Eurofish Magazine 1 2017

ISSN 1868-5943

February 1 / 2017 C 44346

February 1 / 2017

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Eurofish Magazine

Turkey Tackling the issues brought on by rapid growth

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Official Media

In this issue

Turkey needs new marine areas to expand fish farming An environmentally benign aquaculture sector: The aquaculture sector in Turkey is today among the largest in Europe in terms of production. Growth has been rapid in both freshwater farming and in marine aquaculture and with the increase in size of the sector, its ability to have an impact on other sectors and other activities has also grown. As a result, the aquaculture industry is monitored not just by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, but also by other ministries such as environment and tourism.

Marine aquaculture development is restricted to certain areas that were identified as part of the coastal zone management plans in 2008. Since then, however, production has expanded significantly and there is urgent need to demarcate more areas where fish can be farmed. This will not happen overnight due to the conflicting interests involved and the desire by the Ministry of Food to have a sector with as limited an impact on the environment as possible. Read more on page 30 Experience from the offshore oil and gas industry inspires offshore fish farming: While Turkey has successfully pushed its marine farming industry offshore other countries are still toying with the idea. The Turkish experience has shown that there are benefits as well as disadvantages to offshore farming. Chief among the drawbacks is the need for better and more robust equipment to withstand the harsh environment prevalent in highly exposed sites. A source of inspiration could be the offshore oil and gas industry which has decades of experience in challenging offshore environments. The design, construction, and deployment of floating marine vessels anchored to the seabed, hydrodynamic, structural, and mechanical analyses, risk-based structural assessments, and third-party verification are all areas that are very welldeveloped in the offshore oil industry and this expertise could be put to good use in the aquaculture sector.

Read more on page 20 The impact of climate change on conditions in the world’s oceans is threatening to change the fishing and aquaculture industry, a sector that has a global turnover of USD85bn and employs some 520m people. The change cuts different ways, while some areas may suffer, some may benefit, and yet others will lie somewhere in between. In other words, the impact will be as varied as the changing climate is complex.

Among the effects that influence the fisheries and aquaculture sector is the rise in sea levels due to ice melting at the polar caps and the warming of the oceans. These phenomena have not only a direct impact on the organisms that live in the sea, but also an indirect effect. Acidification of the oceans is another source of concern as it has a negative effect on calcareous organisms (such as corals), which in turn can lead to further disruptions to oceanic ecosystems. Read Dr Manfred Klinkhardt’s article on page 26 A hub in the European seafood trade: The Netherlands is one of the EU’s biggest processors and traders of seafood. Domestic catches supply a quarter of the requirement, the remainder has to be imported. The Netherlands has a modern fleet targeting a number of different species, in particular, flat fish and pelagic fish. The former are caught mainly in the North Sea, while the pelagic fleet operates in the Northeast Atlantic and as well in African waters and the South Pacific. Fish is sold through a network of auctions that deal mainly in fresh marine fish, but also frozen and processed fish and seafood. In addition to the capture fishery, the Netherlands also has an aquaculture sector producing mussels, oysters, and finfish.

Production volumes are relatively modest at 62,000 tonnes, of which the bulk is mussels. Farmed finfish production is characterised by the use of sophisticated technology, the quality of production, the high level of qualifications among people working in the sector, and the willingness to try new species, features that make the sector stand out in the European aquaculture context. The most important export destinations for the Netherlands are its neighbours, namely Germany, Belgium France, and Luxembourg. Read more on page 50 Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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Table of News 6 International News

Events

13 Vukovar conference draws solid response from aquaculture sector Bright future for Croatian fish farming

Aquaculture

15 Measuring, testing, monitoring Electronic measurement technology for water analysis

20 Offshore fish farming Drawing on expertise from the oil and gas sector

24 Moldovan sturgeon farm combines caviar production with restocking efforts First batch of beluga caviar expected shortly

Fisheries

26 Oxygen deficiency, ocean warming and acidification Climate change threatens fisheries with immense losses

Turkey 30 Turkey seeks to reduce fish farming’s environmental footprint New zones needed for aquaculture to expand

35 Investors fund further expansion in Agromey Seabass production set to increase 37 Kilic Seafood adds tuna farming to its list of activities Fresh and frozen exports to Japan 40 Kocaman Balikcilik has mastered the uncertainty of production using raw materials from the wild Sales increase by a tenth annually 42 BioMar-Sagun has built a new fish feed factory A game changer in the booming Turkish aquaculture industry 44 Pakyurek processes and sells frozen seafood at home and abroad Rapid growth on domestic market

Front cover image courtesy Kilic Seafood

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Contents 46 Ă–zpekler plans its own feed production unit Smoked trout for the German market 48 Noordzee takes a step towards complete integration Production starts at new feed factory

(CC BY-SA 3.0) Map based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_European_nation_states.svg

by Hayden120 and NuclearVacuum

Netherlands 50 The Netherlands’ strong position in the European fish business A seafood hub of international significance

Norway 54 Pharma Marine Cod liver oil for everyday kitchen use 55 Rimfrost Top quality krill oil for heath products 56 Vedde (Triple Nine Group) Increased use of fish oil for human consumption

Processing 57 Metal detection in the food industry Product inspection as part of HACCP concepts

Worldwide Fish News

Denmark

page

8

Egypt

page

10

France

page

12

Iceland

page

11

Italy

page

7

Latvia

page

10

Lithuania

page

6

Malta

page

9

Mexico

page

6

Norway

pages

7, 6

Poland

page

11

UK

page

12

USA

pages

Viet Nam

page

10, 12

Fish Infonetwork News 61 News 61 Publications

Guest Pages: Tatiana Volozhinskaya 62 The Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Denmark Russia’s aquaculture sector poised to grow rapidly

Service 65 Diary Dates 66 Imprint, List of Advertisers

Scan the QR code to access the Eurofish Magazine website (www.eurofishmagazine. com), where you can also sign up to receive the Eurofish Magazine newsletter.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Lithuania: Breeding brown trout is a historical activity Mykolas Girdvainis was a famous Lithuanian ichtyologist, under whose supervision fertilised rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) eggs were successfully brought from America to Poland in 1881.

This represented the launch of a salmonid breeding effort that has continued since then. The culture of brown trout (Salmo trutta) started in 1873 and is today effected by the Fisheries Service under the Ministry of Agriculture. Among the service’s responsibilities is the implementation of EU and Lithuanian fisheries policy, research, storage and

restoration of fish resources, the maintenance of a gene pool of valuable and cultivated fish species, and the increase in aquaculture production in ponds and recirculating systems. In TrakuË› Voke., a subdivision of the Fisheries Service near Vilnius, brown trout, grayling (Thymallus thymallus) and rainbow trout are bred in a historic (but renovated) hatchery. Broodstock are kept in ponds and their eggs are allowed to mature naturally. TrakuË› Voke. has become a major breeding centre for brown trout and grayling in Lithuania. In 2016,

319 thousand juveniles of brown trout were released into the 48 rivers recommended by scientists in the national aquaculture strategy. From the renovated Traku˛ Voke. hatchery alone 138 thousand brown trout were released into the rivers, while a further 75 thousand were released from Simnas, and 106 thousand from the Žeimena Salmonid Fish Breeding and Nursery station. Scientific studies suggest that Lithuania’s requirement of brown trout for restocking purposes is amply met by the numbers of fish that are bred at the different Fisheries Service facilities.

Rolandas Morku-nas, an aquaculture specialist from the Fisheries Service, bearing a brown trout, a fish that has been bred in Lithuania for almost 150 years.

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Mexico: Good potential for offshore farming The Mexican government sees aquaculture as an activity that could offer an efficient and sustainable food supply at low cost and with little environmental impact. This conviction has led it to commit USD50-70m towards the development of the mariculture industry and related infrastructure. Both the federal and regional governments are involved in the development of the sector and are promoting their plans through the Offshore Mariculture Conference to be held in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico on 6-10 March 2017. Organised by Mercator Media, a company based in the UK, the conference is aimed at individuals and organisations with a direct or indirect stake in the industry. Chaired by Dr Pablo Arenas Fuentes, Director General of the Mexican National Institute for Fisheries, INAPESCA, the conference will feature the latest policies, products, research and case studies within the fin/shell fish and seaweed offshore farming industries. Apart from the many interventions by professionals and researchers involved in all aspects of the field, potential investors will get to learn about the opportunities offered

by Baja California, a relatively untouched area for mariculture with 74,000 ha of nutrient-rich coastal lagoons and on the doorstep of the USA, the world’s second largest market for seafood.

The conference will include a day and a half of technical visits including to a striped bass offshore farm and a processing plant, and a yellowtail offshore farm. For more information visit www.mercatormedia.com.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Norway: New technology makes use of whiteďŹ sh by-product Every year 340,000 tonnes of usable whitefish by-product are discarded into the sea. But the fisheries industry has now identified ways of possibly halting this practice by instead making use of this material to produce high quality end-products such as ingredients in animal feed and food for human consumption. The fishing company Nordic

Wildfish has been assisting in the development of a new technology that can make use of the entire by-product from whitefish such as cod, pollock and haddock.

Ana Karina Carvajal, research manager at SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, says that it is primarily only the fillets that are processed to become food, which is not sustainable food production.

Approaching 2050 the demand for food will increase by as much as 70, she points out, due to high rates of population growth, and the industry must make it its goal to utilise the entire fish.

Instead of discarding the heads, guts and the remains of the fish, they can all be incorporated into a hydrolytic process that separates the bones, leaving a kind of

“soup� from which valuable oils and proteins can be extracted and to which enzymes can be added.

The excellent teamwork between the researchers and industry will enable many new systems for better exploitation of the fish to be implemented within the next two to four years, says Ms Carvajal, leading the way towards more sustainable food production.

Italy: Demand for imported mussels within the EU on the decline According to FAO Globefish, there was a clear decline in intra-EU imports of mussels in the first quarter of 2016.

German imports decreased by 14, Belgium’s by 10 and the Netherlands by 48. On these markets, traditionally important mussel consumers, young

consumers are not consuming the product as much as older generations have. Organic mussel production within the EU continues to grow. The largest offshore rope-grown mussel farm was started in early 2016 off the coast of southern England.

At full operation, production

is expected to produce 10,000 tonnes of blue mussels Mytilus edulis. Denmark is also a leading organic producer with an estimated 2,000 tonnes of organic rope-grown mussels.

One of the big problems impacting mussel farms is disease, which has affected production

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on the west coast of France in particular. In some areas mortality levels have reached 90 and as of May 2016 were still reaching 70 in certain basins.

The French Minister for Maritime Affairs has announced a grant of EUR4 million for suffering mussel farmers.

Gdańsk, Poland

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Denmark: Auto unloading plate freezers triggers interest among Russian vessel owners Plate freezers are used on shore and on board to create frozen blocks of seafood. After the freezing process the blocks are removed from the freezer, packaged, and placed in storage. Plate freezers are typically unloaded manually, a procedure that required workers to handle the 50 kg blocks, often to the detriment of their physical wellbeing. About ten years ago a Norwegian engineer on board a vessel, observing how demanding this work was, devised a hydraulic system together with his brother-in-law. To empty the freezer the system simply raised it, leaving the blocks free to be transported by a conveyor to the packaging department. Initially the system could not be realised as no one in

Norway was prepared to manufacture it. But in Denmark a partner was found in Intech International.

In the three years since then, the company together with its partner DSI have sold more than 100 plate freezers with the auto unloading systems. Sales are expected to climb even further thanks to interest in the system from Russia, where several large trawler projects are in the pipeline, according to Carsten Trudslev, manager and co-owner of Intech International.

That the system improves the working environment is borne out by Bjørn Giske, a Norwegian fishing vessel owner, who had 10 systems installed on board a new trawler a few years ago.

The Norwegian-owned fishing trawler, Atlantic Viking, where the auto unloading plate freezers contribute to high safety standards and a good working environment.

Prawn Stars - Fighting climate change with sustainable aquaculture in Viet Nam

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This standard requires each farm to have at least 50 per cent mangrove cover. Farmers who can demonstrate this then have the option of selling their certified shrimp to the Minh Phu Seafood Corporation.

The project also successfully supported CĂ Mau in piloting a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) system. This system provides an incentive for mangrove conservation and restoration by paying farmers an additional USD23.33 (VND500,000) per hectare of mangrove for providing “ecosystem services.â€? By the end of the first phase of the project, over 2,000 shrimp farmers were trained (or retrained) in certified organic shrimp production. Of these, over 1,000 farmers managing 7,000 hectares of integrated mangrove-shrimp had signed contracts to maintain 50 mangrove cover on their farms, and over 500 farmers had been certified to the Naturland organic standard. The project also trained farmers on personal hygiene

Š Le Tien/IUCN

Since the 1980s Viet Nam has lost most of its mangroves primarily due to the expansion of shrimp farming, which generated USD2.9b in export earnings in 2015 of which 19 came from the EU. But Viet Nam is also highly vulnerable to sea level and climate change, particularly in the Mekong Delta. Mangroves protect against tidal waves and storm surges; they are vital fish nursery-grounds; and raise land level by trapping sediment. They also sequester carbon faster than any other forest type.

The sustainability of the shrimp sector and the conservation of mangroves for coastal protection are therefore both national priorities. To help the government address these competing priorities, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and SNV, a Dutch development organisation, have implemented a project, funded by the International Climate Initiative, in CĂ Mau to help shrimp farmers gain organic certification using the Naturland label.

IUCN’s Mangroves and Markets project creates economic incentives that encourage more mangrove-friendly shrimp cultivation. To be eligible farms must have at least 50% mangrove cover.

and waste management and cofinanced the provision of 1,000 toilet kits and the replanting of 80 hectares of mangroves in shrimp ponds, thereby assisting hundreds more farmers to meet the Naturland standard. The second phase of the project has just started in nearby Ben Tre, and TrĂ Vinh

provinces, which together with CĂ Mau contain half the mangroves in the Mekong Delta. The project will support 5,000 farmers to practice mangrove polyculture, primarily by offering financial incentives (and supporting implementation of environmental regulations) to produce organic shrimp for export.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Malta uses its time at Europe’s helm to act for the Mediterranean Malta, which took over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union at the beginning of January this year, has set itself a punishing schedule for the next six months. One of the priorities of Malta’s agenda will be the Western Mediterranean Sea Basin Initiative, which is expected to be launched early in 2017. The initiative will target a specific geographical area of interest to Member

States and neighbouring countries building on existing structures to improve maritime governance (with the aim of achieving a level playing field in the region), exploit strengths and address weaknesses, whilst ensuring a sustainable approach. Applauding the initiative, the environmental organisation Oceana said it was particularly relevant to the highly threatened Mediterranean

Sea region, where over 90 of fish stocks are currently overfished.

The alarming state of Mediterranean fish stocks is the result of decades of mismanagement, misreporting, and illegal fishing.

Decision makers have repeatedly ignored scientific advice and failed to set adequate control measures and proper long-term planning.

The organisation has devised a Mediterranean list of priorities

for Malta’s EU Presidency in 2017 that includes adopting a comprehensive political roadmap to stop overfishing and to rebuild Mediterranean fish stocks by 2020 in line with EU obligations; implementing tougher controls to eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; and securing the protection of at least 10 of coastal and marine areas in the Mediterranean before 2020.

