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Italy is a peninsula situated in Southern Europe which projects into
the central Mediterranean Sea covering an area of 301 270 square
kilometres, Italy has a population of about 58 million of
inhabitants. Fishing activity takes place along the entire 7 456 km
length of Italy ’s coastline, including its territorial waters 12
miles offshore, bordering the international boundary. Adriatic
waters of Italy lie in the FAO-GFCM Geographical Sub Area 17 and 18.
The Italian fishery sector presents the following
characteristics: predominance of small and relatively old vessels,
wide distribution of the fleet along the 8000 km coastline,
fragmentation of landing sites and sales, high degree of polyvalent
techniques.
The Italian aquaculture output in 2001 amounted to 257600 t with a total value of over 500 million Euro. Mollusc production
accounts for over 73% of the total, made up of 135000 t of mussels
(about 30 000 t from fishing) and 55 000 t of Manila clams (Marino
et al.
2005).
Italy’s domestic fisheries production in 2002 was approximately
487356 t of which 295694 t from capture fisheries and 1991662 from
aquaculture (FAO-FIDI 2004a).
In addition, fishery imports in 2003 totalled about 3558950 (US$ 1
000) while exports stood at 453515 (US$ 1 000) with a net balance of
-3105434 (US$ 1 000). Fishery imports as a percentage of
agricultural imports represents the 11.7% (FAO-FIDI
2004b).
In 1999-2001, average per caput supply was estimated at being
23.1 kg/year.
Italy has a fishing fleet of about 14510 boats with total GTR of
211477 distributed among the Italian coast (source MIPAAF, 2004). The
fishing fleet is oriented mainly on trawl fishing with about 62% of
the fishing vessels.
In 2003 imports totalled 817 000 tonnes, 73 % of which
constituted fresh or frozen products (601 000 tonnes for a value of
2194 mln €), 216 000 tonnes of processed products for a value of 902
mln €. Exports amounted to 114 000 tonnes, 78% of which were fresh
products (89.5 000 tonnes for a value of 281 mln €), 25 000 tonnes
of processed products (166 mln €) (source ANCIT, 2003).
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