Project Summary

Aquaculture and capture fisheries are the source of healthy and nutritional products for human consumption, rich in proteins, essential omega-3 fatty acids and bioavailable micronutrients, as well as employment and economic benefits for all stakeholders involved. The Adriatic-Ionian region contributes around 3.4% of Europe’s total fish and shellfish production with around 600 thousand tonnes produced in 2022, of which 52.8% was attributed by aquaculture sector. This sets a strong foundation for the blue economy development in the region, however planning for sustainable future involves many environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges to be solved if the aquatic food sector is to live up to its potential. In the Adriatic-Ionian aquatic sectors there is a general lack of tools and methodologies to properly evaluate and communicate health, environment and social good practices and impacts to consumers and leverage them as a business strategy. As aquatic resources in the region are shared across the Adriatic and Ionian seas, cooperation among states is an essential and unavoidable requirement to develop efficient management strategies, considering the geo-political specificities and legal and administrative framework of each country. FISHIMPACT will promote actions supporting the development and modernization of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the fish industry through the introduction of quality and sustainable requirements. FISHIMPACT project will collect state of art information on the available labels and certification systems on the national, EU and IPA markets concerning environmental, social and health performances of aquaculture products, develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) regarding ESG standards, sustainability as well as health and nutritional values of the products, and incorporate all these in a self-evaluation online multi-lingual tool. This tool will be validated with a cohort of end-users and stakeholders. Training schemes for the industry about PEF/LCA, circular economy, environmental labels and other relevant issues for the sector will be provided. Final stage will include wide-range dissemination and capacity building for transferability in the entire Adriatic-Ionian region. The main outputs of FISHIMPACT are in accordance with the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region and European Green Deal. They are directed to and for regional and national public authorities, sectoral agencies, large companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), business support organizations and general public, namely consumers as ultimate beneficiaries of aquatic food sector and project efforts. The project will result in three main outputs: - Transnational pilot action to test FISHIMPACT toolkit dedicated to improve fishery and aquaculture SMEs’ competitiveness, - Guidelines for SMEs to facilitate the introduction of nutritional and sustainability requirements in fishery and aquaculture sectors, - Memorandum of Understanding on international cooperation in the Adriatic-Ionian regions involved to ensure long-term sustainability to FISHIMPACT outcomes. FISHIMPACT will leave significant mark on all participants and contributors in aquatic food value chain, increase general awareness on the importance of development of ESG smart businesses and instigate a change in consumers preferences towards making more sustainable, healthy and nutritional choices in everyday lives. The policy recommendations paper prepared within the project will be available to all interested parties as a guideline tool in ESG oriented decision-making and planning for sustainable blue economy in the Adriatic-Ionian region.