The seafood market in Portugal: Driving forces and consequences
One of the main reasons why I went to study during four years the Portuguese seafood consumption, was to answer this question:
"Why do Portuguese people eat so much seafood?"
This was also the first question that people made me after I started explaining my PhD research project.
It is understandable that a country with a vast territory in coastal area, has high tradition in eating seafood.
But UK and Italy for example, are also countries with high coastal areas and they do not reach such a high seafood consumption per capita as Portugal.
So why is this happening in Portugal?
Putting it in simple words: it is because of bacalhau.
And then the following question comes:
"Why Portuguese people eat so much bacalhau, even though it does not exist in Portuguese waters?"
The tradition of eating bacalhau in Portugal exists since long time ago.
It stared in the 15th century but the consumption of bacalhau has never been as high as in the 20th century.
The interesting part of this story, in my point of view, and what I had tried to argue, is that apart from the expected drivers (geography, fisheries, resources available), there are other ones that influenced the way Portuguese society demands seafood nowadays.
One strong influence in food habits is the religion, related to Christianity prohibition of eating meat in festive days.
And other is governance, due to the Campanha do bacalhau, which was established by the dictatorship government in order to provide animal protein, cod fish in this case, to people at low prices.
Even though nowadays the religion is not as important as it was in shaping our consumption habits, and some cod fish stocks are still recovering from overfishing situations, it will never be possible to change some traditions, as for example that bacalhau is the traditional dish in Christmas eve in most of Portuguese households.
These discussion matters when someone thinks about changing consumption habits, especially taking into account the consequences for the environment.
Human behaviour is never that simple to understand and even more complicated to change.
Portugal has the third highest seafood consumption per capita in the world and current patterns of seafood consumption are linked to how seafood products were embodied in the Portuguese society.
The objective of this research is to understand Portuguese seafood consumption's main drivers and its consequences.
For that official statistics were analysed and a literature review on seafood consumption was undertaken.
Portuguese seafood consumption is characterized by a wide diversity of species and preparing modes, when compared to other countries in Europe.
Cod (salted and dried), does not exist in Portuguese waters but due to several factors, such as politics, religion and tradition, became the main species in Portuguese seafood consumption, representing around 38% of the national seafood demand.
Five drivers are suggested to explain why Portuguese eat so much seafood: geography, marine resources, fisheries, social forces and politics; and consequences for the environment, economy and health are discussed.
Hence while most dietary recommendations advise an increase in fish consumption is not applicable to Portugal and a more sustainable seafood consumption for the future is advocated.
Almeida C., Karadzic V., Vaz S. (2015). The seafood market in Portugal: driving forces and consequences. Marine Policy, 61, 87-94.
"Why do Portuguese people eat so much seafood?"
This was also the first question that people made me after I started explaining my PhD research project.
It is understandable that a country with a vast territory in coastal area, has high tradition in eating seafood.
But UK and Italy for example, are also countries with high coastal areas and they do not reach such a high seafood consumption per capita as Portugal.
So why is this happening in Portugal?
Putting it in simple words: it is because of bacalhau.
And then the following question comes:
"Why Portuguese people eat so much bacalhau, even though it does not exist in Portuguese waters?"
The tradition of eating bacalhau in Portugal exists since long time ago.
It stared in the 15th century but the consumption of bacalhau has never been as high as in the 20th century.
The interesting part of this story, in my point of view, and what I had tried to argue, is that apart from the expected drivers (geography, fisheries, resources available), there are other ones that influenced the way Portuguese society demands seafood nowadays.
One strong influence in food habits is the religion, related to Christianity prohibition of eating meat in festive days.
And other is governance, due to the Campanha do bacalhau, which was established by the dictatorship government in order to provide animal protein, cod fish in this case, to people at low prices.
Even though nowadays the religion is not as important as it was in shaping our consumption habits, and some cod fish stocks are still recovering from overfishing situations, it will never be possible to change some traditions, as for example that bacalhau is the traditional dish in Christmas eve in most of Portuguese households.
These discussion matters when someone thinks about changing consumption habits, especially taking into account the consequences for the environment.
Human behaviour is never that simple to understand and even more complicated to change.
Portugal has the third highest seafood consumption per capita in the world and current patterns of seafood consumption are linked to how seafood products were embodied in the Portuguese society.
The objective of this research is to understand Portuguese seafood consumption's main drivers and its consequences.
For that official statistics were analysed and a literature review on seafood consumption was undertaken.
Portuguese seafood consumption is characterized by a wide diversity of species and preparing modes, when compared to other countries in Europe.
Cod (salted and dried), does not exist in Portuguese waters but due to several factors, such as politics, religion and tradition, became the main species in Portuguese seafood consumption, representing around 38% of the national seafood demand.
Five drivers are suggested to explain why Portuguese eat so much seafood: geography, marine resources, fisheries, social forces and politics; and consequences for the environment, economy and health are discussed.
Hence while most dietary recommendations advise an increase in fish consumption is not applicable to Portugal and a more sustainable seafood consumption for the future is advocated.
Almeida C., Karadzic V., Vaz S. (2015). The seafood market in Portugal: driving forces and consequences. Marine Policy, 61, 87-94.