Foreword
AFPMAR’s aim is to promote the French eel fishing industry as a whole, including both fishermen and fish traders. Our ethics and morals require us to state the facts objectively. Those involved in the eel fishing sector need to know what is really happening on the market for restocking glass eels in Europe.
Prices down
The 2024-2025 fishing season is characterised by abundant glass eel runs, and with favourable weather conditions, fishermen are quickly able to reach their quotas.
The price of glass eel for consumption is being driven by the Spanish market. We were at €500 from fishermen before and during the end-of-year festivities, and now we’re down to €400.
The restocking market is even less profitable than usual, with first prices low, even very low. Historically, this is the first time we’ve started the season at €170 per kilogram, and now we’re down to €150. This is unacceptable! Remember that restocking represents 60% of our overall quota.
The reasons for this drop: A monopoly on the glass eel market in Europe, the aim of which is to regulate and control French fishing.
Of the 39 tonnes of restocking quota allocated to the French fishery, the European market can only absorb 26 tonnes at best (13 tonnes will remain in the water).
The restocking market is therefore subject to increased commercial competition between the 3 French wholesalers, who are competing to obtain as many restocking contracts as possible for ‘their’ fishermen who sold them the glass eel for consumption (the most profitable market).
But this competition goes beyond the legal, ethical and moral limits. In fact, a monopoly situation has been created by the unjustified requirement for French fishermen and wholesalers to obtain a SEG[1] (Sustainable Eel Group) label, which is not recognised by the EU and which only favours one economic group in obtaining large restocking contracts financed by public funds.
[1] The SEG is currently 90% funded by DUPAN (an association to promote the Dutch eel industry) and IFEA (an association with the same aims as DUPAN but for the German eel industry) through the ESF (Eel Stewardship Fund). Despite several requests, the French fishing sector is not represented at all on the SEG.
This monopolistic situation has been reinforced this year in the following ways:
- The farming sector, dominated by one economic group, is the dominant force in large restocking contracts, with the SEG label in demand, erasing all competition. The prices offered are the usual high ones. Margins are high, enabling the dominant economic group to win out over its competitors. This is the case in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany), Lower Saxony (Germany) or for the supply of restocking in the Netherlands carried out by Dupan (the largest funder of the SEG). As a result, several restocking contracts now require the SEG label, despite European rules on the use of public funds. This leaves the market wide open to the only wholesaler belonging to this dominant group which has the SEG label and sufficient financial cover to supply all these markets.
- In addition to the SEG, specific mechanisms have also been put in place to ensure that restocking contracts are awarded to the same operator. For example, the candidate(s) for the call for tenders for restocking in Brandenburg (€1,350,000), a project led by the chairman of the IFEA (SEG funder), requires that the candidate be both an eel producer and a glass eel merchant, for what reason! Only one candidate in Europe meets these completely unjustified requirements!
- For markets where the SEG label is not essential, tenders are won by offering prices that are unbeatable by any competition, with little or no margin for the wholesaler. In fact, the profits generated by large contracts to which a single company is able to respond enable this type of dumping to be financed in order to financially crush its competitors. In 2023, this company had the luxury of offering several hundred kg of glass eels, while making a reported profit of €850,000 (source: Internet). By responding to invitations to tender, where a diversity of buyers is still possible at very low prices, this group is eliminating competition, again with the aim of consolidating its monopoly.
As a result, we end up with lower prices when buying from French fishermen, so that wholesalers can offer sufficiently attractive prices to European buyers of restocking glass eels to maintain market share for all fishermen. This is untenable for the fishing industry.
As a consequence, fishermen are suffering, while the farming industry for consumption and restocking is doing very well.
As an economic model, this looks more like the plundering of the fishing industry than a fair share between all the stakeholders in the eel sector in Europe. If we let this happen, it will mean the programmed death of small-scale fishermen, and all so that a single player in the farming sector can control the market. We should not forget that the French glass eel fishing sector holds the future of the farming sector in its hand: without us, there would be no glass eels and therefore no eel farming!
Join AFPMAR: strength through unity, let's sell our products at the right price.
Some people are telling you not to subscribe. That's the proof you have to do it.
Your membership is necessary to better preserve the future of this fishery. It can be done anonymously for those who request it, given the pressure exerted by the dominant group in the farming sector on the fishing industry: in short, they won’t take your glass eel for restocking if you join the AFPMAR, even if you are in a SEG-certified fishery. Put an end to this blackmail!
The AFPMAR Standard: practical, robust guidelines to enhance the value of the fishery.
Indisputable traceability: daily monitoring by the French authorities through compulsory declarations of sale by fishermen on the one hand and of purchase by wholesalers on the other. Veterinary services also carry out checks prior to export (TRACES document), as well as unannounced controls by Customs.
Guaranted quality and responsible fishing: respect for the resource through artisanal and respectful fishing methods. Operation under constant observation by government services on the ground and in port.
Management and environmental monitoring: fishermen are the sentinels of these estuarine environments. Who else has the capacity to assess the abundance or decline of our emblematic species?
Let's raise our heads. Let's act together while there's still time.
Given the critical situation of the restocking markets, we are going to ask the State services (Ministry and DGAMPA – Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture) to intervene immediately at least to ensure that the calls for tender are legal and to organise this market as fairly as possible between all the stakeholders.
The essential instrument under EU Regulation 1100/2007 for the conservation of the species remains restocking. An overabundance of glass eels taken from our coasts are released throughout Europe, an essential action to minimise the impact of insufficient ecological continuity and to restore this migratory fish. Fishermen are actively involved in restoring the fitness of the species, in conjunction with ARA France and the official structures for professional marine and inland fisheries.
But the trade system, based on truncated calls for tender, is directly compromising the restoration of the species. Under the influence of an industrial group seeking to gain total control over the glass eel market in Europe, the market price for glass eels intended for restocking has collapsed. The small-scale fishery is struggling to survive, as it can no longer generate a decent income.
France, the only supplier of glass eels for restocking, is selling off this precious resource. The government must intervene without further delay to ensure that this fishery continues by imposing a minimum price.
We have the opportunity to take the boat’s helm again and set a course for a secure future.