Spain bought 375,040 tonnes of fishery and aquaculture products to the Member States of the European Union (EU) over the past year, a figure which shows a fall of 21.7 per cent compared to 2011, when 478,986 tonnes had been purchased.
According to the April Fisheries Statistics report issued in April 2013, published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Magrama), last year the imports amounted to EUR 1,247.9 million and in 2011, they were EUR 1,580.6 million.
In addition, Spain imported 1,001,858 tonnes of fishing-aquaculture products from third countries for EUR 3,268.6 million in 2012.
The report issued by the Magrama also details that last year Spain exported 565,362 tonnes of marine resources to EU nations for EUR 1,967.2 million, and to third countries, 355,198 tonnes for EUR 774 million.
The official report states that the purchases from other EU states fell in all seafood, but especially in the case of live fish, descending more than 40 per cent, from 6,227 tonnes in 2011 -- to 3,695 tonnes in 2012.
They also experienced significant declines in imports of prepared and canned products (27 per cent), molluscs (20 per cent) and fishmeal (31 per cent).
In 2012, Spain imported 152,322 tonnes of fresh or chilled fish from European nations for EUR 492.9 million while a year earlier it had purchased 167,538 tonnes for EUR 575.3 million.
It also imported 66,725 tonnes of frozen fish for EUR 120.8 million, compared with EUR 108,011 tonnes for 141.4 million in 2011.
According to statistics from Magrama, in 2012 the fishing trade balance left a negative balance of EUR 1,775 million in 2012: 1,376,898 tonnes of aquaculture-fishery products were imported for EUR 4,516.6 million while 920,560 tonnes were exported for EUR 2,741.3 million.
This deficit was lower than that of 2011, which reached EUR 2,285 million when 1,629,713 tonnes were imported for 5,262 million and EUR 1,054,810 tonnes for EUR 2,976.7 million.