Norway: Increase in salmon prices in 2017 Per Sandberg, Norway’s Minister of Fisheries, believes that growing demand, limited supply and the country’s relations with China will contribute to rising prices for Norwegian fish in 2017. The value of exports

increased by 23 in 2016 to a record NOK 91,6 billion as prices of farmed salmon, the key products, jumped on strong demand, currency weakness and a drop in supply. In December, Norway and China

agreed to normalise diplomatic and political ties, which had been frozen since 2010, when Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and which has a largely shut Norway’s salmon exports

out of a key market. Furthermore, in the deal between Norway and China, the two countries also agreed to resume negotiations on a free-trade agreement, which would further add to export potential.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Latvia: Prestigious award to maker of ďŹ sh processing equipment Peruza, a manufacturer of equipment for the seafood processing industry, was recently awarded a silver medal in the innovative product category at the national annual competition for exports and innovation. The company’s autofeeder, a machine that orients small pelagic fish and supplies them into the pockets of the customer’s existing pocketchain nobbing machines, was one of the products that won the award. The autofeeder can be used to supply fish to pocketchain nobbing machines made by other manufacturers and can replace up to 10 workers with a single employee per pocket-chain

machine mainly to visually monitor the process. The award also went to the autonobbing machine that produces headed and gutted fish completely without manual supervision and at a speed that exceeds that of pocket-chain nobbing machines. Up to 12 workers can be replaced with the autonobbing machine. Both machines have mechatronic solutions with PLC (programmable logic controller) controlled servomotors and sensors. Just a few milliseconds are spent on every fish processed.

The equipment contains several unique engineering solutions for which three international patent applications have been filed.

Each year, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and the Ministry of Economics under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Latvia, Mr Raimonds Ve-jonis (front row, fourth from left), organize the annual Export and Innovation Awards, celebrating the leading exporters and most innovative companies in Latvia.

Egypt: First phase of ambitious seafood farming project inaugurated On 28 December 2016, Egypt inaugurated the first phase of what is expected to be a major fish farming project along the Suez Canal describing it to be one of the largest scale projects in the region, reports Izzat Feidi in Arab World Agribusiness. The project aims at

reducing the animal protein food gap in support of the government’s food security efforts as Egypt is currently facing population growth of about 2.6 million a year. Other reasons include job creation, earning hard currency through exports of high value species and reducing

the over 700,000 tonnes of seafood commodities imported annually.

The first phase of the project consists of 1,029 sedimentation basins east of the Suez Canal costing about USD23 million (EGP413 million) from a total target of 4,000 basins throughout the various stages of

the project. It is also reported that early in January 2017 the first crop of farmed shrimp and breams were locally marketed in the Governorates of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said at prices 20 less than the current local market prices for these species.

related effects of seafood production and consumption. Finally, this year’s exposition also includes the ever-popular oyster-shucking

contest (grand prize: $700!), and a keynote session featuring a panel of famous chefs who offer their secrets (some of them anyway).

USA: The Boston Seafood Show is back The U.S. is the world’s largest net importer of seafood, with imports of $18.8 billion in 2015 (the latest available year) outpacing exports of $5.6 billion, for a trade deficit of over $13 billion. U.S. edible seafood supply (domestic landings plus imports minus exports, adjusted to round-weight equivalent) in 2015 totaled nearly 12 billion pounds, of which 5.7 billion pounds (48 percent) was imported. U.S. per capita consumption of seafood averaged 21.4 kg (round-weight equivalent) per year during 201113, compared with 19.4 kg average for the world. With U.S. seafood always on its collective mind, the city of Boston, Massachusetts, once again hosts Seafood Expo 10

North America and Seafood Processing North America, on March 19-21, 2017. This biennial exposition, informally known by its old name, the Boston Seafood Show, is the largest seafood industry event in North America, attracting hundreds of exhibitors and many thousands of visitors from around the globe.

U.S. market conditions are a natural topic for Seafood Expo North America. More than 20 educational conference sessions will cover topics such as U.S. import requirements for seafood, product traceability, seafood safety and compliance, market trends, and the increasing important issue of sustainability of fish stocks and

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Poland: Annual meeting of the Polish ďŹ sh industry The 4th Fish Congress, the annual meeting of Polish fish industry, will take place this year at the Sheraton Hotel, Sopot from 30-31 March 2017. The Congress is organized by the Fish Market Development Association and supported by the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Eurofish International Organisation. The congress programme has been developed in close co-operation

with the National Marine Research Institute in Gdynia (MIR-PIB), and the Faculty of Food Science and Fisheries, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin. Up to 250 delegates are expected during the meeting. The Polish fish industry ended 2016 with a revenue of 9.8 billion Polish zloty (2.5 billion euro), another record. The congress will address the successes

of the past and the challenges of the future, of which the difficulties in finding workers, the high prices of raw materials, and the need to increase fish consumption in Poland, are among the most urgent.

The programme will be divided into plenary sessions and thematic seminars. The first plenary session will be dedicated to official

speeches and the future of the fish processing industry, while the second plenary session will focus on domestic market development. The thematic session will be devoted to processing technology and food safety; aquaculture development; the salmon and trout market, as well as small pelagic fish and the market for flat fish. For more information contact Tomasz Kulikowski, mpr@mprfish.com

Iceland: New ďŹ sheries minister may reassess current rights allocation system In Iceland, a right-of-centre government has been in power since an election in October 2016. The new minister for fisheries and agriculture, ThorgerĂ°ur KatrĂ­n GunnarsdĂłttir, belongs to the Reform party and is one of its most experienced members

having been an Independence party MP in the past and with ministerial experience under previous governments. According to a statement from the new government, the system of fisheries management in Iceland has considerable advantages.

Rationalisation has ensured the sustainability of the country’s fisheries. However, the present system of allocations with no time limit stands to be reassessed, to examine the possibility of replacing these with long-term contracts. Also

under the microscope will be market links, and the options for levies or other mechanisms that allocate a realistic proportion of the profits of fishing to the state in return for access to collectively owned resources.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] UK: First evidence of deep-sea animals ingesting microplastics Scientists and researchers from the universities of Bristol and Oxford working in the midAtlantic and south-west Indian Ocean have found evidence of microfibers ingested by deep sea animals including hermit crabs, squat lobsters and sea cucumbers, at depths of between 300 m and 1800 m. In total nine organisms were studied and microplastics were found in six of them. This is the first time, that microplastics have been shown to have been ingested by animals at such depth. Plastic has amazing and convenient qualities. Unfortunately, plastic

doesn’t decompose via living organisms, or biodegrade, it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces to become microplastics. Microplastics are generally defined as particles less than five mm in length. Microplastics are roughly the same size as “marine snow�, the shower of organic material that falls from upper waters to the deep ocean and which many creatures residing at those depths feed on.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Michelle Taylor from Oxford University said; “The main purpose of the research expedition

was to collect microplastics from sediments in the deep oceans – and we found lots of them�. The animals were collected by using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). Stomach, mouth, all internal cavities and breathing organs (gills and ventilation cavities) from the nine deep-sea organisms were dissected and examined under a binocular microscope to identify whether or not they had ingested or internalised microplastics. Microfibres were classified using a polarised light microscope, a method commonly used in forensic science

and has proven benefits for the fast and effective identification of fibres. The UK government recently announced that it is to ban plastic microbeads, commonly found in cosmetics and cleaning materials, by the end of 2017. This followed reports by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee about the environmental damage caused by microbeads. The Committee found that a single shower can result in 100,000 plastic particles entering the ocean. France and the United States have also taken steps to impose their own restrictions.

France: Women still underrepresented in seafood industry In 2015 FAO commissioned a report on the role of women in the seafood industry, the aim of which was to help the industry recognize the potential for attracting qualified women in the sector, because they are important for its successful future. Another major aim was to encourage more women to consider the seafood industry as an attractive career choice. Fast forward two years, and it appears that little has changed. Seafood market analyst Marie Christine Monfort

recently completed a short survey and found very little difference in how women are treated in and by the industry since the 2015 survey. Monfort looked at the gender of leaders of the world’s current top 100 seafood companies, and obtained executive and non-executive board details for 71 of these. The information was compared to a 2014 listing. She found that seven newcomers had appeared, which prevented a direct comparison, but it showed enough to confirm her suspicion

that the gender situation had not progressed. “Over half (38) of the 71 seafood companies I studied have 100 percent male boards, with no woman holding leadership responsibilities‌â€? said Monfort. She was not surprised to find that overall, 84 percent of the companies have fewer than 20 percent female representation on their boards. The country where women were most represented was Norway with 31, China 20, Iceland 17 and

Denmark and Canada both 14.

The United Stated fared worse with just 6 female representation whilst the U.K. had 4. Chile and Japan sat at the bottom of the league with just 2 of females on their boards. “Cultural barriers are one of the major explanations for women being barred from decision-making positions, even though many studies around the world have provided evidence that gender diversity and inclusiveness enhances corporate performance,â€? she said.

USA: New import rule designed to beneďŹ t marine mammals, US ďŹ shers From 1 January 2017 seafood exporters to the USA need to comply with a new import rule that compels fisheries exporting products to the United States to protect marine mammals at standards comparable with those required for American fisheries. As the biggest single importer of seafood in the world the US is using its market power

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to protect marine mammals around the globe and to establish a level playing field for its fishermen who face monitoring costs and fishing restrictions to reduce marine mammal casualties. The new rule gives countries that want to export their seafood to the US a five-year period to prove that their exporting fisheries are protecting marine

mammals to the same extent as US fisheries do.

According to The Conversation, a purveyor of news from the international academic community, the new import rule may result in greater global protection for marine mammals if fisheries feel that the extra costs are worth the access to the US market. Exporting

countries must also either have or rapidly build the monitoring and enforcing capacity needed to comply, and finally the rule needs to be able to withstand legal challenges in the WTO and other international fora. If these conditions are met the new rule could show that globalisation need not mean a lowering of standards all round to keep industry competitive.

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[ EVENTS ] Vukovar conference draws solid response from aquaculture sector

Bright future for Croatian ďŹ sh farming The 12th International, Economics, and ScientiďŹ c Conference in Aquaculture, was held in Vukovar, Croatia from 24-25 November.

This year’s meeting addressed planned and potential developments in the aquaculture sector during the four years to 2020.

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pening the conference, Mr Milan Bozic, director of the Fishing Affiliation within the Croatian Chamber of Economy and the president of the committee responsible for organizing the event, declared that the problems in Croatian freshwater aquacture were nearly solved! The main problem in fish farming is a water tax, which has been reduced to a minimum, and the long-term

concessions to the land, which have been resolved for almost all farmers. However, he added, we now have to work together to gradually increase production, and to reestablish cultivation in existing ponds.

Rapid growth in aquaculture production During the opening ceremony of the two-day event, Ante

Misura, Assistant Minister in the Directorate of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, stressed the importance of free access to the EU single market and the significance of the EUR350 million from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

By 2020, we aim to reach the target of 24,000 tonnes (live weight) as laid down in the national strategic plan, said Mr Misura, in his presentation

on the status of Croatian aquaculture. He also mentioned education for workers and the prevention and control of fish disease among the challenges facing the sector, while emphasizing the huge potential of Croatian aquaculture, and reiterating opportunities on the European single market.

Goran Markulin, the president of the Aquaculture Affiliation

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[ EVENTS ]

From left, Ivan Katavic´, Milan BoŞic´, Želimir Filic´, Jens Jensen, Paolo Bronzi, Ekaterina Tribilustova, Aljoťa Duplic´, Branko Glamuzina

within the Croatian Chamber of Economy, pointed to the growth in aquaculture production in recent years. Production has seen an increase of 70 from 2007 9RGLÞ

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Eurofish has translated the popular Guide to Recirculation Aquaculture into Croatian.

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until today, he said, the highest growth rate among all countries.

In 2016 Croatia is expected to produce between 17,000 and 18,000 tonnes, of which about 10,000 tonnes will be seabream and seabass, the most important maricultured species in the country. This level of seabass and seabream production will give Croatia a fourth position in the EU, next to Greece, Spain, and Italy. Also, Croatia is ranked third in the EU when it comes to farmed tuna production. Mr Markulin added that the aquaculture affiliation within the Croatian Chamber of Economy intended to increase aquaculture production and to strengthen competitiveness within the sector, while supporting international cooperation and increasing consumption.

Our role is to develop and submit proposals and to maintain a constant dialogue with decision makers including the Directorate of Fisheries to secure our members’ interests, said Mr Markulin.

Recirculation systems may be interesting for some producers Eurofish was represented at the conference by Ekaterina Tribilustova, a market specialist, who presented the current trends on the EU seafood market, mentioning also the foreign trade opportunities available to the aquaculture industry. Eurofish recently translated a comprehensive Croatian work on fish nutrition into English enabling it to be

used as a reference for fish farmers, as well as a textbook at highschool or university level. The book is currently available electronically and will soon also be printed.

Eurofish has also translated into Croatian A Guide to Recirculation Aquaculture, which introduces these environmentally friendly and highly productive closed fish farming systems to stakeholders interested in this method of farming. For fish farmers with limited space and intensive production of high value species these farming systems may be interesting for the controlled conditions and high volumes they offer. Recirculation systems could be of a particular interest in the continental part of Croatia and funding for this equipment is available within the EMFF.

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[ AQUACULTURE ] Measuring, testing, monitoring

Electronic measurement technology for water analysis Well-being, growth and health of ďŹ shes depend to a large extent on whether particular physical and chemical parameters of their habitat correspond to the speciďŹ c needs of their species. A large number of important measurements are taken during water analyses, but oxygen content, pH value and temperature are the most important factors. They must be constantly monitored in order to enable timely detection of any dangerous deviations.

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he life, sometimes even the survival, of fishes is influenced not only by biotope structures, food availability and predators, but also by the abiotic parameters of their habitat. These include, for

example, water hardness, redox values and electrical conductivity as well as ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate concentrations. Of particular significance, however, is the water’s oxygen content, for the available

quantity of oxygen is decisive for the aerobic metabolic processes in the water body. Nearly all organisms, from protozoans to fishes, require oxygen for the internal respiration of their body cells. What is generally

not a problem for air-breathing organisms (because the atmosphere contains sufficient oxygen) is much more difficult for aquatic organisms because less oxygen can be dissolved in the water and thus be available for

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[ AQUACULTURE ]

Regular measurement of the oxygen content and pH value in the open sea are part of professional work in aquaculture facilities.

breathing. The oxygen solubility in water decreases with increasing temperature as well as with increasing content of dissolved substances such as salts and other gases. When saturated, fresh water at 0°C can hold up to 14.6 mg O2/l but at 20° C much less at 9.1 mg O2/l.

In order to provide fishes with acceptable living conditions it is necessary to maintain a minimum content of oxygen in

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the water. Although this value is strongly dependent on the particular fish species oxygen levels below 3 mg / l are mostly considered critical for fishes. A fish has to work hard in order to push the water stream constantly without interruption past its gill plates. Whereas human beings use at most 3.2 of their metabolic rate at rest for breathing a fish uses about 30, and during strenuous activity even as much as 50!

At the extreme, almost half of the oxygen that a fish absorbs is immediately used again for the breathing process itself.

Long-term measurements are of higher significance A water body’s oxygen content is the result of numerous oxygen-producing and oxygenconsuming processes and can fluctuate strongly during the day.

