Denmark

Inspired by the well-known, land-based garden allotments concept, setting up gardens at sea and creating the Sea Garden Association has helped inject new life into Ebeltoft harbour and promote local coastal food and marine culture.

Dansk Økomusling Aps is a company based in the Thy-Mors area of Northern Denmark. Until now, their line mussels were harvested, packed unsorted in 1000 kg mesh bags and sent overseas for processing before returning to be sold on the Danish market. This created a lengthy supply chain that often reduced the overall quality, increased the costs and the carbon footprint of their products.

Kerteminde is located at the north-east of Denmark's second largest island Funen (Fyn), which situated between the island of Zealand and mainland Denmark (Jutland). The fishing industry has been under pressure for many years and its economic influence in society is declining. Despite this trend, new jobs have been created in the blue economy sector.

The FLAG area consists of four municipalities on the western coast of Jutland. They vary strongly in terms of population and economic activity. The region has both small and large scale fisheries activities.

The FLAG area covers three islands: Langeland, Læsø and Ærø – which gives a long coastline, made up of sandy beaches, like much of the Danish coastline. Tourism is the area’s dominant sector. and there are eight operational fishing ports on the three islands.

This FLAG area covers the municipality of Thisted (the area around the town of Thy), situated on the north-west coast of Jutland, and the municipality of Morsø (the island of Mors) located in the Limfjord. Thy and Mors are characterised by a few large manufacturing companies with expertise in health technology and robotics, and more traditional production companies in the metal, wood, and food industries.

Jammerbugt is situated in the north of the Jutland peninsula. Coastal fishing boats from the Jammerbugt area mostly operatie in the Thorup Strand (Skagerrak). At the Limfjord side of the FLAG area there are several communities with small ports which function mainly as bases for recreational fishing. There are many activities related to tourism in the wider coastal area.

The Småøerne FLAG covers 11 islands scattered throughout the seas around Denmark. This is an important change as the FLAG previously covered all 27 islands of the Småøerne LEADER LAG. However, due to budget cuts for CLLD funding and an area reduction as outlined in the fisheries Operational Programme, the FLAG now focuses on specially designated areas experiencing both a decline in population and a decrease in fisheries employment.

The Nord FLAG consists of the countries’ two northernmost municipalities and contains about 200km of coastline. The FLAG area has Denmark’s largest landings of pelagic fish. It’s no surprise, therefore, that this is an area with widespread fisheries activities in terms of employment, leisure and tourism.

FLAG areas in Denmark are focused on the few remaining small-scale fisheries communities. As such, cooperation activities are expected to focus on supporting small-scale fisheries businesses, attracting young people to work in fisheries and diversifying activities.