The economic performance of the EU fishing fleet during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Published in: Aquatic Living Resources
• Main Authors: Carpenter, Griffin, Carvalho, Natacha, Guillen, Jordi, Prellezo, Raúl, Villasante, Sebastián, Andersen, Jesper L., Mravlje, Edo Avdic, Berkenhagen, Jörg, Brigaudeau, Cecile, Burke, Brian, Santos, Angel Calvo, Cano, Suzana, Contini, Franca, Da-Rocha, José-María, Davidjuka, Irina, Martínez, Francisco Manuel Fernández, Fontaneda-López, Ignacio, Gambino, Monica, Caballero, Elena Garcia, Guyader, Olivier, Herring, Jeppe, Hoekstra, Geert, Ioannou, Myrto, Jackson, Emmet, Jung, Armelle, Kazlauskas, Edvardas, Keatinge, Michael, Kuzebski, Emil, Leonardi, Sophie, Le Grand, Christelle, Lees, Janek, Mancebo-Robledo, Carmen Margarita, Minne, Marie-Dominique, Mol, Arie, Quintana, Marta Moran, Nicheva, Simona, Pokki, Heidi, Do Ó, João Ramos, Rodríguez, Alexandre, Sabatella, Rosaria Felicità, Sciberras, Andrew, Souffez, Arnaud, Stroie, Constantin, Swahnberg, Hanna, Tzouramani, Irene, Viana, Maria Valiente, Verlé, Katrien, Virtanen, Jarno, Vukov, Ivana, Zhelev, Kolyo
• Other Authors: Aménagement des Usages des Ressources et des Espaces marins et littoraux - Centre de droit et d'économie de la mer (AMURE), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04203990; https://doi.org/10.1051/alr/2022022

The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent public health interventions have depressed demand and disrupted supply chains for many fishing businesses. This paper provides an analysis of the COVID-19 impacts on the profitability of the EU fishing fleets. Nowcasting techniques were used to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic performance for the EU fishing fleet in 2020 and 2021. Our results show that the economic impact of COVID-19 on this sector was smaller than initially expected and overall profits remained positive. This was in part due to low fuel prices that reduced operating costs of fishing, and the early response from governments to support the sector. The results vary by fishing fleet, revealing that small-scale fleets and the fleets in the Mediterranean and Black seas have been more impacted than large-scale fleets and the fleets in the Northeast Atlantic.