If the new, comprehensive report on Turkish aquaculture, as summarised on The Fish Site last week, is anything to go by, then EU member states would be wise to look at how their eastern neighbour has achieved such impressive growth.

Levels of aquaculture production within the EU have been famously stagnant in the last few decades. The EU’s farmed finfish production, for example, decreased from 667,733 tonnes to 648,935 tonnes from 2008 to 2017, despite the aquaculture sector being handed €2.8 billion in subsidies between 2000 and 2020. Meanwhile Turkey’s output of seabass and sea bream rose from 149,000 tonnes to 247,000 tonnes in the decade up to 2017. While Turkey is often held in poor regard by EU member states, largely for political reasons, perhaps it is time that Europe paid more attention to one sector, aquaculture, where the Turks are setting the pace.