Visclusters in Nederland (nulmeting): omvang en afhankelijkheid voor de keten en toeleverende industrie van Noordzeevisserij : Impactanalyse beleidsbeslissingen op de keten van nederlandse visserijregio’s

Samenvatting

This study is part of the overarching socio-economic impact analysis fisheries. The key research question is: what is the socio-economic size of the fish clusters per fishery region and to what extent are these fish clusters dependent on the Dutch fisheries? This study is a baseline measurement. Not solely the effects of policy decisions but also current developments has been taken into account, such as the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine as well as the uncertainty for the future because the announced decommissioning scheme of the Dutch cutter fleet (2022-2023). From the total population there were 346 enterprises belonging to the Dutch fish cluster with a total turnover of € 6.6 billion and 13,550 employees (8,350 fte) in 2021. Out of the Dutch fish cluster there were 314 enterprises relying on North sea fisheries, varying from a low (5%) to high dependency (100%) for the financial turnover. With on average a 40-50% dependence on North sea fisheries for the financial turnover half of it (€2.9 billion) could directly be related to North sea fisheries. The processing and service supply chain in all of the defined six fishery regions have considered negative effects from policy decisions for the North Sea fisheries. However the impact was caused by a cascading of both national and European policy decisions together with market developments (such as high fuel prices). The fishery regions with the largest negative impact were IJmuiden, Urk, Kop van Noord-Holland and Zuidwest-Nederland. The fish clusters in the fishery regions of Katwijk-Scheveningen and Waddenkust perceived negative effects to a lesser extent. Fish auctions and fisheries co-ops are the most dependent on the North Sea fisheries. In contrast with the other stages of the supply chain, fish auctions and fish co-ops have hardly any or even no opportunities for alternatives with a shrinking cutter fleet anddecreasing landing volumes of fresh fish. According to the enterprises within fish clusters the largest concerns are: (1) losing scarce skilled and competent employees and therefore specialised knowledge learned by practicing for years from generation to generation, (2) deteriorated distinctiveness of ceasing fresh North Sea fish compared to imported cultivated fish, (3) losing identity of fishery regions as cultural common and (4) the perception of an uncertain future due to opposition towards North sea fisheries by nature conservation organisations perceived by companies and experienced limited financial and moral support in time by the government. The data have been collected via digital survey, interviews and regional workshops complemented with publicly available data sources. In the period from 2023 there will be monitoring as additional research to the baseline measurement to analyze the socio-economic effects of policy decisions for fish clusters.