EU keeps pollock, cod and surimi duty-free quotas open through 2027
The European Union has pushed its zero-duty import windows for Alaska pollock, cod and surimi out by a full year. Council Regulation (EU) 2026/2446, adopted on 26 October and published on 28 October, takes effect on 17 November and carries the existing autonomous tariff quota table to 31 December 2027. The volumes themselves were not touched. Only the expiry date moved, from the end of 2026 to the end of 2027.
For anyone shipping whitefish into Rotterdam, Vigo or Klaipeda, this is the difference between a routine customs entry and a duty bill.
The Numbers
The quota lines that matter for frozen whitefish and surimi, taken from the annex of Regulation (EU) 2023/2720 that this extension amends:
Frozen Alaska pollock, including fillets and other frozen meat for processing under order 09.2777: 340,000 tonnes a year at 0% duty.
Frozen surimi for processing, order 09.2772: 60,000 tonnes at 0%.
Cod, fresh, chilled or frozen for processing, order 09.2759: 110,000 tonnes. Frozen cod fillets and meat, order 09.2776: 45,000 tonnes. Salted cod, order 09.2765: 2,000 tonnes.
Smaller lines carried over unchanged include 10,000 tonnes of frozen tilapia fillets (09.2515), 10,000 tonnes of Pacific salmon (09.2822), 5,700 tonnes of hard fish roe (09.2748) and 17,500 tonnes of flatfish split across orders 09.2503 and 09.2778.
The regulation text is a two-article amendment: Article 1 rewrites the validity period of the parent regulation, Article 2 replaces every quota period in the annex table with 1.1.2024–31.12.2027. Nothing else changes.
Why the EU bothered: the replacement quota regime is not finished. The Commission wants to fold sustainability conditions into it and now says it will table the new proposal in the first quarter of 2027. It estimated that keeping the current duty suspension for one more year will forgo about EUR 272 million in import duties in 2027, according to Alaska News.
Where the volume actually comes from, per NOAA Fisheries trade data: the United States exported roughly 333,000 tonnes of Alaska pollock in 2025, worth about USD 1 billion. About 144,000 tonnes, worth USD 464 million, went to the EU. Of 116,200 tonnes of frozen pollock fillets exported, some 86% (USD 347 million) landed in the EU, with the Netherlands the largest single buyer at about USD 311 million, ahead of Lithuania, Germany, France and Spain. The EU also absorbed 33,700 tonnes of the 134,600 tonnes of US surimi exports, worth USD 86.5 million.
What It Means for Buyers
Read the quota as a non-Russian raw material market, because that is what it is. Article 5 refuses quota benefits to goods originating in Russia or Belarus, a rule in place since 2024. With the quota extended, EU processors have a full year of predictable access to pollock and surimi from everywhere else, and no similar access to Russian material. That keeps the bidding concentrated on US, Norwegian, Icelandic and Chinese-origin raw material.
The end-use conditions are where shipments get rejected. Quota goods must be for human consumption and processed inside the EU. Cleaning, gutting, cutting, repacking IQF fillets, labelling, glazing, freezing and thawing do not qualify on their own. Dicing, filleting, making flaps, cutting frozen blocks and slicing into rings do. A container of retail-ready frozen fillets will not clear under 09.2777; a block or a bulk fillet going to a EU plant will.
For processors outside the EU who buy Russian headed and gutted pollock and re-export fillets, the origin question deserves a written answer from your customs broker before you quote. Non-preferential origin rules decide whether the finished fillet counts as Russian.
Quota is allocated in the chronological order in which customs declarations are accepted, so utilisation is a real planning variable. A quota renewed in October can be half gone by spring.
What to Watch
Entries lodged before 17 November still fall under the old period; goods arriving in the first half of November need to be timed, not assumed.
The Commission's first-quarter 2027 proposal, and whether US fisheries management or MSC certification will be accepted as proof of sustainability.
Utilisation figures for orders 09.2777 and 09.2772 through the first quarter of 2027, which will show whether EU processors are front-loading ahead of any 2028 change.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and is published for general information only. It does not constitute trading, pricing, or investment advice, and readers should verify all figures against the original sources linked above before making commercial decisions. Content on this page is partly AI-generated. Easy Seafood makes no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness.
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