The future of aquaculture: EMBRC’s industrial vision highlights aquaculture as a priority area
In this article, previously published in our Annual Report 2024, Mery Pina, Industries Liaison Officer at EMBRC, offers a reflection on the importance of supporting the aquaculture sector in Europe and the role of EMBRC in delivering essential services to advance this industry.
A thriving aquaculture sector holds the potential to support the European Blue bioeconomy while contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and benefiting society. Sustainable aquaculture reduces pressure on wild fish stocks while creating jobs, boosting economies, and ensuring food security.
The EU currently imports 70% of its seafood and is responsible for just 2% of global aquaculture products, but the sector is growing. Between 2010 and 2022, the value of the EU’s aquaculture production grew by about 75%. According to the EU Blue Economy report 2024, the marine aquaculture sector contributed *€4.3 million in gross value added (GVA) through the creation of 1.2 million tonnes of products.
Mery Piña, EMBRC Industries Liaison Officer
Mery Piña is the Industries Liaison Officer at EMBRC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre) in Paris, where she leads efforts to connect marine research with industry, particularly in biotechnology, aquaculture, and the blue economy. She holds a PhD in Microbiology (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 2011) and a Master’s from HEC Paris in innovation and entrepreneurship.
EMBRC provides a wide range of services for aquaculture research and has many partners working in this sector. The Research Infrastructure (RI) can help aquaculture development through services including access to facilities for feed trial studies, up-scaling, selective breeding, genetic studies, and testing innovative disease-control approaches. A key project that we co-lead in this space with the Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR, EMBRC Portugal) – AquaSERV – is advancing aquaculture studies and supporting the sustainable transition to a resilient sector. We believe EMBRC is perfectly placed to further accelerate the research, technological development, and innovation needed to help this sector flourish.
From 22-25 September, EMBRC is delighted to join 3000+ scientists, industry professionals and policymakers in Aquaculture Europe 2025 organised by the European Aquaculture Society, to discuss and share knowledge around sustainable aquaculture development.
