The paper says: "The consumption of canned fish has shown an increasing trend throughout the EU. International competition on the EU processed seafood market is tough. Raw material availability and cost are the most significant variables for the processing industry."

The paper further says that, the objective behind setting up joint ventures is to secure alternative and cheaper sources of supply. It has been prepared as a backgrounder to the EU-India Partenariat, scheduled in March 1999, which will be a meeting between the small and medium industry of the EU and India.

The Partenariat (a French word meaning partnership) will be held in Delhi and the process of selecting Indian participants is on. The food processing industry is one of the six industries chosen for themeet.

In the nineties the annual consumption of fish products in the EU has gone up by almost 3 kg to touch 10 kg per head from around 6.7 kg per head in the early eighties.

Most European Union companies engaged in fish processing are concentrated along the Mediterranean coast. Italy, France and Spain account for more than 50 per cent of the industry. The rest is concentrated in the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark.

According to the paper, the "fish and seafood industry has been divided into five major categories -- frozen fish, dried salted and smoked fish, prepared or preserved fish, aquatic invertebrates -- frozen, dried and salted crustaceans or other aquatic invertebrates, prepared or preserved.

Spain makes the biggest contribution in terms of production to the EU fish processing industry with a 25-per cent share of total production.

Environmental norms are given high priority in the European Union, although they are yet to take a proper shape in the continent. The paper says "Increasedefforts are being made not only to understand how and to what extent fishing activities disturb the balance in the marine environment and also to design and encourage the adoption of more selective fishing techniques."

There are other regulations which are important in this case and the paper lists some of them.

"The key regulations for the fisheries product processing sector are health conditions, and hygiene standards of all establishments where fishery products are prepared, chilled, processed, packaged or stored -- to be approved by a competent authority," the paper says.

The other regulations focus on marketing standards, producer organisations and prices of the products with special reference to the EU canning industry.