The main sources of oxygen production are oxygen input from the atmosphere (diffusion), as well as photosynthesis of phytoplankton and water plants which release oxygen in daylight conditions and can lead to O2 oversaturation. Oxygen-consuming processes include not only respiration of animals and at night of plants, but above all the microbial degradation of organic substances in the water. Because this can lead to oxygen deficiency in

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[ AQUACULTURE ] polluted waters, oxygen content is also a criterion for assessing the ecological situation in a water body (biological oxygen demand BOD, chemical oxygen demand COD).

The daily and seasonal variability and dynamics of the oxygen content in a water body can only be measured with sufficient accuracy by means of continuous measurements. In practice, electronic oxygen measuring devices are mostly used. These are available in many different variants, designs and measuring ranges.

They are suitable for use in the laboratory as well as outdoors as efficient all-round devices of watertight design, with an interface for data transmission or with internal data storage. Some only

measure the absolute oxygen content, others also display the respective oxygen saturation.

Miniaturization and scope of measuring instruments advancing The advances in electronics and computer measurement technology today make it possible to produce both handheld instruments and fixed installations in many different price classes which are simple to use and sufficiently accurate. Some of them can also optionally be used to measure other water parameters. Since oxygen concentration is strongly dependent on temperature most devices have, for example, a temperature sensor.

Temperature compensation for

oxygen measurements is usually automatic which guarantees high accuracy. With additional probes some devices can also measure the salt content (conductivity), pH and redox values as well as other parameters.

The measured data can be read directly on the display or can be stored in the internal data memory of the devices and accessed later on at the computer via a USB interface. Some manufacturers even provide the necessary software with the device.

Modern electronic measuring instruments for important water parameters combine high measuring accuracy, which is indispensable in professional water analysis, with the greatest possible ease of use, which makes them equally suitable for

professional and non-professional use. Given such convincing advantages, it is hardly surprising that modern measuring instruments have almost completely replaced the previously used chemical test kits for water analysis.

Manufacturers can today supply measuring instruments that offer higher performance and new characteristics and abilities.

They are faster, more sensitive and more accurate, they are lighter and smaller, more convenient and easier to operate than in the past. Some devices have intelligent sensor recognition so that when the measuring sensor is changed the instrument automatically switches to the appropriate parameter and calibrates

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[ AQUACULTURE ]

In intensive aquaculture systems, for example RAS, all important water parameters are measured and stored constantly and can also often be presented graphically.

the sensor. Other devices are equipped with a GPS sensor so that the measured values can be assigned to precise positions based on geographic coordinates.

With this additional function, measurements can always be carried out in exactly the same location for comparison with each other. In the case of more recent measuring instruments data can now also be transmitted wirelessly via infrared communication interfaces, and anyone who needs measurements in longer time series can with some handsets with autonomous sensors conveniently programme the desired intervals. The sensor then measures and stores the determined data at the predetermined times independently.

solution thus providing information on how strong and aggressive acids or alkalis (or even water) are. Except for a few exceptions, the pH values of almost all substances can be assigned to a scale

of between 0 and 14 (the pH value is a dimensionless numerical value so it does not have a special unit of measure). All pH values above 7 are considered basic, values below 7 are classified as acidic. It should be noted that the pH scale is logarithmic. An increase or decrease in the pH value by the value of 1 thus corresponds to a ten-fold increase in the degree of alkalinity or acidity.

A water body with a pH of 6 would thus be ten times, with pH 5 even a hundred times more acid than water with a pH of 7. The same also of course applies to basicity values above pH 7.

Colour change in test strips indicates the pH value Different methods can be used to determine the pH value. For simple control routines, test sticks with indicator dyes are often sufficient for ascertaining the

concrete value by a colour reaction. Known indicator dyes whose colouring changes noticeably at certain pH values are, for example, litmus, methylorange, phenolphthalein and bromothymol blue. Within narrow measuring ranges, usually of two to three pH stages, the sensitivity of individual dyes is sufficient to indicate the pH value by a colour change.

For larger measuring ranges one uses universal indicators with dye mixtures that change colour at the respective pH value. The evaluation of the colour change is usually carried out on the basis of colour comparison scales. When measurements have to be particularly accurate, however, the colour display of an indicator dye can also be precisely evaluated using a photometer.

If the handling of pH test strips is too cumbersome or their accuracy is not sufficient, electronic, mostly digital, measuring

The scale of pH values is logarithmic A further important water parameter which, like oxygen concentration, should be regularly checked in a water body, is the pH value. The pH value is a numeric scale used to specify the acidity or basicity of an aqueous 18

When fishes are kept in relatively high densities, for example during live transport, maintaining sufficient oxygen supply is particularly important.

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[ AQUACULTURE ] instruments can also be used.

They are available in different price classes for private and professional use. Most pH meters are now not only compact, easy to use, reliable and accurate, but also relatively inexpensive. Nevertheless, if the instrument is to be used for a long time particular attention should be paid to the fact that the measuring electrode can be exchanged simply and without great effort.

Common methods for electrochemical pH determination

In this modern truck for transporting live fish the driver can monitor the oxygen content in the tanks from the dashboard.

Modern measuring instruments do not use acid-base indicators to determine the pH value of a solution but rather electrochemical means. One of the most common methods on

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[ AQUACULTURE ] which probably most commercially available pH meters are based is potentiometry. These devices have a glass membrane bulb at the tip of the sensor which is filled with a buffer solution and dipped into the relevant liquid for measurement. The hydrogen ions have a tendency to accumulate in a microscopically thin layer on the silicate groups of the glass surface. Since the H+ ions are positively charged, depending on the difference in pH between the inner and the outer side of the bulb a galvanic voltage is generated which can be measured with two reference electrodes. One of the electrodes is located in the glass membrane bulb, the other is in a reference electrolyte.

The accuracy of a pH meter always depends on a number of factors,

for example the ambient temperature during the measurements (the device should be equipped with a temperature sensor for temperature compensation), the charge state of the mobile energy source (exhausted batteries or too fast energy consumption can lead to incorrect results) or the exact calibration of the sensor and measuring instrument. In principle, pH measuring devices should be calibrated at least once per application. As a rule, two or three standard solutions with known pH values (usually an acidic pH 5 and a basic pH of 10) are used, to which the device is then calibrated.

It is particularly important that the pH sensor is correctly maintained and stored. It must never be allowed to dry out because the sensitive electrodes would

otherwise be damaged and would not provide reliable values. If the electrode is not being used for measurements it should be rinsed clean and kept in pHregulated water. Some manufacturers supply special storage solutions for the electrodes.

When properly maintained, the electrodes of potentiometric pH meters can last for about 6 months. If, despite careful maintenance and calibration of the device, deviations in the measured values occur repeatedly the pH electrode must be replaced.

Even in the case of expensive devices deviations up to Âą 0.02 pH are often technically caused and tolerable; in the case of inexpensive handheld measuring devices the deviations can be larger. In principle, however, the following applies: the smaller the

selected measuring range, the more accurate the pH measurement should be.

An alternative to potentiometric pH measurement with glass membrane electrodes are pH meters which function with ionsensitive field effect transistors (ISFETs). This new and innovative technology allows very small sensors and has a short response time. ISFETs are semiconductorbased chemical sensors, the basic principle of which is approximately the same as that of the glass electrodes. Here, too, the hydrogen ions on the sensitive membrane of the transistor produce a voltage which changes the conductivity of the transistor which with the appropriate measurement technology can then be displayed as a pH value. mk

Offshore ďŹ sh farming

Drawing on expertise from the oil and gas sector Offshore ďŹ sh farming has for some years now been considered a way to prevent some of the problems confronting coastal or inshore aquaculture. Offshore farming does have its own challenges, but these could perhaps be tackled using experience from the offshore oil and gas sector.

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s world populations grow and agriculture struggles to keep pace, fish farming is becoming a vital source of future food production. According to US industry analysts Grandview Research, the global aquaculture market is estimated to generate revenues worth nearly US$203 billion (₏190 billion) by 2020. In addition, the World Bank predicts that aquaculture will provide up to 62

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of global food fish consumption by 2030i. And while China leads the way in aquaculture (supplying over half the world’s farmed fish), the European aquaculture production market is also growing, accounting for 20 of global fish production and directly employing 85,000 people. The European Union remains the

fourth largest global fish producer after China, Indonesia and Indiaii. Norway also remains Europe’s leading provider of aquaculture products. In 2015, according to Statistics Norway, the country’s official statistics body, the value of Norwegian fish farming was NOK46.7 billion (EUR5.2 billion) with a

i

ii

Fish to 2030, Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture, World Bank, 2013

The EU Fish Market 2015, European Commission

production quantity of 1.39 million tonnes - the vast majority being Atlantic salmon.

Inshore and coastal fish farming – the challenges of sea lice Most aquaculture operations today are located inshore or in sheltered areas just offshore - the fjords in Norway, for example. The rise in consumer

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[ AQUACULTURE ]

The expertise and technologies used in semi-submersible vessels in the offshore oil and gas sector can also be deployed in the development of fish farms.

demand for marine fish has spurred the growth of coastal farming operations, many of which are close to land with the benefits of being accessible and relatively inexpensive to run. There are number of challenges to ‘close to the coast’ fish farms, however, one key area being sea lice – small marine parasites that attach themselves to the fish and that are very difficult to get rid of. Such sea lice can damage the fish’s skin, lead to secondary infections, reduce weight gain and – in the case of juveniles – prove fatal. The chemicals used to control sea lice or to treat infections can also lead to less healthy fish. It is against this backdrop that there has been a growing focus on taking fish farming offshore. What are the benefits of such farms and can they be made commercially viable through technology expertise?

The case for offshore fish farming To date, only 2 of the global population’s caloric intake comes 22

from the world’s oceans making the sea an obvious resource for further expanding aquaculture.

It is also hoped that the deeper, free flowing waters miles offshore might limit exposure to lice infections and other contaminants. The more natural marine environment, predictable and steady water flows, and changing columns of water around the cages, the greater the potential for healthier, more profitable fish.

But there are significant engineering and marine challenges to offshore fish farming today. Such challenges consist of the logistics of supporting such fish farms (maintenance, feeding, harvesting the fish etc.) through to the stability of the structures and whether they can be operational in harsh conditions.

Yet, while there may be a higher initial investment cost, once up and running operational costs can be significantly lower with greater potential profitability in the long-term. Most offshore fish farming processes are automated, for example, with just a handful of people required to

operate a facility and most operations managed either on board or remotely, thereby minimising the use of service vessels and outside equipment. Over time, it is our belief that there will be a strong economic case for offshore fish farms due to increased demand for fish, technological developments, and - with the obvious available spaces - the potential economies of scale. This compares to the declining availability of inshore and sheltered coastal farming sites.

Learning from the offshore oil and gas sector Another means of making offshore fish farming commercially viable is to borrow from already established expertise in the oil and gas sector. Although aquaculture is already borrowing from mono hulls and other ship designs, probably the closest comparison is in the design and deployment of semi-submersible vessels.

These are anchored floating marine vessels that are secured to the seafloor and specialise in

several offshore oil and gas activities, such as drilling, production, accommodating oil and gas personnel and acting as platforms for heavy lift cranes (among others).

The expertise and technologies that enable such semi-submersible vessels to withstand challenging offshore environments can also be deployed in the development of fish farms. For example, these structures require the latest in structural engineering, including stability and structural strength analyses for transportation, lifting and installation; the measurement of fatigue life and in-place load regimes; risk-based structural assessments; mechanical analysis and design; and thirdparty verification. There is also a need for such semi-submersibles to have a small footprint to reduce exposure to waves.

Hydrodynamic analysis is also integral to the success of such projects, covering areas such as perform motion response analyses; the prediction of sea loads, including slamming and global load effects; and in the design and analysis of mooring systems.

There are clearly strong areas of expertise in the offshore oil and gas sector that can be transferred into aquaculture but how does it work in practice?

The world’s largest offshore fish farm An example can be found in the world’s largest fish farm - owned

by Ocean Farming, a subsidiary of the SalMar Group, and that Global Maritime has played a key role in designing. Other partners in the project include the Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute (MARINTEK), DNV GL who verified the design work, and Kongsberg Maritime who designed and delivered the power generation, automation

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[ AQUACULTURE ] controls and fish sensors. In addition to Global Maritime, both DNV GL and Kongsberg Maritime are key players in the oil and gas offshore sector. The facility, which will be located near the island of Frøya, Norway and will focus on salmon, is to be a permanently moored semisubmersible, anchor fixed structure with the capacity to raise 1.5 million fish annually and which is expected to enter operation in 2017. The experiences from this project will be crucial in the development of future fish farms worldwide.

Several key requirements for the new structure Firstly, it would need to be highly stable with the minimum of movement during rough weather and yet provide the continued free flow of water; secondly, there should be no compromising of the space available for the fish; thirdly, there would need to be large volumes of water at significant depths to ensure fish welfare; and finally the facility would need to be developed as a commercially viable and cost-effective entity with limited maintenance requirements, durable structural components,

and as much automation as possible. With these criteria in mind, Global Maritime designed a submerged, permanent, anchorfixed structure, utilizing its offshore expertise and the same design principles as oil and gas semi-submersibles. The submerged part of the farm was fixed to the seabed by eight mooring lines and ballast tanks allow for inspection of the structure above water.

Layout and architectural expertise; structural engineering; hydrodynamics; stability and hydrostatics; weight estimation; and risk analysis were all skills and expertise used by Global Maritime in developing the farm. The result is an offshore fish farming facility operational in exposed locations and yet facing limited wave movements, due to a small water plane footprint (the facility has a diameter of just 100 meters). The life of the structure is estimated at 25 years and it is designed to survive ship collisions or a once-in-a-100 years wave. A vertical focus for the structure remained key with the semi-submersible operational in depths of between 100 and 300 meters and allowing for a water volume of 250,000 billion cubic meters (bcm).

This provides the salmon with the opportunity to swim deep as well as providing the capacity for large numbers of fish, thereby increasing production and profitability. Sensor technology developed by Kongsberg Maritime will be able to able to accurately detect the fish’s location in the vast water volume of the cage to ensure effective feeding. Stability was also vital with flotation tanks placed beneath the six vertical main columns as well as one moveable and two fixed bulkheads used to support the facility.

Automated operations and low maintenance Streamlining operations to ensure profitability was also a key element of the fish farm design. For example, all farming operations are managed either on board or remotely, minimizing the costs arising from service vessel use. Regular cleaning of the nets is accomplished through automated spray nozzles with other features integrated into the design including a system for feeding and harvesting the fish and for removing dead fish. In all cases, heavier manual operations are avoided with a crew of three able to manage the whole facility.

Furthermore, by dividing the facility into three compartments, different fish operations can be performed, again increasing efficiencies and future profitability.

Writing new rules for the industry Working with the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, Global Maritime has also helped develop and apply new rules and regulations to the project and the industry, based on existing marine and offshore shipping rules. This includes existing specifications surrounding marine systems and mooring analysis and collaboration with DNV GL, the international certification body. The resulting regulations were approved by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries and are likely to act as an industry standard for future offshore fish farms.

Aquaculture and the move into offshore fish farming are integrating the best of technologies from both the fish farming and oil and gas industries. Working together, it’s only a matter of time before offshore aquaculture becomes a key element of future food production.

Bernt Ege and Karl Strømsem, Global Maritime Consultancy and Engineering

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[ AQUACULTURE ] Moldovan sturgeon farm combines caviar production with restocking efforts

First batch of beluga caviar expected shortly The sturgeon population is endangered in its existence worldwide. Numerous factors have led to a dramatic decrease in population especially over the last two decades. Aquaculture can contribute to rebuilding wild sturgeon stocks and to meeting the demand for black caviar.

