Oyster tax breaks could save fishermen after crab invasion

Telegraph

05-03-2025

They may evoke images of luxury living and Champagne dinners, but oysters could be made cheaper in Italy to help battle an invasive crab.
The Italian government wants to drastically cut VAT on oysters from 22 per cent to 10 per cent, making them more affordable for families of modest means.
The hope is that reducing the price will boost demand and provide a lifeline for Italian fishermen who have been hard hit by the arrival of the Atlantic blue crab.
The invasive species, which is thought to have been brought accidentally to the Mediterranean in the ballast water of commercial shipping, using its powerful pincers to tear into and devastate populations of fish, clams, mussels and prawns in Italian waters.
The impact has been particularly acute in the Adriatic Sea, which is home to thousands of fish farms.
Oysters have been largely unaffected because their hard shells protect them from the powerful claws of the voracious blue crab, and should no longer be viewed as a luxury for the elite, said Francesco Lollobrigida, the country's agriculture minister and a close ally of Giorgio Meloni, the prime minister.
'In this way we will help save the fishermen who have been brought to their knees by the blue crab,' said the minister, speaking at a tasting event to promote oysters in the Italian Senate, the upper house of parliament.
Alberto Balboni, a senator and a member of Ms Meloni's conservative Brothers of Italy party, said many aquaculture businesses along the Adriatic coast were in acute difficulty because of the blue crab.
'Helping them is really important,' he said. 'All other shellfish have a VAT of 10 per cent. It's hard to understand why oysters are not the same.'
A consortium of aquaculture organisations said in a statement: 'In the collective imagination, oysters are associated with luxury, but they really shouldn't be. It's important to promote their consumption.' Italy produces around 500 tons of oysters a year, said the organisations.
But opposition parties mocked the idea, comparing the minister's proposal to the supposed 'let them eat cake' declaration made by Marie Antoinette when told her subjects were starving during the French Revolution.
Italia Viva, a centre-Left party, posted an image on Instagram in which Mr Lollobrigida appeared as the ill-fated French queen. 'Majesty, the people are hungry,' the caption read. 'Give them oysters!' the minister replies in the spoof image.
Other opposition MPs said the government had its priorities wrong.
'The minister says VAT on oysters should be reduced to 10 pr cent because they should be essential products, while tampons, powdered milk and nappies would appear to be luxury goods given that the Meloni government increased VAT on them from 5 per cent to 10 per cent,' said Nicola Fratoianni, from the opposition Green and Left Alliance.
Blue crabs have caused €100 million of damage so far to the fishing industry in Italy, according to the agricultural lobby organisation Coldiretti.
Cristiano Corazzari, the politician in charge of fisheries for the Veneto region, which includes Venice, said recently that the impact of the blue crab has been like 'an earthquake'.
He said the production of clams has been cut by more than 90 per cent because of the invasion.
'It's been devastating. The crab has a very high reproduction rate. And it eats everything that it finds,' he said.
Fishermen who catch the blue crab in vast quantities are trying to create a domestic market for the species.
Italy is also exporting blue crabs to countries such as the US, South Korea and Sri Lanka, but it is still not enough to put a dent in the population.