European Union exports of shark fins to non-EU nations fell to 2.7 thousand tonnes in 2025, valued at €44.8 million ($51.5 million).
This represented a 15.2 per cent decrease in volume from 3.1 thousand tonnes in 2024, while the total export value declined by 31.3 per cent from €65.3 million, according to data from Eurostat.
The decline followed a significant surge between 2023 and 2024, when outbound shipments more than doubled from 1.5 thousand tonnes, and values rose by 91 per cent from €34.2 million.
Eurostat noted that the previous downward trend, which hit a low in 2023 after four consecutive years of declines since 2019, was largely driven by supply disruptions in Europe and weak Asian demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trade controls tightened at the end of 2023 when an update to Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) added 60 shark species to its list.
This regulatory shift required exporters to navigate stricter documentation and increased scrutiny, which may have led to more normalised trade patterns as monitoring stepped up in 2025.
To enhance tracking for highly traded species like the blue shark and shortfin mako, the EU introduced new product codes on the Eurostat international trade database.
The statistical office also reported a decrease in shark fin imports, which fell to 20.2 tonnes worth €0.3 million in 2025 from 66.9 tonnes valued at €1.2 million in 2023.
Frozen shark fins made up €40.3 million of the total export value, with blue shark fins accounting for 97.2 per cent of this category. Singapore and China remained the top destinations for these exports in 2025, accounting for 41.5 per cent and 40.9 per cent of the market respectively, after Singapore overtook China as the leading partner in 2024.