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n 2005, Aquatir, a company based in Tiraspol, Moldova, decided to build a modern recirculation system for sturgeon farming. The project was developed by Dietmar Firzlaff, owner of Aquafuture, and has been supervised by him to date, while the technical implementation was assigned to Billund Aquaculture Service in Denmark, a company that has successfully been building recirculation systems for various species for more than 25 years. The provisional final stage is planned for 2017 when about 60,000 m2 will be covered by a roof. The farm will then consist of several modules including incubation and first feeding systems, fingerling and grow-out units, prewintering and wintering systems, processing plants, and a laboratory for chemical and microbiological assessments for self-monitoring purposes.

Production to focus on Beluga and Russian sturgeon Various sturgeon species, sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), beluga (Huso huso), bester (A. ruthenus x Huso huso), and Waxdick or Russia sturgeon (A. gĂźldenstaedtii), of different ages are currently held at the farm. Sterlet and bester were primarily used for gaining experience. However, in the long run production will be concentrated 24

The Aquatir sturgeon farm will supply meat and caviar to markets in the west and the east.

on belugas and Russian sturgeon.

Already several thousands of these sturgeons of different age groups can be found at the farm. They originate from spawners from the Black Sea as well as from the Caspian Sea and are strictly separated. Caviar has been obtained for several years now from sterlet, bester, and Russian sturgeon. Due to the careful control of the production processes, usage of high quality feed and optimal welfare conditions, sexual maturity has been achieved approximately 25 earlier than in nature. Currently, the first belugas are being brought into the wintering systems. They weigh around 100 kg, have a length of approximately 2 m, and are about 10 years old. The

first beluga caviar can be expected shortly.

The company is certified to the ISO 22000 and HACCP standards and is registered at CITES, the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The priorities of the company are to produce top quality black caviar and other sturgeon products including eggs and fry for export. It will also maintain a gene bank to support reintroduction

Wintering systems for the fish are now installed and functional.

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[ AQUACULTURE ]

Several sturgeon species are being raised on the farm, but efforts will be concentrated on beluga (pictured) and Russian sturgeon.

measures in both the Caspian and the Black Sea and finally it will offer giant sturgeons to suitable customers. The firm owns two processing facilities, which are spatially completely separated from each other. In the first facility, products for the eastern European market as well as the Gulf region are produced, while the second facility was built solely for target groups in Europe, USA and Japan.

The reason for the separation of the two is above all the different legal conditions; for example caviar can be extracted without killing the sturgeons in some former CIS countries. Quality is guaranteed by a well-established processing procedure that has been practiced for many years.

Farm contributes to the environment too Sturgeon meat is highly soughtafter regionally and higher prices can be realized than in many West European countries. An entirely new brood stock system was designed based on the

expertise of the company’s specialists. This makes it possible to produce high quality caviar year-round and deliver it as freshly as possible. Due to history, one would expect such a facility to be found in Russia, Iran or Kazakhstan – countries which are traditionally involved with sturgeon farming and the production of caviar. It is telling to see that this farm has been realized in Transnistria – a feat only made possible with good teamwork. As early as autumn 2009, approx. 50,000 fry of Russian sturgeon with an average weight of 100 grams were released into the Dniester. This was the first significant attempt to restock this river with sturgeon, an effort that should contribute to improving the overall ecological status of the river. With this step the company has proven its environmental credentials for the benefit of the region.

Dietmar Firzlaff, Aquafuture www.aquatir.md, www.aquafuture.de.

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[ FISHERIES ] Oxygen deďŹ ciency, ocean warming and acidiďŹ cation

Climate change threatens ďŹ sheries with immense losses Climate change is having a deep impact on living conditions in the oceans. The average water temperature of the seas is rising, Polar ice is melting, water bodies are acidifying, water layers are more stable and mix less well, and low-oxygen zones are expanding.

The effects of these changes are a source of increasing stress for ďŹ sh stocks. Spatial shifting of populations and altered species composition within marine ecosystems are to be feared.

A

lthough not all the consequences of climate change for aquatic ecosystems and fish stocks can be predicted in detail there are already clear signs that these developments will influence and change the fishing industry and aquaculture considerably. Whilst some regions will have to suffer losses, others might benefit. These developments have enormous potential for conflict, and disputes between the affected states could increase. After all, the fish and seafood business is an important economic factor throughout the world. Annual turnover amounts to a good 85 billion US$ and 520 million people are directly or indirectly employed by the industry. Particularly in maritime low-wage countries fishing is of great importance for it offers income and food to the world’s poorest. Nearly 52 of global fish landings come from the marine fishery (and of that 90 is caught in the exclusive economic zones of coastal states and only 10 on the high seas), just under 8 come from freshwater, and 40 from aquaculture.

Climate change is affecting the fish industry throughout the world and its impact is as varied as it is complex. Some effects such as the increased occurrence of extreme weather events are already clearly being felt. Others

26

An increase in water temperatures shifts the habitat of fish species that like the cold northwards and further limits their distribution area.

are creeping up on us more slowly and so perhaps seem less threatening. However, this impression is deceptive for it is often these developments in particular that have a decisive effect on the distribution and size of marine fish stocks and can alter potential catch volumes. Climate can have both direct and indirect effects and the connections are not always immediately recognizable. One direct consequence of the rising temperature of the oceans is the rise in sea level. The

volume of the seas is increasing because the ice on the pole caps and the glaciers is melting and the water volume is expanding. Among the indirect effects is a more stable layering of the water. Organisms in the upper water sections can then be cut off from nutrient supply from the depths which affects primary production at the surface and thus impacts the feed of billions of fish larvae and many plankton-eating fish species. In addition to rising temperature it is

probably the acidification of the sea and the changed oxygen conditions within the water that will have particularly drastic consequences for marine life.

Temperature increase reduces oxygen content in the sea Ocean warming as a consequence of climate change is no longer a hypothesis but can now be considered a reality. The average temperature of the world’s

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[ FISHERIES ] oceans at the surface rose by 0.7° C in the second half of the nineteenth century. The increase was less pronounced in the lower water layers: + 0.004° C. The rise in temperature is most noticeable in the North Atlantic waters, including the North Sea and the Baltic. With the help of climate models it was calculated that annual average temperatures in northern Germany are expected to rise by 1.1 to 2.2 degrees by the year 2050. On the German Baltic coast the temperature is expected to rise by about 0.5 to 1.1 degrees within the next 30 years, and similar developments are also to be expected in other marine regions.

Because relatively warmer water can absorb less oxygen climatic warming also reduces the oxygen concentration in the open sea.

Based on calculations by climate researchers the oxygen content of the oceans could decrease by one to seven per cent by the end of this century – depending on the region. The effects on marine ecosystems and local species communities are at present difficult to predict. There could be spatial population shifts which would alter or destroy traditional food chains. If oxygen is lacking at the water’s surface this also affects communities living at greater depths. During recent decades, the number and extent of low-oxygen zones on the seabed has increased. Partly, for example in the Baltic, due to the geomorphology of the water body. But partly as a result of changed environmental parameters, increased nutrient input and lack of oxygen at greater

depths. The total area of such “dead water zones� in the oceans is currently thought to amount to nearly 250,000 square kilometres. A reduced oxygen concentration within the water can already have a detrimental effect on fishing yields because oxygen dependent species usually leave such areas quickly. The remaining species that are more tolerant of oxygen deficiencies and can cope better with the changed conditions are then often subject to greater pressure from predators and are depleted at an above average rate.

Acidification a threat to the development of calcareous organisms A further significant effect of climate change is ocean acidification.

There is a permanent gas exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean. When the CO2 content in the atmosphere rises it releases carbon dioxide to the ocean up to the point where the CO2 partial pressures in the surface water and in the atmosphere are equal again.

Because humans continue to burn vast amounts of fossil fuels such as petroleum or coal more and more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere and thus also the oceans.

In the water, the CO2 is converted into carbonic acid which although it is relatively weak nevertheless reduces the pH-value of the sea water due to the enormous amounts that are introduced from the atmosphere: it acidifies. As a result of the transformation into carbonic acid the carbon dioxide in the ocean is “caught� in the seas which act as a gigantic “CO2

Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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[ FISHERIES ]

Climate change leads to a rise in sea level, and low-lying coastal regions are increasingly threatened by flooding.

trap�. The oceans take up more than seven gigatonnes (a seven followed by nine zeros!) of CO2 every year, equivalent to about a third of man-made CO2 emissions.

Altogether, 38,000 Gt of carbon are already stored in the world’s oceans, about fifty times the carbon content in the atmosphere.

It is particularly worrying that the speed of the acidification process is today over one hundred times faster than in the last 65 million years. Since the beginning of the industrial age the pH value of the oceans has fallen by 0.1 units which is approximately equivalent to a 30 increase in the degree of acidity (pH value is a logarithmic measure). Due to the acidification of the seas it is increasingly difficult for calcareous organisms such as corals, mussels, crabs or numerous plankton species to build up robust skeletal structures. The ecological consequences of acidification are 28

alarming. It endangers not only the continuity and growth of the coral reefs, the most speciesrich ecosystems of the oceans, but also the survival of numerous plankton organisms, many of which are calcareous species.

And with that an important element in the marine food web which serves as the first food for many fish larvae is in danger of being lost. Fishes, particularly during earlier development stages, can also be damaged directly by acidification which can, for example, cause tissue damage in cod larvae.

Climate change shifts the distribution boundaries of fish species The impact of climate change on fish stocks is already noticeable in some regions, usually as a shift in distribution boundaries when for example a species that likes warmth suddenly moves into temperate latitudes.

The rise in water temperature causes fish species that one would otherwise sooner expect to find in more southern marine regions to migrate to the North Sea. Examples of this are striped red mullet, gurnard or Norway lobster. Some species do not only migrate there for the summer but can now even live permanently in the North Sea because the winters there are milder than in the past. Climate change does not only shift distribution boundaries of individual fish species, however, but also influences the drifting of fish larvae, growth and survival rates, and the linking of regional populations. The example of the spreading of mackerel stocks northwards in the Atlantic proves that these developments also have a direct impact on fisheries and can lead to disputes.

In the tropics and at temperate latitudes of the oceans productivity is mainly limited

by the availability of nutrients whereas in Polar and subpolar regions it is sooner light supply and temperature that act as limiting factors. That is why the effects of climate change are currently less noticeable on the equator than at higher latitudes. There climatic warming has already led to spatial shifts of fish swarms in the direction of the poles or into deeper water layers. What the concrete effects of climate change will be in a particular region depends on numerous factors. Some species communities and ecosystems could benefit because the immigration of new species will raise biological diversity in the short term. Others will perhaps be harmed because the competitive conditions between the different species will change. It is almost impossible to predict all the consequences of climate related structural changes within the marine food webs.

Change to sustainable fishing urgently needed Climate change does not only pose a problem to fisheries but also to aquaculture, especially to farms in temperate latitudes that are dependent on cold water.

For them, the optimum locations could shift further in the direction of the poles. However, as almost everywhere there are likely to be winners and losers in aquaculture, too. Higher temperatures offer economic advantages in many places, because the growth phase of the fish is extended and energy costs are reduced. A disadvantage is, however, that toxic algal blooms can develop in warmer water, diseases can spread more easily and the frequency and strength of weather catastrophes, such as storms or flooding, can increase. In the

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[ FISHERIES ]

A lot of inland water bodies suffer from climate-related drought, especially if they are mainly fed by precipitation.

course of these considerations one should not overlook the fact that aquaculture – and even more so the fishing sector – is not only a victim of, but also a contributor to, global climate change.

Climate experts have calculated that on average, for every tonne of live weight landed by the fishery about 1.7 tonnes of CO2 are released. The deep-sea fishery is particularly emissions-intensive because it often has to cover great distances to the fishing grounds.

The effects of climate change are still only beginning to be felt in the fishing and aquaculture sectors. However, the rapid changes in chemical, physical and biological conditions in the oceans will probably become more and more apparent in the coming years. A general forecast is currently difficult but, according to experts, from a global viewpoint the impact on fisheries and aquaculture is likely to be negative, and regionally, perhaps even severe. Even if it is

possible to limit global warming to 2 degrees above the preindustrial level by 2050 (which many climate experts in the meantime doubt) based on calculations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) annual losses of 17 to 41 billion US dollars can be expected. There are at present no visible signs of any determination to halt climate change by means of resolute, uniform action. And so it is all the more urgent that we prepare for the consequences of the coming changes and push forward the transition to sustainable fishing. While better monitoring and management of fish stocks do not stop climate change they can at least limit some of the non-climatic problems facing the seas. The problem of climate change is additionally exacerbated by other anthropogenic factors such as increasing habitat loss, marine pollution, and overfishing. And there is not much time left for decisive action. mk

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Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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TURKEY

Turkey seeks to reduce ďŹ sh farming’s environmental footprint

New zones needed for aquaculture to expand The Turkish coastline is over 8,000 km long and it borders four seas, the Mediterranean in the south, the Black Sea in the north, and the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara in the west. In addition, Turkey has plenty of inland water in the form of lakes, dam reservoirs, and rivers. These aquatic resources yielded over 672,000 tonnes of ďŹ sh in 2015 of which farmed ďŹ sh amounted to just over a third.

T

urkish aquaculture is dominated by the production of trout, seabass, and seabream. Trout is farmed overwhelmingly in fresh water with a small production in the Black Sea. Seabass and gilthead seabream are farmed mainly in the Aegean and the Central Anatolian part of the Mediterranean.

While these three species are responsible for the bulk of the output, minor volumes of other species, such as carp and sturgeon in freshwater, and meagre, common seabream and common dentex in the sea, are also farmed. In addition, Turkey also fattens tuna caught in the wild.

Aquaculture’s impact on the environment must be limited The aquaculture sector contributes to the economy both in terms of export earnings and as a provider of employment in coastal regions. Turkey’s coastline also has sites of cultural importance, for example along the Anatolian coast, and is very popular among domestic and international tourists. In the past the different interests that had a stake in the coast led to conflicts among the users, an issue that was resolved a few years ago when it was decreed that the aquaculture industry should move offshore to a 30

M. Altug Atalay, General Director for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

minimum of 1,100 m (0.6 nautical miles) from the coast. Altug Atalay, General Director for Fisheries and Aquaculture, says that the aquaculture sector is important, but the administration is also concerned about its impact on the environment. By moving the cages further away from the coast to areas with greater depths and stronger currents, the effects of aquaculture production on the coastal environment are minimised. Farms also need to obtain an environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment if production exceeds 30 tonnes

a year. The concern for the environment also extends to the freshwater aquaculture sector, where Dr Atalay would like to see greater use of recirculating aquaculture systems that allow fish to be farmed isolated from the surrounding environment.

The interest in protecting the coastal environment was among the reasons that led in 2008 to the designation of certain zones for aquaculture as part of the overall coastal zone management plans. These zones, says Turgay Turkyilmaz, Deputy

Director General for Fisheries, were drawn up in consultation with other administrative bodies, such as the ministries of environment, culture, and transport. This meant that within the zones fish farmers could carry out their activities with minimal bureaucratic interference. But the sector has been expanding steadily.

Production of seabass and seabream has grown from 79,000 tonnes in 2010 to 127,000 tonnes in 2015. The allocated sites are running out of capacity and the industry is asking for more.

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In the coastal areas allocating more space for fish farming is difficult due to concerns about the environment and resistance from the tourism industry, and if companies decide to invest in sites outside the designated zones the bureaucracy involved is formidable.

