Annexes to COM(2012)422 - Implementation of Regulation 762/2008 on the submission by Member States of statistics on aquaculture - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2012)422 - Implementation of Regulation 762/2008 on the submission by Member States of statistics on aquaculture. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2012)422  |
| date | July 30, 2012 |
For fish there is reportedly good cooperation with the industry and coverage of returns approaches 100 percent. Data on shellfish is also considered to be complete but some definitional problems remain including the inclusion of areas seeded with mussel spat (larvae). No volume data are estimated but a range of sources are used to estimate prices.
EEA Countries
Iceland
The Iceland Directorate of Fisheries of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture is responsible for collecting and processing aquaculture data. Statistics Iceland is responsible for sending the data to the European Commission. Data are collected through an annual electronic questionnaire which requires information on production and sales, production methods and environment and unit structure. Production units under the same business are required to report separately. Data are cross checked in cooperation with the Icelandic Veterinary and Food Administration, which also require all aquaculture premises to be registered. Data suppliers are contacted to supply missing information or to correct anomalies. Coverage of the questionnaire is complete and no sampling techniques are employed. Whilst a variety of cross checking methods were employed, as the data collection system has only been recently implemented it is not possible to make a definitive statement on data quality.
Norway
The Directorate of Fisheries' Department of Statistics with Statistics are responsible for data collection and publication. Quality assurance and submission to the European Commission is by the Directorate of Fisheries. Under national legislation all commercial and research aquaculture producers are required to submit data required by the government. Five distinct paper questionnaires are completed according to production type and species produced. Quality checks are carried out on receipt of data and also secondary validation is carried out during processing.
2.2 Data Quality
The majority of data providers report comprehensive coverage of the industry and good data quality. Few countries highlight specific issues with data quality. Iceland have highlighted that their data collection system is new making it difficult to accurately gauge data quality but like many they note that they are striving for continuous improvement. The data provided on production can be compared with data provided under the previous aquaculture regulation (see Annex) and it is therefore possible to objectively judge the quality of the reports submitted. Those submitted to Eurostat are compliant with Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) data standards and definitions which allows basic checks against the data schema to be performed when the data are received. More sophisticated 'second level' validation is being developed by Eurostat which will check consistency of data across years and detect any outliers and to check internal data consistency, for example whether species reported are compatible with the declared production environment and method. Overall at the aggregate level the consistency of data between years appears to be good. However, at the more detailed production type and species level, this breaks down in many cases, for example with differences in the species being reported for some Member States. This may in part be due to reporting of genera or groups of species in some cases rather than detail at the species level. Data on egg production for human consumption are missing in some cases where there is anecdotal evidence that this is carried out, for example in Italy.
For the data on production of hatcheries and nurseries at the aggregate country and species group level the data for the majority of countries look sound and are consistent between the two years for which data have been provided. Consistency at the individual species level is much less good but likely reflects improvements in the accuracy of reporting and lessons learned. There is an apparent use of more generic species codes in 2008 particularly for the reporting of molluscs. However in some cases data accuracy appears to have declined, for example the range of species covered has decreased, notably for Romania who reported only on diadromous fish production in 2009. Denmark have been only able to supply information in weight (kilos) rather than millions of individuals and is looking to rectify this issue.
Some large differences exist between years for some countries, for example the United Kingdom who reported large falls in production of both eggs and juveniles. A number of Member States, notably Germany and Denmark have requested clarification of the definition of juveniles in the Regulation. This is not explicitly defined but is taken as the same as for the FAO aquaculture questionnaire i.e. larvae, fingerlings, juveniles, etc. As regards detail of use of production of hatcheries and nurseries which is provided optionally, the great majority of Member States provided at least partial information.
With regard to data on input to capture based aquaculture, Spain have reported a particular problem with conversion factors for numbers of individuals to live weight and have declared that for some molluscs no reliable figures exist. This affects data in 2008 (the first reference year studied).
As regards data on the industry structure is supplied every three years and because of this, it is more difficult to validate by comparison with other years. Some data have been collected by FAO and whilst not complete, particularly for years predating the revised Aquaculture Regulation, it has been possible to check some of data for consistency with these reports. In a number of reports there have been internal inconsistencies in the report for example where production method is inconsistent with the declared species or unit supplied is inconsistent with production type. Queries on structure data quality are still outstanding with some Member States and this is preventing publication.
A number of Member States reported confidential data which has affected publication of complete data. A protocol for dealing with confidentiality in aquaculture statistics (confidentiality charter) is being developed in cooperation with Member States and this will allow more effective data management by Eurostat in future as well as ensuring preservation of statistical confidentiality.
3. use of the data (data dissemination)
The reports of Member States are made available free of charge through Eurostat's dissemination database at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/search_database. Data are also published in Eurostat Pocketbooks, most recently 'Agriculture and fishery statistics - Main results - 2009-10' (ISBN: 978-92-79-20424-1).
4. Main findings: analysis of the results
21 Member States and Norway provided information for Eurostat's cost-effectiveness analysis for fields covered by the 2008-2012 Community Statistical Programme. Of the countries not providing aquaculture data under transitional arrangements, more than half assessed the burden of responding to Eurostat as being low with the remainder assessing the burden as being medium. As not all Member States are currently sending data, a more detailed cost benefit analysis would not be useful at this stage. This information will be requested from Member States through the Working Group on Fisheries Statistics and their respective methodological reports.
