Ireland has traditionally relied on Africa for sales of species such as mackerel, but a loss in quota post-Brexit has forced the Irish fishing industry to shift strategies | Photo courtesy of shocky/Shutterstock
Ireland has traditionally relied heavily on African markets for its pelagic exports, but the nation may be shifting its strategy in a search for markets that buy more premium products, especially as its quotas for the species have shrunk post-Brexit.
According to data released by the Clonakilty, Ireland-based Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA), outside of the E.U., Nigeria was the top buyer of Irish seafood by volume in 2023, buying over 17,500 metric tons (MT) of seafood, mostly comprising mackerel and whiting.
As a whole, Africa bought 45 percent of Irish mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting, and herring exports by value and 54 percent by volume last year.
Irish Fish Producers Organization CEO Aodh O’Donnell said Ireland has supplied the African market with high-quality protein for over four decades, particularly sending smaller-grade fish.
“The premium markets have a preference for medium and large fish. Therefore, select smaller product grades are sold to markets in East and West Africa that have a strong demand for fish protein,” he told SeafoodSource. “In these markets, Irish exporters successfully compete with pelagic firms headquartered in countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, and the U.K.”
However, conditions that have emerged post-Brexit have made shipping a large percentage of Irish catch to Africa a difficult proposition. Ireland’s quotas for pelagic species have shrunk in the wake of Brexit, as E.U. nations and other players like Norway have swooped in to take larger shares.
“Despite having some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe, Irish boats have consistently been given lower quotas of fish than those from other European countries in Irish waters,” Irish South and West Fish Producers Organization CEO Patrick Murphy said in July in the wake of European elections.
E.U. funds given to Ireland to compensate for this loss in quota have largely been spent on creating more value-added products from its lower pelagic catch, according to Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), an Irish state agency tasked with developing Ireland’s seafood sector.
“Pelagic processors have made the largest investments nationally,” BIM told SeafoodSource. “This funding included investment of over EUR 9 million [USD 10 million] in a bespoke value-added plant that can process over 14 million MT of mackerel daily to produce a range of value-added fillet products on a year-round basis. This is the first large-scale investment in a highly automated mackerel-filleting plant of this type across Europe.”