Industry’s increasing size leads to greater regulation There are some areas available in the Black Sea, but, as Mr Turkyilmaz points out, that is a very different environment from the Aegean or Mediterranean. The ministry is looking at identifying new sites in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, but it will involve coordinating efforts with the other ministries and is likely to take time.

When the aquaculture sector was smaller it only involved the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock, but as the sector has grown so has its impact, and now additional ministries also participate in decisions regarding the sector. However, permissions are only part of the issue. Hayri Deniz, General Secretary of the Turkish National Aquaculture Producers Union & Mugla Fish Farmers Association, says that mariculture zones need to fulfil various criteria if they are to be suitable for the culture of fish. The water quality has to be appropriate with the right physical and chemical parameters. Water depth, distance from the coastline, and velocity of current all have to be taken into account. Additionally, there are restrictions on allocating zones close to or in special protected areas, sites of archaeological historical importance, or wild life reserves. Finally, other uses of the coast, for tourism, marine transport, recreations, fishing

Seafood production in Turkey (tonnes) Year

Marine

Capture ďŹ sheries Inland Total

Marine

Aquaculture Inland

Total

Grand total

2010

445,680

40,259

485,939

88,573

78,568

167,141

653,080

2011

477,658

37,097

514,755

88,344

100,446

188,790

703,545

2012

396,322

36,120

432,442

100,853

111,557

212,410

644,852

2013

339,047

35,074

374,121

110,375

123,019

233,394

607,515

2014

266,078

36,134

302,212

126,894

108,239

235,133

537,345

2015

397,731

34,176

431,907

138,879

101,455

240,334

672,241

Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

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TURKEY

The Turkish marine fishing fleet Year

Number of vessels

2011

17,165

Decommissioned vessels

2012

16,998

364

2013

16,437

456

2014

15,877

191

2015

15,680

Total

1,011 Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

or urban development, must also be taken into consideration before zones can be allocated.

The Turkish aquaculture strategy envisages production expanding from 235,000 tonnes in 2015 to 400,000 tonnes in 2023, the year the republic celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding, and if this target is to be achieved the issue of more sites will probably have to be resolved sooner rather than later.

Mr Turkyilmaz acknowledges however that increased production of farmed fish is only feasible if it can also be profitably sold. If we can export the fish and increase consumption in Turkey then it should be possible, he thinks. But increasing the domestic consumption of fish, which currently stands at about 7 kg per capita, will not be easy.

Many Turkish people do not like fish and getting them to change long standing eating habits is an uphill task, he says, adding that campaigns urging people to eat more fish have only been modestly successful.

of the Department of Aquaculture, notes that the environment within the system can be closely controlled, they have limited external impact, and they use little new water, all of which makes these systems desirable from an environmental point of view. The ministry is encouraging the use of these systems, and so far, one tilapia farm has been granted permission, while a further nine are having their applications processed. Other efforts to reduce the environmental impact of fish farmed in the sea include trials with shellfish, says Nadir Uslu, Branch Coordinator Marine Culture. One company is growing mussels on lines placed between cages to see if they will mitigate the impact of the fish.

Results from the trials are still awaited. Another effort is to move the cages within a site from one position to another after each production cycle to reduce the build-up of uneaten feed and faecal matter on the seabed.

Combining fish and shellfish farming may reduce pollution The role of the environment in the freshwater aquaculture sector is also being considered.

Here, recirculation aquaculture systems may increase in importance. Muharram Filiz, Head 32

Turgay Turkyilmaz, Deputy General Director for Fisheries, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

While production from marine farming exceeds that from freshwater, output of farmed rainbow trout is greater than that of any other individual species, marine or freshwater. Ozerdem Maltas, Branch Coordinator Inland Culture attributes this in part to the construction of dam reservoirs, which are primarily for the production of electricity, but are also used to farm trout. Today these reservoirs account for 60-65 of farmed trout production. Most of the remainder is farmed in flowthrough systems using raceways

that borrow water from a river.

Trout farmed in open waters has a greater risk of contracting disease. To prevent outbreaks the administration has a vaccination and disease monitoring programme for the whole country. In general, disease is an issue in the trout sector, but not a significant one, according to Mr Maltas. Among the measures being used to reduce the incidence of disease is greater emphasis on fish welfare, for which new regulations are currently being formulated that will, for example, reduce the

Turkish aquaculture production by main species (tonnes) Year

Trout

Seabream

Seabass

Grand total

85,244

28,157

50,796

78,953

7,697

107,936

32,187

47,013

79,200

3,234

114,569

30,743

65,512

96,255

122,873

5,186

128,059

35,701

67,913

103,614

2014

107,983

5,610

113,593

41,873

74,653

116,526

2015

101,166

6,872

108,038

51,844

75,164

127,008

Inland

Marine

Total

2010

78,165

7,079

2011

100,239

2012

111,335

2013

Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

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TURKEY

stocking density. The ministry is also interested in identifying new species for which there may be a market in Turkey or abroad, so as to diversify production and sturgeon and tilapia are two candidates for which production has been approved. Already, a few sturgeon farms are producing the fish for meat and for caviar. Production is still miniscule, only 28 tonnes in 2016, but is expected to grow.

Decommissioning scheme reduces fishing vessel numbers by 5% The Turkish fleet comprises 18,600 vessels (2015) of which 84 are marine and the rest inland. Over 94 of the total fleet consists of vessels under 18 m.

According to the 2016 report by the GFCM Black Sea working group, about half the vessels are based in Black Sea ports with most large vessels operating in the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. A vessel decommissioning scheme in operation since 2012 has seen 364 vessels 12 m and above removed from the fleet in 2012, 456 vessels in 2013, and 191 vessels in 2014.

Capture fisheries production in Turkey is dominated by pelagic fish of which anchovies form the overwhelming majority at about 60 of the total catch of pelagics. Other important (in terms of volume) pelagic fish include sprat, pilchard, horse mackerel, and Atlantic bonito.

In the six-year period to 2015 the trend in catches has been distinctly, though not consistently, falling. In terms of volumes most of the production comes from the Black Sea, thanks to the large catches of anchovies, but in terms of other species the Black Sea does not have as much to offer as the

Aegean, the Mediterranean, or the Sea of Marmara. The trend in catches varies from species to species, sprat catches have been stable over the last few years, while anchovy catches have been fluctuating. This, says Mr Turkyilmaz, may have something to do with water temperature, which has an impact on anchovy. Professor Ertug Duzgunes from the Marine Science Faculty at the Black Sea Technical University in Trabzon, says that anchovy schools in water from 10 to 16 degrees, if it gets warmer the fish do not school, but remain scattered across the sea. School formation is important for catches as purse seines, the most common way of catching anchovy, can only target schools.

Lack of data make some assessments unreliable A meeting of the GFCM subregional group on stock assessment in the Black Sea in January 2014 agreed that the assessment carried out on the Black Sea anchovy in 2013 was not reliable and suggested that current fishing mortality could be higher than precautionary fishing mortality. The group agreed that Information on other species including picked dogfish, rapa whelk, and bonito was not sufficient to make a full stock assessment. In Turkey bonito catches have varied massively over the six years to 2015 between 4,600 tonnes (2015) and 36,000 tonnes (2012). The resource when available is the preferred target of purse seiners and has a strong economic impact. However, more research is needed to understand links between Black Sea Mediterranean populations, and between environmental parameters in the Black Sea and abundance.

Hayri Deniz, General Secretary of the Turkish National Aquaculture Producers Union, and Mugla Fish Farmers Association

Falling anchovy catches according to some are due to decreasing abundance which has led to the Turkish anchovy fishing season effectively being abbreviated from three months to 30 days over the last decade. The Turkish anchovy fishing effort is now mainly in Georgian waters where stocks are in better shape as they are not as heavily exploited. Companies in Georgia and Abkhazia use the fish from Turkish vessels to manufacture fishmeal and fish oil in facilities

that are also sometimes Turkish-owned. The problem, says Prof. Duzgunes, is that landings in Abkhazia are not controlled for fish size, so that the catches have a large proportion of fish that would be considered undersized in Georgia or Turkey. At a meeting of the GFCM Black Sea working group in April 2016 it was recognised that current fishing mortality for Black Sea anchovy was slightly above the proposed reference point leading to a recommendation to

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TURKEY

Main pelagic species caught by the Turkish fleet (tonnes) Year

Anchovy

Sprat

Pilchard (sardine) Horse mackerel Atlantic bonito

BlueďŹ sh

2010

229,023

57,023

27,639

20,447

9,401

4,744

2011

228,491

87,141

34,709

25,010

10,019

3,122

2012

163,982

12,092

28,248

30,946

35,764

7,390

2013

179,615

9,764

23,919

28,424

13,158

5,225

2014

96,440

41,648

18,077

16,324

19,032

8,386

2015

193,492

76,996

16,693

16,664

4,573

4,136

Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

reduce fishing mortality. While quotas are one way to restrict catches, for Turkey implementing this measure would be a costly exercise due to the large number of landing points and the short fishing season. An alternative indirect measure is to use the percentage of undersized individuals in the catch to control the harvest of young individuals. However, this would be difficult to implement in certain areas due to different growth rates as well as mixing with the Sea of Azov anchovy population. According to the working group a potential management plan for anchovy in the Black Sea should, among other things, prevent overfishing, restore the stock to levels that allow the maximum sustainable yield, and limit the impact on the ecosystem by reducing bycatch of young individuals and other species. Turkey already has several measures in place regarding the management of anchovy in the Black

Sea, including temporal and spatial restrictions, and minimum landing size, however other measures such as minimum mesh sizes, limitations to gear, and the introduction of quotas will be expensive or difficult (or both) to implement.

Measures to limit fishing for turbot In terms of unit value, the most important Black Sea stock is turbot, catches of which in Turkey have generally hovered between 200 and 300 tonnes since 2010. Since 2001 Turkish catches of turbot have slumped by about 75. This may be disease-related as Individual fish have been found infected with a virus, but more research is needed to bear this out. Turkey has implemented several measures to improve selectivity in the fishery and to decrease fishing mortality in younger individuals.

The turbot stock has been classified as overfished by the Black

Sea working group and a series of measures has been adopted by the GFCM to combat illegal fishing for turbot in the Black Sea. At the April meeting of the Black Sea working group in 2016, Turkey stated in connection with a proposed management plan for turbot in the Black Sea that to limit fishing mortality no new fishing licenses were being granted, drift nets and monofilament nets were prohibited, and Turkey was encouraging fishers to release undersized turbot back into the sea. The management plan seeks to reduce IUU fishing for turbot, bring fishing mortality to FMSY by 2020 and to restore the size of the turbot stock to where it can produce the maximum sustainable yield.

Measures to achieve these goals include spatial restrictions on turbot gillnet fisheries and other fisheries where turbot is the bycatch; temporal restrictions where the fishery will be closed in the spawning season (April to June); effort restrictions that

Main demersal species caught by the Turkish fleet (tonnes) Year

Whiting

2010

13,558

European hake 1,256

Surmullet 4,455

Red mullet 2,797

Turbot 295

2011

9,455

921

3,877

2,289

166

2012

7,367

893

3,767

2,790

203

2013

9,397

676

2,333

2,144

209

2014

9,555

642

3,617

1,461

198

2015

13,158

706

3,476

1,281

239

Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock

34

will limit the overall capacity of the fleet and reduce the days or hours at sea. In addition, the plan envisages a minimum size for turbot, the introduction of special authorisations, and the use of the maximum dimensions of turbot gillnets, among other measures. In Turkey some of these measures, such as temporal restrictions, the need for authorisation (licenses), and restrictions on capacity are already in place.

Turkey fully supports collaborative efforts between riparian states to solve Black Sea issues Among the issues that make fisheries management in the Black Sea a more difficult proposition than in other waters is that of the six riparian countries only three are members of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the regional fisheries management organisation. But as the main fishing country in the Black Sea, Turkey takes its responsibilities seriously, says Mr Turkyilmaz, pointing to closed seasons and areas, restrictions on fishing within certain depths and distances from the coastline by certain fleet segments, and other conservation measures, that are in force. He is also convinced that successful management of stocks in the Black Sea can only come about in collaboration with the other riparian states.

Decisions related to the Black Sea should be taken by all countries regardless of their status as members of the GFCM. Our main wish, he emphasises, is for activities to be coordinated between all the concerned countries as this will result in more effective management of Black Sea fisheries.

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TURKEY

Investors fund further expansion in Agromey

Seabass production set to increase The Akel Group in Turkey is a major trader of agricultural products. Among the group companies is Agromey, a producer of seabass and seabream with its own feed manufacturing plant, on-growing sites for the ďŹ sh, processing and packaging facilities, as well as sales and marketing divisions that trade the ďŹ sh on markets within Turkey as well as around the world.

T

oday Agromey is one of the biggest exporters of seabass and seabream with markets in Europe, Asia, and North America. The company has major expansion plans says Tolga Uruk, the marketing and sales director, which will be realised with the help of a USD40m injection of new capital from the parent Akel Group that was agreed on at the end of 2016. Some of this funding will go into an expansion of production capacity to 18,000 tonnes of fish by 2017, and to 20,000 tonnes by 2018. While the company’s production capacity is already significant, actual production has been lower as markets have been

subdued. Recently, however, says Mr Uruk, the export market has been increasing, more fish is being sold to western Europe, Russia, USA, and even the Middle East.

Emphasis on seabass Agromey is predominantly a producer of seabass. However, a couple of years ago a massive storm in the Aegean caused the company to lose almost 2,000 tonnes of market-sized seabass, a disruption in output from which the company is slowly recovering. The planned increase in capacity will result in an increase in seabass production that will ultimately reach

about 70 of the total in two years. Seabass is sold typically in the size range 400 to 600 g, a size the fish generally takes two years or more to achieve. In general, Agromey exports 80 of its production and these overseas markets determine the ratio of seabass and seabream that is produced. In the Netherlands, the company’s main market in Europe, there is a significant preference for seabass, which the company will be in a good position to accommodate with its increase in production. In Italy and Spain where the company also has markets, as well as in the US, it is seabass that is the most popular, while in the Middle East it is seabream. The

Dutch market is an important one for Agromey, so much so that a subsidiary, Agromey Holland BV, was established a few years ago that is responsible for sales and invoicing. The fish, all of it fresh, is sent from Agromey’s packaging facilities in Aydin and in Izmir in Turkey directly to the customers in the Netherlands. In contrast to markets in other parts of Europe, where whole round fish is the norm, Agromey’s customers in the Netherlands are mainly interested in processed fish – fillets in different formats and gutted fish. Europe is the main destination for Agromey’s fish followed by the Middle East and the US, and then Russia.

One of the company’s grading and packaging facilities is on board a vessel anchored off Karaburun, a natural reserve near Izmir.

Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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Tolga Uruk, Marketing and Sales Coordinator CMO, Agromey

Greater diversification of markets

Seabass production at Agromey is set to rise with a recent infusion of capital. For many of the company’s customers seabass is a more important species than seabream.

Production almost exclusively fresh fish Agromey’s production is by and large fresh fish. Frozen constitutes perhaps 2 or 3 percent of the total production and is intended mainly for the domestic market. A fraction of this frozen production is exported through a Turkish customer, the only part of the frozen production that is exported. Agromey specialises in fresh whole round fish; the exception is fresh gutted fish and fillets bound for the Dutch market. For the moment, 36

this will continue – the company does not plan to switch to greater value addition such as ready to cook or ready to eat products.

