Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
788. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the type and amounts of seafood that will be imported into the European Union every year under the proposed Mercosur Trade Agreement. [3486/26]
View answerIn 2024, EU member states imported approximately 145,000 tonnes from the Mercosur bloc, the majority from Argentina. The primary species imported were shrimp, hake and squid. This figure should be seen in the context that EU seafood import volumes in 2024 totalled 5.7 million tonnes. Seafood imports to Ireland from full Mercosur members in 2024 totalled 66 tonnes, mostly hake and other whitefish from Argentina.
The Irish seafood processing sector, which is worth €947 million to the Irish economy, depends on a stable and diverse supply of raw material to remain competitive and resilient, and seafood imports are a vital complement to domestic supply. Imports are an increasingly important component of the raw material supply base for Irish seafood processors. Between 2020 and 2024, Irish seafood imports increased by 17%, with imported raw material especially critical for whitefish processors.
Under the EU-Mercosur Agreement, the tariff lines for the vast majority of seafood products are liberalised at entry into force, while some products (e.g. frozen hake, frozen shrimp, frozen lobster and frozen crabs) will be subject to a phase-in period of either 4, 7 or 10 years prior to full liberalisation.
In the event that the EU-Mercosur Agreement is ultimately approved and progressed to implementation, my Department anticipates that seafood processors themselves may seek to develop new sources of raw material supply, and Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) will continue to provide the necessary business intelligence services to the sector, such as market insights, price trends, and sourcing profiles to support informed decision-making by processors when procuring both domestic and imported raw material.
BIM works to ensure that Irish seafood processors can effectively balance domestic landings and imports, in order to safeguard processing capacity and maintain Ireland’s competitiveness in both export and domestic markets. BIM remains conscious of the need to enable processors to better integrate imports into their supply strategies while continuing to maximise the value of Irish-landed fish.
Any increase in imported seafood that could result from the approval and implementation of the EU-Mercosur Agreement will take place in the context of the very stringent EU standards to protect human, animal and plant health, known as SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) standards. These are amongst the highest in the world, and the European Commission has insisted that they are not negotiable. The Government is very firmly of the view that EU SPS standards must continue to be rigorously upheld for the benefit of European consumers.
