Category Archives: Estonia

Women in the EU Fish Processing Economy

Posted on May 22, 2013 | 1 comment
Fish processor, Poland. Source: www.poland-fish.com.

Fish processor, Poland. Source: http://www.poland-fish.com.

In 2012, the European Union (EU) Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), through the Joint Research Centre of the EU, published a report on the Economic Performance of the EU Fish Processing Industry Sector (STECF-OWP-12-01). 

In aggregate from the reporting countries, the 2011 employment statistics show that women and men are almost evenly balanced, in terms of numbers of jobs. Looking at different countries, however, the figures differ. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have more than 60% women fish processing employees, whereas Malta and the UK have more than 60% of men employees. In Europe, fish processing about 150,000 people. France, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom supported the largest workforces, with more than 10,000 each.

Percent women (blue) and men (red) in each reporting EU country. Source. STECF report

Percent women (blue bar) and men (red bar) by EU reporting country. Source. STECF report)

This report (link for download) should be read in conjunction with the STECF report on employment and other economic parameters in the aquaculture sector (see: /counting-womens-participation-in-eu-aquaculture/). The EU is taking measures to improve its fisheries economic statistics, including gender-disaggregated data. To date, however, no gender-disaggregated data are available from capture fisheries.

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Posted in Estonia, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, Fish post-harvest, Gender, Gender in the workplace, Gender research resources, Gendered labor studies, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Men, Poland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Women

Counting Women’s Participation in EU Aquaculture

Posted on May 18, 2013 | 4 comments
Carp, Czeck Republic. Source: The Prague Post 21 Dec 2011.

Carp, Czeck Republic. Source: The Prague Post 21 Dec 2011, Walter Novak.

A new EU report on the European Union member countries’ aquaculture sector contains some basic gender-disaggregated data on employment in the production segment of aquaculture. Although the statistics are incomplete, they nevertheless provide some useful information. The report is called: The Economic Performance of the EU Aquaculture Sector – 2012 exercise. (STECF-13-03). It is  a joint Scientific and Policy Report and was produced by the Joint Research Centre.

The statistics in the report refers to EU companies whose main activity is aquaculture production (‘Fish Farming’ according to official codes and definitions). Although some companies do other activities (eg. processing, distribution, marketing), aquaculture production is their main activity and therefore the data (mainly) refers to production .

More detailed data for the EU aquaculture sector is available also online,  by segment (combination of main species and technology). From this data it can be seen in which sectors the presence of women is more important (eg.  shellfish gathering in several EU countries).  Thanks to Dr Jordi Guillen, an Editor for the report for these data explanations.

Download the aquaculture report here: download

The key results show that, in 2010, women comprised:

– 29 % of the EU aquaculture sector employment

– 23 % of the FTE (full-time-equivalents) in employment

– 27 % of the EU aquaculture shellfish sector employment.

–  24 % of the EU aquaculture marine sector employment.

– 29 % of the EU aquaculture freshwater sector employment (but data are  less complete than for other forms because they are not compulsory – France and Romania are  biggest employers).

Women’s participation varied greatly by country and the EU averages tended to be dominated by patterns in France and Spain. The table below is an extract of data for countries with more than 1,000 aquaculture jobs.

Country

Total Number employees (2010)

Number female

% female

% female FTE
France

19,814

7,030

35

28
Ireland

1,719

146

8

8
Portugal

2,320

430

19

18
Romania

3,933

603

15

15
Spain

27,907

8,055

29

21
UK

4,000

n.a.

n.a.

 [18% women in Scottish shellfish industry]

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Posted in Aquaculture, England, Estonia, Europe, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, Finland, France, Gender, Germany, Ireland, Men, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom, Women