As Mr Uruk explains, many of Agromey’s markets, in Italy, France, Russia, and the Middle East, prefer whole fish. In the US too the company’s distributors sell the fish to the Horeca sector, where whole fish is preferred.

That said the company is keeping an eye on developments in the value-added products sector and will, if necessary, be able to switch rapidly to producing these should the demand arise.

Five years ago, 90 of exports went to Europe. Today that has fallen to 70 as Agromey together with the Aegean Exporters’ Associations has made a push into other markets. The target is to reach a split of 50:50. This is to reduce the exposure to any one market, but it has been made more urgent with the currency fluctuations that have made the US dollar more expensive against the euro. Agromey purchases raw materials in dollars yet sells the final product in euros and is suffering from the shift in the relative value of these currencies.

One of the main costs is the raw material that the company needs

to produce feed. Agromey is selfsufficient in feed production, but needs to import the raw material, mainly fishmeal and fish oil, that is used to produce the feed. Over the years developments in feed production have enabled fishmeal to be substituted with other products. Ten years ago, says Mr Uruk, Agromey’s fish feed had a component of fishmeal that was 40-50, today that has shrunk to 30 yet at the same time the feed conversion ratio has improved.

With the infusion of fresh capital Agromey is well positioned to boost production and penetrate deeper into existing markets, yet at the same time exploit new and as yet relatively unexplored markets such as in the Far East.

Agromey Alsancak, Izmir Turkey Tel.: +90 232 446 88 11 Fax: +90 232 446 09 08 tolga.uruk@agromey.com www.agromey.com Marketing and Sales Coordinator CMO: Mr Tolga Uruk Products: Seabass, seabream, ďŹ sh feed

Product forms: Fresh whole round, fresh ďŹ llets Volumes: 18,000 tonnes seabass and seabream Facilities: One ďŹ sh feed plant (Torbali), two on-growing sites (Milas, Karaburun), two processing plants (Aydin, Karaburun; Akel 10 ferryboat) Markets: Europe, Middle East, USA, Russia

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Kilic Seafood adds tuna farming to its list of activities

Fresh and frozen exports to Japan Kilic Seafood is synonymous with the Turkish fish farming sector. The company is fully integrated producing at all stages of the farmed seafood value chain. The main production is seabass, seabream, meagre, and rainbow trout. In addition to ongrowing facilities for farmed fish, Kilic has hatcheries, feed production units, packaging facilities and processing factories producing a range of sophisticated items. Since 2015 the company has also been farming tuna, on-growing the fish in cages in the sea off Karaburun near Izmir.

The vessel with an office on board, from where the tuna farming operations are managed.

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ith a production of 50,000 tonnes of fish including seabass, seabream, trout, and meagre, Kilic Seafood is the biggest seafood company in Turkey. In recent years, it has also been establishing production activities in other parts of the world.

In Albania, for example, it has started farming trout, while in Mauritania it has established a fishmeal and fish oil factory using the locally available raw

material. In the Dominican Republic trials on seabass are being carried out and discussions are on-going with the authorities in Morocco and Tunisia to establish production facilities there. While activities are being established outside Turkey, operations within the country are not standing still either, says Sinan Kiziltan, vice president of the executive board of Kilic Holding. The fish retail shop at the corporate

headquarters site on the Milas Bodrum highway now includes a fast food outlet, that serves freshly prepared fast food to motorists. But perhaps most significant, among the latest ventures the company has embarked on, is tuna farming.

Japan absorbs most tuna from the Mediterranean Tuna farming or ranching is widespread in the Mediterranean

with companies in many countries around the Mediterranean, including Croatia, Italy, Spain, Malta, as well as Turkey. Operators catch the young bluefin tuna in the wild, transport the fish to cages and fatten them for the market. Almost all the fish is intended for Japan, where bluefin tuna is very popular and commands high prices. The industry is dependent however on young fish caught from the wild as tuna hatcheries on a commercial scale Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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tuna farming activities. The fishing for tuna is from the middle of May to the middle of June, says Hasan Yilmaz, the farm manager, and the first batch of tuna that Kilic obtained was purchased from Turkish tuna fishermen.

The fishers sell the fish to the farming companies because the price they can get is better than what they would receive for selling it on the market. In addition, tuna fishermen typically do not have the facilities necessary to process the fish and sell it.

The Kilic fish retail shop at the company’s Mugla site on the Milas Bodrum highway now includes a fast food outlet selling freshly-made fish burgers, wraps, soup and other fish-based items.

do not yet exist despite the enormous interest in the fish. ICCAT, an international body charged with the conservation and management of tuna stocks in the Mediterranean, issues annual quotas to countries, where authorities in turn distribute them to the industry.

Operations controlled from vessel-based office Kilic is a relative newcomer to the field of tuna farming. Other Turkish companies have been in the business for many years, but Kilic has a long and successful track record in the fish

Sinan Kiziltan, Vice President of the Executive Board of Kilic Holding 38

farming and processing industries, and on-growing tuna is therefore a logical extension of these activities. At Karaburun, a natural reserve near Izmir, where permanent structures are forbidden, a vessel is anchored that functions as the office as well as the control centre for the

The fish have to be captured live however and then transferred very slowly from the catching site to the area where the ongrowing cages are located. This could be a distance of several hundred kilometres and tuna being a sensitive fish needs to be handled very carefully if it is to make the trip successfully within the confines of the towing cage. Tuna captured this way have to be a minimum of 30 kg in weight, but Mr Yilmaz tries to buy fish that are larger. The target weight for the on-growing process is at least 60 kg but the company would like to enter the market with at least 1,000 tonnes of fish. The main export market for tuna is Japan, which absorbs

Hasan Yilmaz, Manager, tuna farming operations

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some 98 of the exported tuna.

But producers are also legally obliged to place some of their production on the domestic market as part of a government effort to popularise fish and boost its consumption.

Efforts on-going to close the breeding cycle

Melis Sakaoglu, Marketing Executive, Kilic

Kilic more than doubles grading and packaging capacity

New facility goes on stream In October 2016 Kilic opened at its Mugla site a new packaging facility for seabass, seabream, and meagre with two lines and a total capacity of 150 tonnes per day. Using state of the art machinery the ďŹ sh is automatically graded by weight into boxes. Weight classes are selected depending on the customer’s requirements, for example 300-400 g, 400-600 g, 600-800 g etc. The packaging too is determined by the customer – the facility offers 20 options, enough to satisfy even the most demanding client. Fish packaged here is exported to more than 55 countries around the world, says Melis Sakaoglu, a marketing executive, a lot of it to the UK, Italy, and Spain. The packaged ďŹ sh is stored in refrigerated chambers for a maximum of three days before being loaded into trucks and distributed. Typically, the ďŹ sh can be harvested, processed, and released for distribution within a 24-hour period. Bad weather, however, can disrupt the schedule and prolong this period. The new facility more than doubles the company’s grading and packaging capacity from 100 to 250 tonnes per day.

As in other parts of the world, at Kilic too efforts are on-going to close the cycle of tuna farming, that is to grow fish from eggs produced in captivity. This is already being done at a university in Japan, but commercial hatcheries, where tuna larvae are hatched from eggs obtained from captive fish and can successfully develop into adults, are some way from being established. Researchers at Kilic have conducted some trials, but further work is needed. The young fish are captured in the Mediterranean in the area encapsulated between Anatalya, Hatay, and Cyprus and are then towed to the Aegean Sea. The vessels have to have ICCAT observers

on board. In fact, observers are involved in every operation says Mr Yilmaz, capture, towing, transfer, and harvest. Mr Yilmaz, who has been in the business for 15 years says that Kilic has its own fishing vessels, but not enough capacity to meet the requirements of the farm. The company is therefore buying tuna from other fishermen as well and in the future may also approach other countries’ fishermen to fulfil its needs.

The fish in the cages is fed with sardines from Morocco as well as from the domestic market to increase the size and boost the fat percentage to about 25. The Japanese buyers, who bought the first batch of fish were highly satisfied with the quality, but were prevented from buying more by local restrictions. However, these are early days yet and production is bound to increase in the years ahead. Buyers can look forward to a product with the kind of quality that appeals to even the demanding Japanese market.

Kilic Seafood Kemikler Koyu Mevkii Milas-Bodrum Karayolu 18. km TR Mugla Turkey Tel.: +90 252 559 0283 sales@kilicseafood.com kilicseafood.com Vice President of the Executive Board of Kilic Holding: Sinan Kiziltan Volumes: 50,000 tonnes seabass, seabream, meagre, trout, tuna Products: Fresh whole round ďŹ sh and ďŹ llets, whole gutted ďŹ sh, frozen ďŹ sh and ďŹ llets

Packaged products: MAP ďŹ sh, MAP ďŹ llets, value-added packaged products, canned ďŹ sh, ready meals Markets: EU, Russia, US, Middle East, Turkey Tuna farm manager: Hasan Yilmaz hasanyilmaz@kilicdeniz.com.tr License: 1,800 tonnes Tuna on-growing cages: 8 (50 m diameter) Employees (for tuna): 24

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Kocaman Balikcilik has mastered the uncertainty of production using raw materials from the wild

Sales increase by a tenth annually Kocaman Balikcilik is among the biggest producers and exporters of marine and freshwater products in Turkey. In addition, it is involved in joint ventures to farm tuna and to produce buttered snails.

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urkey is well known in Europe for its production and export of farmed seabass, seabream, and trout in a variety of forms. However, surrounded by the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and with 8,500 km of coastline, the country also has a significant production of wild marine species including finfish, crustaceans, cephalopods, and topshell (rapana). In addition, thanks to abundant freshwater lakes and rivers there is also an inland fishery for certain species as well as wild-caught carp for the Iraqi and Syrian markets.

Smelt is among the important seafood products

Exporting for thirty years

originally to nearby countries such as Greece and Bulgaria.

In the 80s, freezing technology became more widely available in Turkey and the company started freezing products and exporting them. Red mullet, gurnard, hake, monkfish, and pelagic fish such as anchovies, and mackerel were among the marine species sold at the time, and from the lakes carps. The company established markets for its fresh and frozen products in France, Italy and central Europe. Today Mr Basaran says the company is the biggest producer of frozen processed products thanks in part to a freezing capacity of 150 tonnes per day.

Kocaman Balikcilik, a familyowned company, was established in 1923 and has been in the fish business for three generations and on export markets for three decades. In addition to seafood it is also involved in the production and export of terrestrial snails and frogs’ legs, products that are caught in the wild from the west and south of Anatolia. Bulent Basaran, the company’s foreign trade manager recounts how, when the company was originally established, it traded in fresh fish on the domestic market mainly selling to Istanbul, which even in the early twentieth century was a city of some 2m or 3m inhabitants. Sales were also to Izmir and Ankara, two other urban centres. In the 70s exports started,

Kocaman Balikcilik is a third-generation family-owned company selling seafood and other products overseas and on the domestic market.

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The company is very active on the French market for land snails (Helix lucorum) with a turnover of 80m pieces per year. The snails are collected in the villages around Turkey by the villagers and brought to collection points across the country from where they are brought to the processing facility by truck. The gastropods go through a complex process to make them involving cooking, removing the meat, cleaning the shell, re-inserting the meat, topping with a butter sauce, and freezing. Among

the seafood produced, smelt (Atherina boyeri) is an important product, with about 2,000 tonnes exported to the EU. Smelt has two seasons, the first starting in April and extending to June, while the second starts in September and continues to the end of December. The fish is caught from lakes, but can tolerate a wide range of salinities and is also known to inhabit estuaries, coastal lakes and other brackish waters, as well as the sea.

The company also processes the fish by marinating, for example, anchovies and sardines, and by smoking, such as, mackerel, as well as combines seafood including octopus into salads. These

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species are all locally caught in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Some 200 tonnes of the marinated products are exported to the United States where they are sold at retailers such as Costco and Shoprite under the brand of the company’s customer.

Production based mainly on wild species Pike perch is caught in the local lakes and is popular in the Netherlands, North America and Italy, and cuttlefish and octopus is exported to Greece, Italy, and Spain. Frog legs are sold fresh and frozen to Italy and France, the biggest consumer of this product. As with the snails the company has several collection points where villagers deliver the frogs (Rana ridibunda) they have caught. Frogs can be caught throughout the year except for one month, when they are breeding. In contrast, snails can only be caught for a brief period after the rains in the spring, after which the supply dries up. In Turkey, says Mr Basaran, access to the raw material, and the finance to pay for it, are all important. Kocaman is dominant on the domestic market

for just this reason and because it has a good supplier chain.

Europe is not the only destination for the company’s goods, it is also exporting products such as crayfish, shrimps, topshell (rapana), bluefin tuna and, most recently, sea cucumber and blue crabs to South Korea, Japan and China. Sea cucumber is harvested from particular areas in the Aegean Sea, it is not available all along the coast, and the company has entered into agreements with the divers and the boats that harvest these echinoderms. The company’s processing facilities are certified to a range of international standards including HACCP, BRC, IFS and ISO and are also approved by the Russian food safety authorities. However, working with wild products is not easy, says Mr Basaran, as the supply can be very unpredictable.

Joint venture in tuna farming Kocaman is a shareholder in the Akua Group, a Turkish farmer of bluefin tuna that has its cages near Izmir. Kocaman processes the fish, filleting, freezing and shipping at -60 degrees

Anchovies, the most important species in the Black Sea in volume, are marinated for export.

centigrade to China, where it is used for sushi and sashimi. Some items are sold under Kocaman’s own brand. Shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris), for instance, is exported to Spain under the label Gamba Blanca, and smelt too is sold under the company’s brand.

The reason for our success with these products is the quality, says Mr Basaran. The shrimp is fished from the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara and is processed very quickly after harvesting to lock in the quality, and this is why we have been successfully exporting this product to Spain for the last two decades.

On the domestic market Kocaman works with the big

supermarket chains like Migros, Tesco, and Metro selling marinated products, frozen shrimps, squid, and octopus. The squid is imported from China, repackaged, and sold locally, typically as frozen tubes or rings.

In the past, the company used to import squid from Spain, but duties and tariffs imposed on EU products made it necessary to seek other non-EU suppliers. Kocaman has been regularly increasing its sales by some 10 a year by skilfully exploiting opportunities that arise. Finding new products, customers, and markets and keeping a close watch on quality are the ingredients behind the company’s success.

Kocaman Balikcilik AS Bandirma, Balikesir Turkey Tel.: +90 266 7338551 kocamanďŹ sh@kocamanďŹ sh.com.tr www.kocamanďŹ sh.com.tr

Bulent Basaran, Foreign Trade Manager, Kocaman Balikcilik

Foreign Trade Manager: Bulent Basaran

Products: Smelt, pike perch, octopus, cuttleďŹ sh, squid, shrimp, anchovy, blueďŹ n tuna, rapana, snails, frog legs, blue crabs, sea cucumber etc.

Product forms: Frozen, marinated, smoked, live Markets: EU, USA, Russia, China, Turkey (15%) Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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BioMar-Sagun has built a new ďŹ sh feed factory

A game changer in the booming Turkish aquaculture industry A joint venture between the BioMar Group from Denmark and the Sagun Group of Turkey, BioMar-Sagun has established a greenďŹ eld ďŹ sh feed factory in SĂśke, Turkey, that went on stream in the middle of 2016.

