The benefits of integrating socioeconomic dimensions of circular economy practices in the seafood sector

Abstract

Within the European recent agenda for sustainable growth—the Green Deal—the European Commission has adopted a new circular economy action plan. The plan aims at not only ensuring substantial material savings throughout value chains and production processes but also generating extra added value and unlocks economic opportunities. Within the European Atlantic area, commercial alliances and common interests in food production and consumption are numerous, particularly for seafood. To assess the benefits and disadvantages of potential changes in the technology regimes along the value chain, stakeholders need to be provided with tools to guarantee positive environmental and economic balance of new circular economy practice. The article investigates the use of economic methodologies to assess the performance of circular economy practice in existing scientific literature dealing with fisheries, aquaculture, or seafood production sectors. As demonstrated in other sectors, the lack of studies on socioeconomic dimension limits the ability for decision-makers to mainstream circular economy practices into existing business models. Different economic performance assessment tools that could help bring valuable arguments to design transformative economic systems are reviewed.