Ever-tightening EU standards and steadily rising costs are forcing many of the states’ fishers to leave the industry whilst also driving up the price of seafood

The Benelux states of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg have never been amongst Europe’s elite band of fish-producing nations, despite the first two having North Sea coastlines. Consequently, a significant proportion of their fish and seafood needs have been traditionally met by imports.

As has been the case with many other EU states in recent months, Belgian and Dutch fishers have faced significant cost increases. This has compounded problems that they were already facing as a result of increasingly tighter national and EU fishing regulations.