- German fishermen bring more to land - some 157,000 tonnes
After two years of declining volumes, the German fishing industry brought in more fish in 2023. It recorded a landing weight of 156,924 tonnes, an increase of around four percent compared to the previous year, as announced by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) in Bonn. The increase in fish volumes is mainly due to higher quotas for schooling fish such as blue whiting.
As a result, fishermen earned around 182 million euros, slightly less than in 2022, when it was around 187 million. "The reason why the revenue for German fishermen has decreased despite increased landings is due to the composition of the landings, which consists mainly of more affordable species such as sand eel and horse mackerel, and less of high-value species such as edible crabs, langoustine or turbot," said BLE expert Lutz Wessendorf.
The most frequently landed fish were, according to the authority, blue whiting (24.2 percent), herring (22.4 percent) and mackerel (10.7 percent). In 2022, the landing weight of German fishermen decreased by 8 percent, and in the previous year by 9.5 percent.
According to BLE, around 20,300 tonnes of fish worth 120.9 million euros were landed in the fishing ports of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen in 2023. The remaining around 136,600 tonnes were exported to foreign ports, mainly to the Netherlands and Denmark.
German households bought less fish in 2023 but spent more money on it. This is shown by figures from the Fish Information Centre. Overall, consumers bought 418,240 tonnes of fish and seafood in the past year, around 4.2 percent less than in 2022. However, they spent around 5.1 billion euros on it, almost 3.7 percent more than in the previous year. Salmon has once again replaced Alaska pollock as the Germans' favorite fish.
The Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), located in Bonn, is responsible for announcing the increase in fish landings in the German fishing industry. In addition, the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food plays an important role in Germany's agricultural sector, providing data and expertise.