In addition to the Aquaculture Statistics Regulation, there are a number of other EC requirements for collecting and providing information on the aquaculture sector and for which a monitoring and reporting infrastructure will already have been established. This partially explains why the statistical reporting burden isn't seen by Member States as being particularly heavy. The Aquaculture Statistics Regulation also covers many of the same parameters requested by FAO in their own aquaculture questionnaire. FAO are content to accept the same information as sent to Eurostat which avoids duplicate reporting.
The EC requirements include the development of registers of aquaculture enterprises for animal health purposes (as noted earlier) and economic and biological information provided under the EC Data Collection Framework (DCF) Regulation[5]. The DCF requires some submission of production and structure data however these are different in scope and coverage to the data collected under the Aquaculture Statistics Regulation.
Summary results of the statistical data collection are presented in the Annexes to the report. Data on EU aquaculture production in the years since introduction of the Aquaculture Statistics Regulation is available for all Member States as those allowed a delay in implementing the Aquaculture Statistics Regulation continue to supply data required under its predecessor (Regulation (EC) No. 788/96 and also to the FAO. In 2009 the volume of production in the EU amounted to nearly 1.3 million tonnes, 77% of which came from marine areas: 52% from the Atlantic and 24% from the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Four countries, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Italy accounted for more than 66% of EU production in 2009. Spain with production of over 268 thousand tonnes (22%) made the major contribution followed by France, over 236 thousand tonnes (21%), the United Kingdom, nearly 197 thousand tonnes (15%), and Italy, more than 162 thousand tonnes (13%). Norwegian production at nearly 962 thousand tonnes, is equal to more than 74% of total EU production.
In 2009 molluscs (mainly Mediterranean and Blue mussels) accounted for more than half of total volume of the production. Of the marine fish cultivated, Atlantic Salmon, Gilthead Seabream and European Seabass were the most significant in terms of production volume, and Trouts and Common Carp the most important freshwater species.
A number of Member States report economically significant production of fish eggs for human consumption totalling just under 1,000 tonnes for those countries reporting with a value of more than 22 million Euros. Production of trout eggs accounted for nearly 98% of production by volume but less than half of the value of production. Production of sturgeon caviar although less than 2% of production made up more than half of the total reported value.
Information on capture based aquaculture was provided for eight Member States. The most significant species are mussels (Blue Mussel and Mediterranean Mussel) and Bluefin Tuna.
Information supplied on production of hatcheries and nuseries in terms of volume by country, largely follows that for overall production, with Spain and France being the most important producers.
In most of the concerned Member States, the Ministry of Agriculture (or related bodies) rather than the National Statistics Institute is in charge of the aquaculture statistics.
5 conclusions and recommendations
As a number of Member States are still operating under transitional arrangments for implementing Regulation (EC) No. 762/2008 a comprehensive evaluation of the costs and benefits associated with producing the data has not been possible at this time. A more detailed evaluation will be conducted at the end of the transitional period under the auspices of the Working Group on Fisheries Statistics. This will be requested as an augmentation to methodological reports. Member States currently rate the burden of compliance as being low to medium.
In their reports the majority of Member States provided a sufficiently detailed account of their methodologies for an assessment of these to be made. Most are conducting an annual postal census with complete coverage of commercial production. Relatively little estimation is involved in production of the figures.
As not all Member States are yet supplying data under the Aquaculture Statistics Regulation, it has not been possible to compile full figures for the EU for aquaculture data except for production. A number of Member States have encountered issues with collecting the full data in compliance with the new requirements when implementing their data collection systems but are addressing these in consultation with Eurostat and as part of their own processes of continuous improvement. Data quality at the aggregate level appears to be quite high for production data and for input to hatcheries and nurseries for Most Member States, however this is less good at the more detailed level and more needs to be done to ensure data consistency in the future. Specific problems with definitions for stages in lifecycle need to be addressed.
There are outstanding issues with data quality for some Member States particularly for structure data. These are being addressed bilaterally with Member States. Eurostat are currently involved in implementing new information systems which will flag up quality problems early and allow them to be more speedily rectified and the data published. For structure data, some ae supplied annually to FAO between years where Eurostat collect data and these reports should be used to cross check the Eurostat structure reports.
Eurostat are developing a 'Confidentiality Charter' through a Task Force of Member States' experts. This will define how data will be treated by Eurostat to preserve confidentiality and how data may be shared within the Commission services and other interested bodies including the FAO.
Annex - Tables and charts
Table 1 : Total Aquaculture production - excluding hatcheries and nurseries
Chart 1 : EU Aquaculture production by FAO major fishing area - 2009
Chart 2 : EU Aquaculture production by species group - 2009
Table 2: EU Input to capture based aquaculture
Table 3: EU Production of hatcheries and nurseries
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Table 4 – Structure of the EU industry in 2008
[1] Regulation (EC) No 762/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on the submission by Member States of statistics on aquaculture and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 788/96: OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 1–13.
[2] Council Regulation (EC) No 788/96 of 22 April 1996 on the submission by Member States of statistics on aquaculture production: OJ L 108, 1.5.1996, p. 1–7
[3] Decision No 1578/2007/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2007 on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012 (OJ L 344, 28.12.2007, p. 15–43).
[4] Council Directive 2006/88/EC of 24 October 2006 on animal health requirements for aquaculture animals and products thereof, and on the prevention and control of certain diseases in aquatic animals (OJ L 328, 24.11.2006) and Commission Decision of 30 April 2008 implementing Council Directive 2006/88/EC as regards an Internet-based information page to make information on aquaculture production businesses and authorised processing establishments available by electronic means (OJ L 138, 28.5.2008, p. 12–20).
[5] Council Regulation (EC) No 199/2008 of 25 February 2008 concerning the establishment of a Community framework for the collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy - OJ L 60, 5.3.2008, p. 1–12.