The data are required to include products discharged within the territory of the reporting country and covered by document T2M referred to in Council Regulation (EEC) no 137/79. Also included are products transshipped to vessels of third countries from Community and EFTA fishing vessels and other components of the Community and EFTA fishing fleet which are discharged within the territory of that Member State.

Community vessels are vessels flying the flag or, or registered in, a Community Member State.

EFTA vessels are vessels flying the flag of, or registered in, a member country of EFTA. In fisheries context this means Iceland and Norway.

Third country vessels are vessels flying the flag of, or registered in, a country other than the member countries of the EU or of EFTA.

EU Member States and EFTA countries (=European Economic Area). The database includes data from the EU-Member States and Iceland and Norway.

Data are available from 1992 onwards.

Not applicable.

Tonnes, Euro and Euro/Tonne

Calendar year

The submission of these landing statistics is covered by the following legislation: 

Regulation (EC) no 1921/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006, on the submission of statistical data on landings of fishery products in Member States and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) 1382/91 (data from 2007 onward)

These regulations are EEA relevant: that is, they apply to EU Member States and EFTA countries.

Not available.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics.

In case the national data contains confidential records they are not published but only a c-flag (confidential) is shown in the database. In this case, aggregates including these records are not calculated (including the EU-aggregate).

The deadline for the data submission by countries in Annual on 30 june year N + 1 (where N is the reference year) 

Not available.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

The data are annual. 

Eurostat launches quality reports updates every three years as required by the Regulation EC (No) 1921/2006

News releases on-line.

Results are published in Agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics book

The crop statistics can be found in Eurostat database table landings of fishery producs (fish_ld):

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

Not applicable

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Fisheries statistics Handbook, rev. 2018 (see Annex 1) gives a summary of the methodologies used for landings statistics.

The quality reports are required only for the landing statistics. Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1921/2006 indicates that:

1. By 19 January 2008 each Member State shall submit a detailed methodological report to the Commission describing how the data have been collected and the statistics compiled. That report shall include details of any sampling techniques and an evaluation of the quality of the resulting estimates.

2. The Commission shall examine the reports and present its conclusions to the relevant working group of the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’) established by Article 1 of Council Decision 72/279/EEC.

3. The Member States shall inform the Commission of any change in the information provided for under paragraph 1 within three months of the introduction of such change. They shall also forward to the Commission details of any substantial changes in the collection methods used.

Handbook on Annual Crop Statistics gives guidance on the methodology for collecing data on annual crop (see Annex).

Eurostat monitors regularly the quality of landings statistics. In general the data are of good quality.

Eurostat launches regular quality reporting updates every three years as it is required to submit an assessment report to the European Parliament and the Council on the statistical data compiled pursuant to Regulation EC (No) 1921/2006 and in particular on their relevance and quality. The report shall also analyse the cost-effectiveness of the system used for the collection and processing of statistical data and shall put forward best practices for reducing the workload for Member States and enhancing the usefulness and quality of the statistical data. The first report was due by 19 January 2010 and every three years thereafter,

The data are used for monitoring the fisheries products markets and for policy (Common Fisheries Policy) montoring and assessments.

No user satisfaction survey carried out.

Most of the requested data are available, but there are some missing data in the older time series.

The reliability of landings statistics is good.  Most data are extracted from log-books, landings declarations and sales notes.

Only 4 countries use sample surveys for the provision of landings statistics (CY, EL, IT and MT).  Plese refer to the EU-level and national quality reports for more details on sampling error.

All other countries use administrative data and/or a cencus as data source(s).

The non-sampling error analysis is done for a set of parameters:

-        Coverage error (for census, sample surveys and administrative data);

-        Measurement error (for census and sample surveys);

-        Non-response error (for census and sample surveys);

-        Processing error (for census and sample surveys);

-        Model assumption error (for census and sample surveys).

6 months after the end of the reference period

The punctuality of the data transmissions is assessed by Eurostat on the basis of received transmissions in EDAMIS.

Although the quality of the data varies from country to country (being in many cases a function of the general characteristics of the national fishing industry), there is a high degree of comparability between countries, due to the fact that the concepts and definitions used in the compilation of catch statistics are those laid down by the Coordinating Working Party on Fishery Statistics (CWP)  being in force since the late 1950's and being applied uniformly worldwide by the CWP and by the national authorities reporting to its member organizations.

A high degree of comparability over time is also ensured by the worldwide adoption of the CWP concepts and definitions.

Landings of fishery products statistics are established in close collaboration with international fishery agencies, along with which quality and coherence of the data are managed.

Not available.

Not available.

There is no fixed timetable for the provision of revisions to the database. Revisions may occur at any time when new data are available.

As and when revisions are received from the national authorities, they are incorporated in the database at the earliest opportunity. Justifications for major revisions are sought from the national authorities.

The statistical data on landings of fishery products are based on an array of data sources. The quality report provides the following set of sources as possible options:

-        Administrative data;

-        Census;

-        Sample surveys;

-        Expert(s) estimate(s);

-        Other data sources.

The countries reported in total 47 different sources.

Around 68% of data are collected from administrative sources, 17% from censuses, followed by information collected via sample surveys. Other sources as well as expert estimate contribute to a lesser extent (Figure 1). 

Annual

Under the EU legislation the national authorities are required to collect landings data from all EEA vessels landing fishery products in their ports. The recording of data of vessels from third countries is facultative. The national authorities are not required to submit data on landings of their vessels in foreign ports.

All fisheries data sent by the EU27 and EFTA countries are sent through eDAMIS as a Single Entry Point of data to Eurostat. Upon the reception of new data, the domain manager and the Fishery statistics section's common mailbox, ESTAT FISHERIES INBOX (estat-fisheries@ec.europa.eu), are automatically notified by eDAMIS. The XML files are transferred from the eDAMIS server to a dedicated folder on the production server ("fish-staging"). 

Compliance: Countries, which have not provided data one week before the end of the deadline, are notified with a reminder sent by the eDAMIS collection system automatically and then each week. Eurostat domain managers contact the data provider three weeks later. In case of non-response, Eurostat contacts the data provider again before sending the formal reminder letter, which is the last step before starting an infringement procedure.

It should be noted that the reliability of the data is highly dependant on the quality of the submissions by the national authorities.

EU and EEA aggregates are compiled by summation of the data for the individual countries.

Not applicable.

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