Finnish Fish Sellers Furious as EU Forces Latin Labeling

Finland's fish merchants are unhappy as the EU has enacted new regulations for fish labels, which include a requirement for writing the Latin name of the fish.

Finland's fishmongers are struggling as new labeling regulations from the European Union force them to label fish production in Latin alongside Finnish, the country's state broadcaster YLE reported.

"In the morning it will take me half an hour if I have to also write the Latin names of the fish on labels," Saara Hakkinen told the channel.

Finland's consumer regulator in the country's southeastern Lappeenranta district told YLE that it does not plan on fining sellers at first, but does plan to explain the new rules to violators as a warning.

Nice fish sign with the name and home village of the seller

© Flickr / rosipaw

The EU's labeling regulations for fish state that "Both the commercial and scientific names must be displayed. These names must match those on the official list drawn up and published by each EU country."

However, Finnish fish merchants believe that the law is unnecessary as many sellers already label fish in other languages for tourists. In particular, highways which head to Russia have many stores in which fish is labeled in Russian.