POTENTIAL DEMAND FOR ORGANIC MARINE FISH IN ITALY

After an increase over the few past decades, Italian demand for fisheries and aquaculture products has been relatively stable since 1995, but is lower than in other EC 

Research supported by Uniprom under EC FIFG Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (EC Reg. 2080/93), project coordinator Stefano CataudeUa, University of Rome Tor Vergata . 

A temporary increase in fish consumption was observed mainly in November 2000 (+25.9%) and, declining, up to the end of the first semester 2001 as a substitution to meat consumption due to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and other terrestrial animal diseases. 

Until recently, households had little accurate information about the fresh fish consumed in regards to its eountry of production or catch, its origin (wild or farmed) and the production process (extensive or intensive). As a consequence of asymmetric information, prices did not provide adequate signals of quality and/or origin. An improvement is expected by the mandatory EC Regulation 2065/01, applied in January 2002, on informing eonsumers about the method of produetion and eateh area of fishery and aquaeulture produets. 

On the supply side, Italy is a net importer of fishery and aquaculture products. Excluding molluscs (72.8%) and trout (17.8%), the most important aquaculture products are seabass (2.9% of total production for 1999) and seabream (2.3%) (ISMEA, 2001a). In 1998, there were 79 marine species harvested intensive or extensive on small to medium-size farms, 19 of which located off-shore (ISMEA, 1998 and 2000). Their production has 

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POTENTIAL DEMAND FOR ORGANIC MARINE FISH IN ITALY ... 

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