Aquaculture Clustering in Latvia: Opportunities, Threats and Development Perspectives

Abstract

Aquaculture in Latvia as a sector is growing slowly, it requires specific knowledge, professional skills and serious investments, but the aquaculture sector has a perspective, which is facilitated by the geographical location of Latvia, water resources and access to the EU market. In order to promote the competitiveness and sustainable development of the aquaculture sector, a clustering of aquaculture enterprises is necessary. The purpose of this study is to identify clusters for aquaculture enterprises in Latvia. 56 Latvian aquaculture enterprises were interviewed, which explains 82% of the total number of aquaculture enterprises in Latvia. To achieve this goal, a factor and cluster analysis was created using the IBM SPSS program. The author raised 10 factors based on economic, social and financial factors. The author concluded that there are differences in the aquaculture sector in different regions of Latvia, depending on the specific characteristics of the territory, the problems of fish farming methods and financing. However, in order to better address these problems, a solution is proposed to promote the development of aquaculture entrepreneurship, which would create new jobs and reduce unemployment in the country, as well as promote the growth of fish as food resources. This could help Latvian aquaculture policymakers to work more successfully and improve the common policy in the aquaculture sector.