Barcelona, seafood capital during Seafood 2022

This Tuesday 26 April sees the start in Barcelona of Seafood Expo Global, the world's largest trade fair for the fishing and seafood sector , and for the event's three days Catalonia will become the leading international showcase for seafood.

Catalonia's whole fish sector will be present through the Catalonia HUB (Hall 2, Stand 2H501), the Government of Catalonia's institutional pavilion, which will present its agri-food, economic and culinary potential around the sector's core values: governance, sustainability, innovation and quality. 

This year's Seafood will also feature around fifteen Catalan companies and organisations linked to the fish and seafood sector under the agri-food brand "Catalonia, where fish is culture", on the stand organised by PRODECA – Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda (Hall 2, Stand 2G501 and Stand DH401), with the aim of supporting their export marketing and international positioning. 

Companies taking part under the brand "Catalonia, where fish is culture":

• BARRUFET SA – Barcelona 
• MERCABARNA – GMP - Barcelona
• IBERDIGEST SL – Alt Empordà
• CATALAN NATIONAL FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S GUILDS
• COMERCIAL DE PESCADOS MAR FISH SL – Barcelonès
• COCEDERO DE MARISCOS SA – Barcelonès
• PH7 FOOD TECHONOLOGY – Baix Llobregat
• BARRUFET CONGELADO – Barcelonès
• ALFRISA – Vallès Occidental
• EUROPEIX SA – Maresme
• EASYFISH SL – Gironès
• LABORATORIO FISH&TECH SLU – Baix Llobregat
• DPA SEAFOOD TECHNOLOGY – Baix Llobregat
• JGUTIERREZ FOOD TRADING – Vallès Occidental

Seafood, the most important international trade fair for seafood

After 28 years in Brussels (Belgium), the fair moves to Barcelona with the aim of establishing itself as Europe's seafood hub and increasing its capacity to generate future business opportunities. The 29th Seafood Expo Global therefore docks in Barcelona, returning after the 2020 and 2021 editions could not be held because of the pandemic. 

In its last edition, in 2019, Seafood Expo Global brought together more than 29,000 people from 155 countries and 2,000 companies from around the world to make contacts and do business. It draws importers, exporters, wholesalers, restaurants and other companies in the sector, showcasing the latest in seafood. Year after year the fair breaks records for floor space, reaching 40,625 m2 of exhibition space in 2019.

Seafood Expo Global is expected to have an economic impact on Catalonia of €100 million while it runs. It is an opportunity for the sector's supply chain to come together and for new technologies, serving innovation and quality, to take centre stage in the production and marketing of Catalan fish, increasingly present around the world. 

The fish sector, a long-standing tradition in Catalonia

Oily fish, white fish, crustaceans, shellfish… Catalonia markets every variety of seafood, obtained through capture fishing or aquaculture. Catalan fish and seafood, marked by steadily improving eating quality, finds its main destinations in Europe, specifically Italy, France and Portugal, for an increasingly attractive product.

The living marine resources sector (sea fishing, marine aquaculture and fish processing and distribution), according to the study "The Blue Economy in Catalonia", has gross value added of more than €600 million, turnover of more than €4,500 million and employment of more than 16,000 professionals.

In recent years, catches have fallen while turnover has risen, a figure showing that the highest quality is demanded of fishery products. Last year catches amounted to 20,080 tonnes. Marine farming has also grown in recent years as a necessary complement to traditional fishing. Catalonia has therefore developed its aquaculture sector, with new farming techniques adapted to our coastline and an abundant variety of molluscs, fish and crustaceans. Inland trout farms and oyster and mussel operations have also been set up in Catalonia. Aquaculture output amounts to 9,317 tonnes.

The sector has made a firm commitment to modernising its fleet, as well as auction systems, product labelling and traceability, and sustainability, through the innovative co-management model of fisheries governance. The quality and diversity of the fish underpins world-class cuisine, a global benchmark, and fish from the Catalan coast is a staple of the Mediterranean Diet.