B

ioMar-Sagun, the new company, has high ambitions on contributing to the development and innovation of the Turkish aquaculture industry, by combining BioMar’s more than 50 years’ global expertise in aquafeeds with the Sagun Group’s solid local knowledge and experience in the field.

Introducing new feed concepts to farmers With the new factory, a large range of high performing and specialised feeds is being introduced to the Turkish aquaculture industry. The feeds have different formulae that are used in different growth stages and seasons for the purpose of ensuring the best economic performance of the farms. “This is new for the

industry�, says Bora Aydemir, the managing director of the joint venture. “In the past the composition of the ingredients, and in particular the proportion of fat and protein in the feed, was the only factor fish farmers paid attention to. But now by using BioMar’s Performance Concept, we are supplying highly targeted fish feeds that are optimised to deliver a potential feed performance that can fully exploit the growth potential of the farmed species without being dependent on any particular protein or fat source.� “This is now possible and available to the Turkish fish farmers due to BioMar’s extensive research carried out in order to reduce the dependency on existing sources of protein (e.g. fish

Quality assurance is an integrated part of the manufacturing process and extends to error-free logistics and delivery services.

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Bora Aydemir, managing director of a joint venture between the BioMar Group and the Sagun Group that will produce a range of fish feeds.

The factory has a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of feed a year. The site is big enough to allow the factory to expand if necessary.

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feeds ranging from 3 mm to 10 mm in pellet size and expects to increase production with smaller sizes in the month to come. “Sales from the Turkish company will not be restricted to the domestic market,� says Bora Aydemir who aims at selling feed to neighbouring countries, too.

The capacity at the factory is currently approximately 50,000 tonnes per year. Mr Aydemir expects that in a couple of years the factory will reach its full capacity and if more is needed then the site has enough area to expand the production.

Production has started with feeds ranging from 3 mm to 10 mm in pellet size and is expected to increase with smaller sizes in the month to come.

meal)�, says Mr. Aydemir. “We hereby gain flexibility in securing the performance of the fish, free from shortages or price hikes in the raw materials to be utilised.

Within the Performance Concept, the feeds are adapted to secure optimal survival, growth and financial yield, with specific ingredients required for specific purposes. The feeds have become much more complex and farmers have to get used to this new regime�.

World class approach to fish feed supply Producing high quality fish feed demands not only special ingredients but also state-of-the-art technology and equipment, and not the least the expertise to utilise these resources. Moreover, a world class approach to managing all the processes from sourcing raw materials to delivering the end product to the BioMar-Sagun, similar to all

other BioMar units, production processes are automated to keep track and full control over the processes, and quality assurance protocols are applied throughout the whole production process from sourcing to production and further on to delivery of the final feed product to customers.

guidance for right usage of the feed, appropriate nutrition and feeding strategies and other farm management related support. Utilising Sagun Group’s solid presence and knowledge in the market, the company also secures error-free logistics and delivery services.

“At the factory we can show our customers how the production works and that it is controlled throughout by BioMar-Sagun.

They feel reassured that this is a good way to produce feeds that deliver predictable, constant performances�, explains Mr Aydemir, adding that farmers today ask for a significantly improved documentation in relation to the deliveries of fish feed.

State-of-the art factory

BioMar-Sagun’s offer to the Turkish aquaculture is not limited to the feed as an end product. The company has a competent technical support team to provide

The new feed plant currently produces feed for trout, seabass, and seabream and is able to supply fish feed for the full life cycle of the different farmed fish species. The plant in SĂśke has started production with

A trusted and innovative partner for long-lasting cooperation with the farmer Bora Aydemir stresses that it is important for BioMar-Sagun to be known by the fish farmers in Turkey and in the region as a trusted and long-term feed supplier that utilises the strengths of both joint-venture partners.

Mr. Aydemir concludes: “Being a joint venture between two giant companies enables us to combine BioMar’s unique expertise in fish feed that is developed through innovative and extensive R&D efforts and Sagun Group’s local knowledge and experience. We are confident that this collaboration will play a significant role in raising the bar in Turkish aquaculture industry.�

BioMar-Sagun Aydin, Turkey Tel.: +90 256 9991177 info@biomar-sagun.com.tr www.biomar.com/en/BioMar-Sagun/

Managing Director: Bora Aydemir Production: Fish feeds for trout, seabass, seabream Capacity: 50,000 tonnes/year

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Pakyurek processes and sells frozen seafood at home and abroad

Rapid growth on domestic market Pakyurek, based in Adana in the south of Turkey along the Mediterranean coast, produces a range of ďŹ sh and seafood products for the domestic market and for export. However, one of the company’s most important items is land snails, which are exported to France.

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akyurek is a family-owned company that was founded in the 50’s by the father of the current owner. Until the 70’s cotton was the chief export, but thereafter it diversified in to snails and frogs. For a while all three products were being exported, but then developments around the world made it difficult to continue exporting cotton. The company dropped cotton and started exporting fish instead.

Mezzemarin is a well-known brand in Turkey Anil Goksel, chief of imports and exports, says that with the move to fish the company also began processing products in ways that had not previously been tried in Turkey, such as by marinating. Around the turn of the century, however, economic changes both within and outside Turkey reduced the margins from exports and the company decided to switch its attention to the domestic market. This resulted in the launch of the brand Mezzemarin, a range of seafood snacks, intended for the domestic market. The word Mezze refers to a selection of snacks often consumed at the beginning of a meal in Turkey. The export market is different, says Mr Goksel, there the company does not export under a brand, but sells goods in bulk which are then repackaged and sold under other labels. From 2005 to 2010 the company focused on domestic sales though continuing 44

Behic Pakyurek, Chairman of the Board of Pakyurek

on its export markets too. Until 2010 the domestic market was very profitable, demand was high, but supply was low and the company saw an opportunity importing raw materials directly and selling them on the domestic market.

Until then all the raw material for the production whether imported or not was obtained from the domestic market.

Mackerel for example was purchased from local suppliers even though the fish was imported.

Setting up a network of suppliers abroad was a long procedure, says Mr Goksel, that called for extensive travel, identifying suppliers and negotiating agreements. Contracts were signed with companies in Norway,

Iceland, Denmark, Belgium, India, Viet Nam, China and others. Today Pakyurek has three broad activities, import and sales of fish and seafood on the domestic market, export of snails, and

processing. On the domestic market the company’s main customers are cash and carry shops such as Metro, and two Turkish retail chains, Bim and A101. The latter have stores all over Turkey,

Some of the range of fish and seafood items produced for the domestic market

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Potential markets in Central Asia

Anil Goksel, Chief of Imports and Exports and Emre Aydinoglu, Chief of Production for value added products.

so although not as big as Metro or Migros they reach into every corner of the country. On the other hand, while Metro takes all the company’s products, the two retail chains will each only sign contracts for one or at the most two products. Because they are so numerous they have a good feeling for what the market is looking, what products are trending, and what is likely to be the next big thing. Pakyurek started selling anchovy fillets through these retail chains but then switched to Norwegian mackerel fillets a year later as anchovy catches fell.

Health, sustainability are important product attributes In this instance the mackerel from Norway is imported whole round and block frozen, and Pakyurek makes fillets from the fish without thawing it. Mackerel, anchovies, salmon, and snails are probably the company’s main products.

Mackerel is not only sold as fillets, but is also prepared in different ways, for example, smoked,

smoked and marinated, or dried and marinated, which is a Greekinspired preparation. Salmon sales are increasing in Turkey, though it is still a product for the upper end of the market. But the potential of the market has got major producers opening offices in Turkey. This has made it much easier to obtain fresh salmon in small volumes at regular intervals instead of importing it in bulk directly from the producer in Norway. At the Pakyurek factory fresh raw materials are not stored, the fish is processed and then frozen unless it is marinated.

Both freezing and marinating give a longer shelf life. The company also has a production of seafood salads and pike perch. The processing facility is divided into smaller rooms with different activities. The workers process anchovies, mackerel, or snails and, as Mr Goksel says, they become experts at rapidly processing the product. After two months at one activity they move onto something else so that they are familiar with all the different products that are manufactured in the factory. Since the volumes of an individual product

are not very large it is more efficient to do the work manually rather than using machines. It also means that production can be rapidly switched from one product to another. This kind of flexibility is very useful for making the wide variety of high value products that Pakyurek specialises in. These also fulfil another of the company’s aims, which, according to Behic Pakyurek, the chairman of the board, is to encourage Turkish people to consume more fish and seafood by making them aware of the taste and the health benefits.

Over the years Pakyurek has introduced products on to the market and then replaced them as customers lose interest. According to Mr Goksel, products need to be readily available, reasonably priced, high quality, healthful and, increasingly, sustainably sourced, if they are to be successful. Developing such products relies on feedback from the sales team who are constantly interacting with the customers and who get valuable insights into what products are trending. In addition, the company management has many years of experience in the business and they too travel both within Turkey and outside and return with new ideas for products. Domestic sales, which are almost entirely seafood, have been growing strongly and today amount to about three fourths of the total, while exports have been more or less stable. One of the reasons is that Syria and Iraq, two of the company’s main markets in the past, are largely inaccessible, says Mr Pakyurek, however, he has hopes that once these countries return to normal they will once again be open for business. Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and some of the Central Asian republics are also interesting as potential markets.

Pakyurek Adana, Turkey Tel.: +90 322 311 06 14 info@pakyurek.com pakyurek.com mezzemarin.com Chairman of the Board: Behic Pakyurek Chief for imports and exports: Anil Goksel (anilgoksel@pakyurek.com)

Main species: Anchovies, salmon, mackerel, snails Product forms: Smoked, frozen, marinated, dried.

Exports: Land snails (80%), seafood (20%) Markets: Turkey, France, Germany, US

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Ă–zpekler plans its own feed production unit

Smoked trout for the German market Turkey produces more farmed trout than any other farmed species. Of the total farmed ďŹ sh production, trout amounted to 45% in 2015 thanks to the almost 2,000 inland ďŹ sh farms that exist across the country.

Ă–zpekler has ten freshwater sites where trout is farmed mainly in raceways and but also in cages.

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he presence of plentiful water in the form of rivers, lakes, dam reservoirs, and artificial lakes is among the reasons that trout production has multiplied. One of the companies that illustrates this growth is the family-owned Ă–zpekler, a farmer and processor of trout that was established by Mustafa Ă–zpek in the 80s.

the fish farms flow through systems with concrete raceways are used to cultivate the fish, but at two of the sites cages have been deployed. All the farms are at a radius of about 125 km from Denizli in the western part of the country and the site of the first farm.

Today the entire production of trout, some 6,000 tonnes, is exported to Germany in the form of smoked trout fillets and barbecue-ready fish. The latter is gutted trout in aluminium trays which is being sold to the German retail market through a distributor in Germany. Exports to Germany

started in 2003 and have continued ever since. GĂśkhan Ulubahsi, the export manager, was born and brought up in Germany and returned to Turkey and started working with Ă–zpekler in the middle of 2015. A native speaker of both German and Turkish and fluent in English to boot,

Farming sites use raceways, cages Mr Özpek was one of the pioneers of the Turkish trout aquaculture industry farming trout initially in the mid 70’s. After a break for six years the family started the activity again in the late 80s, beginning with a farming site that had a capacity of 40 tonnes and gradually increasing it to 200 tonnes. Over the years, the company acquired or established other farms, so that today the company can boast ten sites including a hatchery. At most of 46

Mustafa Ă–zpek founded Ă–zpekler and manages it together with his sons, Osman Ă–zpek (pictured) and Yasin Ă–zpek.

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much trout that companies could not sell and many of them went under as a result. Today there are fewer companies producing trout and those that exist are, according to Mr Ă–zpek, in better shape than before.

One of the farming sites is certified to the Global G.A.P. and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council standards. But the certification process is long and expensive making it difficult for the company to have its other sites certified.

he is ideally qualified to expand the company’s most important European market.

Leaner, fitter industry since 2013 crisis At Ă–zpekler, trout is grown to about 350 g if it is to be made into fillets. A fish of this size will yield two fillets with a combined weight of 125 g. The trout fillets too can be exported either frozen or fresh, and together with a partner in the Netherlands, Echtvis, the company is working

on developing other valueadded products. This collaboration dates back to 2003 and is still going strong, reflecting the company’s values. Our relationship with partners and customers goes back many years, says Mr Özpek. Turkish trout production increased by leaps and bounds until 2013, but over the next two years fell back to its level in 2011 of just over 100,000 tonnes.

The increase in production was at least partly due to incentives provided by the government, but this says Mr Ă–zpek resulted in too

Özpekler also has its own hatchery with a capacity of 67m fingerlings though actual production is lower than this. One of the trout farms was certified to the Global G.A.P. standard four years ago, and to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council standard in 2016. As a result, a little over 10 of the production today is certified. Osman Özpek would like to see more of the production certified, but says it is very difficult and expensive.

In 2009 the company invested in cages for ongrowing seabass and seabream and today has a modest production of 300 tonnes of each species. The seabass and seabream are grown to 500 g and also packaged gutted and frozen in trays for barbecuing with either one or two fish in each package.

Fish processed by machine and manually The processing facility was built in 2002 and has an area of 2,000 sq. m of building and 3,500 sq m in

total. Here both the trout as well as the seabass and seabream are processed. Among the machines are those that remove the head, tail, guts, and bones and makes a butterfly fillet of the fish. Other products include whole gutted fish that are placed in brine for 12 hours and then smoked. After the smoking process the head and tail are cut off and the bones removed by hand. The manual work is necessary when the fish are smaller than can be profitably processed by machine. Some of the products, such as the barbecue packaged fish, are seasonal, while others such as the smoked product are produced all the year round. Özpekler also has plans to establish a feed plant to better integrate its operations. The plant is scheduled to start operating at the end of April and in the first instance will only produce to meet the company’s own requirement of feed, but later may opt to produce for the market. Today the company gets feed from two local suppliers and the new factory will give it greater independence and control over the feed. The planned factory will have an output of 6 tonnes per hour or about 50,000 tonnes a year of 4 mm feed, and will produce feed for trout, seabass, and seabream.

Ă–zpekler Denizli, Turkey Tel.: +90 258 3718338 info@ozpekler.com.tr www.ozpekler.com.tr

Since 2009 the company has farmed small volumes of seabass and seabream in addition to cultivating trout.

Founder: Mustafa Ă–zpek Director: Osman Ă–zpek and Yasin Ă–zpek Export Manager: GĂśkhan Ulubahsi (gokhan@ozpekler.com.tr)

Farming sites: 10 Volumes: Trout 6,000 tonnes, seabass 300 tonnes, and seabream 300 tonnes Products: Fresh, frozen trout ďŹ llets; smoked trout; trout, seabass, seabream for barbeque Markets: Germany Employees: 230

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TURKEY

Noordzee takes a step towards complete integration

Production starts at new feed factory The company Noordzee farms seabass, seabream, and meagre in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, processing and exporting the ďŹ sh to countries in Europe and to Russia. A planned expansion to its ďŹ sh feed factory will contribute to the integration of operations enabling the company to maintain even closer control over all the production parameters.

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ith a fish production capacity now reaching 8,000 tonnes, and exports to several countries, Noordzee is among the important players in the Turkish farmed fish industry. The company specialises in the cultivation of seabass and seabream, which are sold fresh, round in a variety of sizes, and as fillets cut to customer specifications. Efforts have also been made with meagre (Argyrosomus regius), but while the fish has many positive facets, rapid growth, good feed conversion ratio, resistance to disease, firm flesh, large size, the market has not been convinced says Mr Senturk. Seabass and seabream production has expanded regularly since the company was established in 1998, and also, about 18 months ago, it built a fish feed plant to meet its growing requirement for feed.

