Fish market worth 140m euros

In hypermarkets, fish products are now distributed in three sections. Fresh fish largely comes from local producers, on the shelf dedicated to roe and marinated fish salads there are products from the top three players - Negro 2000, Pescado Grup and Ocean Fish, while in the frozen products section there are piles of packaged frozen fish from Norway, Denmark, Taiwan, Canada, Sweden and China.

The fish and fish product market has reached nearly 140 million euros per year, according to ZF estimates based on data supplied by the Fishing and Aquaculture National Agency (ANPA), with the biggest share, of around 60%, being accounted for by frozen and refrigerated products, a segment dominated by imports.
"The local fish production amounts to around 13,000 tonnes, 70% of which is accounted for by fresh fish, and the rest by raw material for food products, such as roe, salads, smoked fish. The remaining around 60,000 tonnes of fish are accounted for by imports of refrigerated, frozen fish and ready-cooked fish," said Sorin Mănăilă, chairman of ANPA. Considering an average price of 1.5 euros/kg for domestically-produced fish and of 2 euros/kg for ocean fish and for fish brought from neighbouring countries, the value of the local market amounts to 19.5 million euros, while the market of imported fish is worth 120 million euros.