Fresh is best: Europe's niche shrimp market hopes for boost in demand
Producers in Europe's shrimp and prawn market may belong to a niche market, but experts are expecting a boost in business as local consumers shell out more for freshness.
"Prawns from European aquacultures are fresher and taste better than those from Vietnam, Thailand or China," said Matthew Slater of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, on Germany's northern coast.
Slater, who heads an aquaculture research group at the institute, is confident that some customers in the region would pay three times the price of frozen produce for shrimps and prawns from European waters.
But Germany, Europe's largest economy, has a long way to go. Of the around 50,000 tons of prawns eaten in the country each year, the institute estimates that just 50 tons were prawns from German farms. (dpa)
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