The fish and seafood industry in Hauts-de-France

Hauts-de-France is a leader in Europe’s seafood industry, thanks to our concentration of players, large-scale processing and production, and comprehensive logistics infrastructure.

The fish and seafood industry in Hauts-de-France

Hauts-de-France is a leader in Europe’s seafood industry, thanks to our concentration of players, large-scale processing and production, and comprehensive logistics infrastructure.

Boulogne-sur-Mer: Europe’s largest seafood processing center

Boulogne-sur-Mer is France’s top fishing port—and Europe’s #1 center for seafood processing.

Fast facts

  • 350,000+ metric tons of fish and seafood products delivered to Boulogne-sur-Mer port for distribution and/or processing
  • 270 businesses
  • 5,700 direct jobs

Hauts-de-France is home to every segment of the industry:

  • salting and smoking
  • canning
  • cutting and packaging
  • fresh and frozen ready-to-serve specialties
  • aquaculture including pure salmon
  • and more, including food supplements, cosmeceuticals and animal feed ingredients

These leading companies chose Hauts-de-France

Hauts-de-France welcomes fish and seafood companies from around the world

What our region can do for you

When you do business in Hauts-de-France, you’ll benefit from a wide range of resources, including modern logistics, a deep pool of expertise, and a broad-based R&D cluster to help make your new ideas a reality.

The logistics you need

Hauts-de-France has a solid selection of resources for seafood logistics

Case study: Boulogne-sur-Mer’s road terminal

  • dedicated, temperature-controlled refrigerated and frozen storage
  • over 250,000 cubic meters of frozen storage capacity
  • processing and packaging specialists
  • every day Boulogne-sur-Mer serves over 100 destinations in France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Spain and more.

Meet your future employees!

Hauts-de-France has a long tradition of expertise in the fish and seafood industry, built up through special training courses:

  • Sea fishing and commercial fishing
  • Fish processing (filleting, smoking, cutting and more)
  • Food quality and safety
  • Nutrition

Grow your own R&D in Hauts-de-France

Have a new project in mind? Tap into the R&D expertise of our fish and seafood specialists:

  • Anses, the French agency for food, environmental and occupational health & safety 
  • IFREMER, French national institute for marine science research
  • NAUSICAA, French National Sea Center
  • Nouvelles Vagues, a regional seafood and aquaculture innovation platform 
  • the Aquimer cluster

Close-up: the Aquimer innovation cluster

Aquimer views fish and seafood as the food of the future, and is dedicated to:

  • making the industry as a whole more competitive by meeting fish and seafood businesses’ needs
  • helping companies grow through targeted R&D and improved technology
  • maximizing available assets by creating new resources that promote sustainable development

Fast facts:

  • 124 members in 81 businesses
  • 20 skills centers
  • 128 cluster projects

Earn quality labels and certifications!

Hauts-de-France lets you raise your business profile by qualifying for labels that guarantee safety and traceability for your customers—proven credibility.

Your opportunity to set up in Hauts-de-France

We are France’s #1 exporter of food products with sales of €10bn, a direct result of the many resources you’ll find here.