Mr. Jason Whooley:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to address the joint sub-committee. It is useful to present to the committee, particularly with our colleagues from our sister agencies, the Marine Institute, the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority and our colleagues from Udarás na Gaeltachta, with whom we have an excellent working relationship.

We understand that the main focus on is the communities’ socioeconomic situation and on promoting sustainable industries. I will present on aquaculture, island and coastal fisheries and inshore fisheries. I have a brief opening introduction and my colleagues, Mr. Donal Maguire and Mr. Michael Keatinge, will be happy to take questions later.

I believe that the Irish seafood sector represents a tremendous opportunity to create much needed jobs in our remote, coastal communities as well as adding more export value to the Irish economy. In BIM’s new five-year strategy for 2013-2017, which will be launched in the next few weeks, we have set out key targets for jobs and value growth in the sector, which on realisation will have a very positive impact on the communities socioeconomic situation and, most important, on promoting a natural resource based on sustainable industry. The importance we are attributing to this is reflected in our vision which is "A scaled Irish seafood industry capitalising on the growing opportunities for seafood in global markets and providing sustainable employment in our coastal communities".

The opportunity for Irish seafood will come from expected growth in market demand. The Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and the World Bank predict that the global population will reach 8 billion by 2025, and this will necessitate a substantial increase in food production to meet the demand that will be created by this population surge. Coupled with the fact that the world’s centre of economic gravity is moving towards the east, with more than half the world’s middle classes living in the east by 2020, resulting in continuing income growth in Asia where there is a strong cultural preference for seafood, this means there will be a strong local demand for a product which previously had been exported. Thus, it is our view that supplies into Europe, which is heavily dependent on imports from the east, will also be reduced. Currently, Europe imports approximately 65% of all the seafood it consumes. From a whitefish perspective, the volume is as high as 90%.

I believe Ireland is strategically well placed, given its proximity to lucrative fishing grounds, to take advantage of this market opportunity. The FAO estimates that an additional 42 million tonnes of seafood will be absorbed by the global market each year by 2030. Given that world capture fisheries are at their maximum sustainable yield and will not, in all likelihood, alter significantly, the FAO suggests that additional supplies will be largely met by an increase in aquaculture production.

While in the short term the continuing recessionary situation in key seafood markets such as Spain, Italy and to a lesser extent in France will make trading conditions more challenging, in the longer term the shifting of global seafood supply to the east will inevitably create shortages and thereby present opportunities for Irish producers in these important traditional markets. Thus, either through developing new markets in the Far East or by finding niches in the traditional markets, there will be exciting opportunities for Irish seafood and Irish seafood producers to capture.

The committee may be interested in some current facts on the state of theIrish seafood sector. The industry provides 11,000 full-time and part-time jobs in fishing, fish farming, processing and ancillary services including net making, fish distribution and a range of other activities. As my colleague Dr. Connolly pointed out, the industry is predominantly located in coastal locations at some distance from other centres of economic activity, and the jobs are critical to maintaining viable communities in these regions. By way of example, BIM has conducted studies on Killybegs and Castletownbere which illustrate the critical role and contribution of the seafood industry in both of those key coastal locations.

In Castletownbere 81% of employment is related to fishing while in Killybegs the figure is 69%. Similar economic studies on other fishing ports are under way.

At primary production level, sea fish landings to Irish ports in 2011 were 269,099 tonnes with a value of €199 million. Provisional data for 2012 show that output from the aquaculture sector amounted to 36,285 tonnes with a value of €129 million. The seafood export sectorhas performed well over recent years. In 2012, exports of Irish seafood increased 18% in value to €517 million on an increased volume of 350,032 tonnes. It is worth noting that the 18% increase in value in 2012 exports followed a 14% increase in value from 2011 exports which means that there was a strong double digit growth in exports. The leading markets were: France - €115 million, Great Britain - €78 million, Spain - €54 million, Germany - €28 million, and Italy - €27 million. Outside of the EU the key export destinations are west Africa, Egypt, Russia and Asia, which had a combined value of €155 million. It is also worth noting that our seafood exports to China in 2012 was double the 2011 figure.

Sales on the domestic market reached €310 million. The retail sector is performing well but the food service business has been adversely impacted by the economic climate. The total sales of seafood, both the export and home markets, amounted to €827 million. The seafood processing sector is characterised by a large number of companies. At least 80% of sales is accounted for by 40 companies in which the turnover ranges from a high of €50 million down to €5 million. A significant number of smaller companies have sales of less than €1 million.

BIM believes that there is a need to realise that scale will be an important consideration for our sector over the coming years. This realisation is necessary to engender greater competitiveness and take advantage of the global market opportunities for seafood. It would enable us to deliver on the very ambitious Food Harvest 2020 strategy and secure a sustainable seafood industry providing sustainable jobs.