UK has its chips over year’s fish supplies

UK fish consumption in 2012 has already matched what our seas can supply for the year, leaving the country relying on imported cod and haddock for fish and chips, campaigners have warned..

Annual fish supplies from UK seas can only satisfy demand for 233 days, so if the UK had to rely on its own fisheries for the year, stocks would have run out yesterday, according to calculations by the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

At least one in three fish consumed in the UK is imported from outside the EU, the thinktank said, with the UK reliant on countries such as Iceland, Norway and even China for a large share of traditional UK fish, such as cod and haddock.

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The situation has improved since last year, when the UK effectively ran out of fish more than a month earlier, but is largely unchanged over the past decade.

But if the UK’s seas were better managed to allow fish stocks to recover from overfishing, it could meet annual demand from its own waters and even be a net exporter of fish, NEF suggested.

The UK imports more than 101,000 tonnes of cod, worth £372m, and 60,000 tonnes of haddock, worth £156m, in a year, most of which comes from outside the EU, according to 2010 data.

An NEF spokesman said the UK had access to productive fishing grounds and had moderate levels of consumption compared to some other European countries such as Spain and Portugal.

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“It could produce as much as it needs but instead it is a net importer of fish.

“Consumers understand that we import tuna which is virtually non-existent in its waters; but they will wonder why we need to import cod and haddock from China when our cod and haddock stocks could deliver five and three times more catches with better management,” he said.

Across Europe the situation is even more acute, with EU consumption of fish outstripping the bloc’s annual fish supplies by July 6.