Feed plant to coexist with processing facility Located in Aydin near Izmir in a newly laid out industrial area, the feed factory is headed by Yahya Senturk, for whom this is the fifth plant that he is establishing over a career spanning 26 years, which has given him experience with feed plants and equipment both within Turkey and in other parts of the world. The site where the plant is located is large and in addition to the fish feed plant will also soon have a factory for the preparation of ready-to-cook meals. The main office of the company as well as the existing fish processing plant are located in Gulluck near Bodrum, while the fish cages are spread across five sites in Gulluck and in Didim. However, Gulluck and Bodrum are well-known tourist aprocessing facility might

Machinery for the medical dosing of feed is kept in an isolated part of the factory.

The ingredients in fish feed go through a complex process before they emerge as the pellets shown here.

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have run into problems with the tourism industry – despite the fact that Noordzee is one of the biggest tax payers to the local municipality. As a result the company decided to locate the feed factory in Aydin, where tourism is not an issue, and will also build the processing plant for the new products there.

These items are intended mainly for export markets and will be frozen.

Noordzee obtains the juveniles for on-growing from an external hatchery, the last barrier to complete integration. The juveniles are grown to market-size and are then harvested, processed

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Yahya Senturk, Feed Factory Manager, Noordzee

and shipped to the international sales and marketing company that Noordzee has set up in the Netherlands. From here the product is distributed to the rest of Europe, about 40 to the UK, while the rest goes to Belgium, Spain, Denmark, France and within the Netherlands itself. The transport is rapid; if a batch of fish is harvested and arrives at the processing factory in the morning, it is processed through the day and can leave in the evening arriving three days later in Breskens in the Netherlands, from where it is further distributed. The entire production is fresh fish, whole round, whole gutted, and fillets.

Fillets form the majority of the production amounting to about 65 of the total, however this is species specific, almost the entire seabass production is made into fillets, while seabream tends to be shipped whole.

Large increase in feed capacity planned for 2017 The fish feed plant is designed for two extruder lines. Currently only one line has been installed and Mr Senturk is in discussions with the supplier regarding the second,

as the first line has reached its capacity. All the groundwork has already been done and the line can be completed when the extruder, dryer, and coating machine are connected. Other parts of the line such as the silos, grinding, and packaging machines are already in place. With the new line capacity will more than double from 35,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes of which 80 will be used for the company’s own requirement. The remainder is sold to other farmers, but not through the open market, instead fish farmers may ask for a feed to be produced to their specifications. This may be special formulations for seabass and seabream, but could also be for trout. Direct sales on the open market are not easy in Turkey, says Mr Senturk, as many farming companies have their own feed plants, so the open market amounts to only 20-30 percent of the total. Feed companies that do not have their own fish production and that exist only to supply the market, need to find their way around this issue. The Noordzee factory is also licensed to produce pet feed and, in addition, is one of only two factories in Turkey that has a license to manufacture medicated fish

Feed is packaged into bags or 1-tonne sacks such as this one.

feeds. While young fish are typically inoculated against disease, older fish may need medication if, for example, higher than normal water temperatures provoke a bacterial outbreak.

The new feed line and the planned processing factory will enable Noordzee to expand at either end of the value addition chain giving rise to potentially profitable opportunities in the future.

Noordzee Soke, Aydin Turkey Tel.: +90 256 5121717 info@noordzee.com.tr noordzee.com.tr

Feed Factory Manager: Yahya Senturk Feed production: 80 tonnes (2017) Lines: 2 (2017) Employees: 38 (2017) Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands’ strong position in the European ďŹ sh business

A seafood hub of international signiďŹ cance The Netherlands is an important hub in the international ďŹ sh trade. One quarter of the raw materials that are processed or traded

by Dutch seafood companies come from the country’s own ďŹ shery. The major share – ďŹ sh and seafood worth about â‚Ź 2.2 billion – is imported. Only 20 per cent of the products produced in the Netherlands remain within the country. Most of them are exported, mainly to other European countries. The total value of Dutch seafood exports adds up to over â‚Ź 2.5 billion.

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he name “Netherlands� describes the country well (“nether� = lower in position). One quarter of the land area is below sea level. An elaborate system of dikes, dams and canals preserves and secures the territory that the Dutch have over the centuries wrested from the sea. The total length of the relatively small country’s North Sea coastline in the meantime measures 1,276 kilometers. No other European people has such great experience in the field of water management and engineering or is so adept at making good use of the maritime industries.

Dutch companies are active and successful throughout all areas of the industry – be it ports and shipbuilding, offshore technologies, ocean and inland navigation, fishing, aquaculture or fish processing. The fish industry has developed into an important hub in international fish trade, and the volume of fish traded exceeds by far that of the landings from Dutch fisheries and production from aquaculture. Because the industry relies heavily on crossborder trading it is constantly looking for new raw materials sources, attractive product ideas and worthwhile sales markets and is, in doing so, particularly innovative. The Dutch were, for example, among the first to

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bring African catfish, tilapia or pangasius to Europe.

Without its strong focus on the export sector the fish industry would never have reached its present size since the domestic market is comparatively small and does not generate high sales. With an annual per capita consumption of 23.6 kg of fish and seafood the average Dutch consumer is in the statistical midfield of all EU countries. However, Dutch consumers are very price-conscious and spent only ₏ 56 per person on fish in 2013 (excluding consumption outside the home), which according to Eumofa is about half of the EU-28 average of ₏ 107. As far as spending is concerned, Holland’s fish consumers are therefore in the bottom third of Europe.

With almost 17 million inhabitants this amounts to a total market valued at â‚Ź 945 million that are generated with fish and seafood products (figures from Eumofa for 2013). For comparison: sales in Germany in 2013 amounted to about â‚Ź 5.1 billion and in France to â‚Ź 8.5 billion.

Thanks to its focus on international seafood trade, however, the fish industry was able to develop into a prospering industrial sector, offering a total of 20,000 jobs according to the

The development of warm water RAS began with the rearing of eels in the 1980s. Over the years 4,800 tons were sometimes produced annually, but today the quantity fluctuates around 1,200 t.

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In the tropical shrimp re-export sector within the EU the Netherlands had a market share of 20% in recent years, on a level with Belgium and Spain.

industry’s own data. This figure is, however, four times higher than that named in EU data which show 1,773 FTE (full-time equivalent) in fishing, 250 FTE in aquaculture and 2,775 FTE in fish processing. Such deviations can hardly be explained by the share of seasonal and temporary work. Perhaps the Dutch data include peripheral areas such as suppliers to the fish industry and service providers. The figure of only 250 full-time jobs stated for the aquaculture sector also suggests that the EU data are too low. According to Dutch data, 275 people are already employed in shellfish and oyster farming.

Dutch fleet is well-organized and versatile and includes a wide range of vessel types for catching different species of fish, mainly in the North Sea (the demersal fleet) and the Northeast Atlantic (pelagic fleet). One part of the pelagic fishing fleet also operates in African waters and the South Pacific. In addition to modern, highly efficient fishing vessels that have been built in recent years there are also numerous

older vessel units which have been in operation for more than 30 years but have undergone modernization and technical retrofitting to maintain their seaworthiness. The most modern sector is the trawler sector. This area comprises four shipping companies which operate 14 oceangoing trawlers which catch pelagic species such as herring, mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting and sardinella. The fish are usually processed and frozen on board the freezer trawlers.

The cutter fleet with just over 400 ships offers a particularly diverse and colourful picture.

About 280 of these cutters use beam, electric or wing trawls to catch flatfish in the North Sea, mainly plaice and sole, or pink shrimp, but some also catch mackerel or sardines. The cutter fleet also includes about 70 boats that fish in the Ijsselmeer, and 60 specialized shellfish cutters. Under the EU‘s EMFF programme Dutch fisheries are involved in several projects

aimed at making the sector more sustainable, more profitable and more competitive. One focus here, for example, is the development fishing gear that is gentler on the fish and aims at avoiding by-catches or improving the fishes’ survival chances.

Some projects are also looking to find technical solutions to increase catch quality and traceability, for example through more precise sorting, weighing and registration of the various species of fish on board, or humane killing of fish as a contribution to animal welfare.

Shellfish cultures and fish farming in recirculating systems Compared to landings from fisheries, aquaculture (with a total annual production of no more than 60,000 tonnes) might seem to be of only subordinate importance. This impression is deceptive, however, because the aquaculture sector is technically and technologically relatively

Holland‘s fishing fleet is modern and efficient Although the landings from Dutch fishing vessels cover only a quarter of the country’s raw material requirements and account for less than 0.1 of the national GDP, fishing is the foundation of the fish industry’s economic success. There were 456 fishing enterprises in the country in 2013 but more than two-thirds (70) of them owned only one fishing vessel. In 2014, the fishing fleet landed a total of 369,886 tonnes of fish and seafood. The

One of the relatively new types of fish that are produced in recirculating systems is yellowtail (Seriola lalandi).

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stands out is the unusually high level of qualification among the employees working in the RAS sector. Many of them have studied aquaculture or graduated from one of the universities in the country, such as the University of Wageningen.

Seafood auctions ensure supplies to fish trade and the processing industry

Farming of African catfish was mainly pushed ahead in the Netherlands. During the best years annual production was over 6,000 t. It amounted to nearly 1,600 t. in 2014.

highly developed and produces on an internationally noteworthy level. Like everywhere else in the EU, however, the sector’s development is hampered by strict water and environmental laws.

Dutch aquaculture can be divided into two areas. In volume terms farming of blue mussels and oysters dominates with farms mainly concentrated in the Waddensee, the eastern Scheldt area and the saline Grevelingen Lake. Production volume amounted to 54,300 t mussels and 2,500 t oysters in 2014. Altogether 58 mussel farms were registered, and 19 of them also or exclusively farmed oysters. Both mussel and oyster producers mainly prefer bottom culture (a few companies use rope culture) based on natural seed. The annual shellfish volume thus depends heavily on the imponderables of nature which can lead to considerable fluctuations in production.

The second important aquaculture sector is fish production 52

which in the Netherlands is mainly carried out in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). The Dutch were and are among the pioneers in this demanding area throughout Europe and have developed or promoted breeding technologies for several species of fish such as the European eel, the African catfish and sole. The ups and downs of economic successes and setbacks mean that the number of farms and production output vary greatly, and the range of species farmed often changes from year to year. During the best years there are said to have been more than 60 farms in the country (one source even names 115 fish farms) using RAS for fish production. Today, there are still about just under 40 companies which mainly produce eels, Clarias catfish, zander, yellowtail mackerel and turbot.

The development of warm water RAS began in the 1980s with the rearing of eels which at that time

still generated lucrative profits.

In the boom phase there were 44 eel farms in the country producing 4,800 tonnes of eel annually.

(Current annual production is said to lie around 1,200 t). Clarias farming got off to a similarly successful start with 33 Clarias farms being registered in the country at various times which together produced 4,000 tonnes.

Almost always when new species of fish emerged which were said to be possible candidates for successful aquaculture projects the Dutch were one of the first to try it out. Examples are tilapia and barramundi, turbot and sole, vannamei shrimps, and of course recently also zander.

In the long term, however, only a few such enterprises prove economically successful. Most fish farms in the Netherlands are smaller family businesses employing a maximum of 5 people. According to current estimates hardly more than 150 people currently earn their livelihoods with fish farming. What

Eleven seafood auctions located in different regions of the country serve as important platforms for fish and seafood trade. They are mostly linked to landing facilities, e.g. ports or quays for regular supply with fresh marine fish. This means that the catch can be unloaded promptly for the auction and the fish can be sorted according to type, quality and size and temporarily stored.

All Dutch fish auctions are technically well-equipped and meet high requirements with regard to cooling, hygiene and efficient handling of the fish. Over the past few years several auctions have joined forces to form clusters and alliances to make them even more attractive to suppliers and buyers through a broader range of products. Examples of this are the United Fish Auctions or the international internet trading platform PEFA. The largest auction in the country, which in addition to fresh fish also offers frozen fish and fish products, is located in Zeehaven IJmuiden. Nearly a third of the Dutch fish landings are auctioned there. Equally wellknown is the fish auction Urk, which is said to be the world‘s largest flatfish auction, and the mussel auction in Yerseke, the world‘s only trading centre that is specialized in mussels. There are also several smaller auctions on the IJsselmeer coast where freshwater fish are traded.

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NETHERLANDS

High value adding through further processing Europe is the world’s largest seafood market and seafood importer.

Even if one ignores goods transshipment within the EU, the community’s seafood imports account for almost a quarter of the global market. After Spain and France the Netherlands is among the most important importing countries in Europe. Some of the fish products – products with a total value of just under one billion euro – are only transshipped in the country’s ports for immediate further trading. The much larger share serves as raw materials for the seafood processing industry, however, and is processed in a variety of ways to add value before being exported. The processing industry in the Netherlands is very modern and with regard to technology, efficiency, hygiene and food quality is leading across Europe. It is mainly flatfish and

herring that are further processed, but also shrimp, mussels and other shellfish. About 400 companies process and trade fish and seafood. The largest locations of this industry are Urk, IJmuiden, Yerseke, Katwijk, Spakenburg, Lemmer and Zoutkamp.

All in all, nearly 6,500 people are employed in the fish processing sector, about one fifth of them on a seasonal basis only. The demand for labour is strongly dependent on the availability of certain raw materials (such as herring) and varies according to the season. About a quarter of the companies focuses on processing flatfish, mainly plaice and sole, which are landed by the Dutch fishing fleet. An important and traditional area is herring processing which with matje herring produces one of the most famous Dutch fish products. Approximately 15 companies specialize in herring processing. They are located

in Katwijk, Scheveningen and Viaardingen, among others.

Measured on their wholesale value slightly more than half of the herring products remain on the domestic market, the remainder being exported. The example of herring, which now has to be imported mainly from Northern Europe, shows very clearly how strongly the Dutch processing industry depends on the import of the raw materials required even for traditional products. That is why the industry is constantly looking for new fish species that offer an attractive value-adding potential, and imports, for example, considerable quantities of tropical shrimp and pangasius. Approximately 40 of intra-EU trade with pangasius from Vietnam is realized through Dutch companies. In the tropical shrimp reexport sector within the EU the Netherlands has a market share of 20, on a level with Belgium and Spain.

For some years, individual aquaculture producers have also been experimenting with Seriola species.

However, the quantities produced are so small that the species hardly appears in the statistics.

The most important export markets are Holland’s direct neighbours The Netherlands is a major seafood importer, ranking sixth in Europe in 2014 with imports of 504,000 tonnes (up 12 compared to the previous year). In value terms imports were at ₏ 1.87 billion roughly equivalent to the value of Germany’ seafood imports which amounted to ₏ 1.97 billion. At the same time, however, the Netherlands is also a major export country and was ranked first in Europe in 2014 with an export volume of 514,000 tonnes (+ 37 compared to the previous year), well ahead of Spain (446,000 tonnes) and Denmark (276,000 tonnes).

The top five buyers of Dutch seafood products are Belgium and Luxembourg (18), Germany (17), France (13), Italy (13) and Spain (6). With regard to the most important products from a commercial point of view the list is led by shrimp, followed by pelagic fish species (herring, mackerel, horse mackerel), shellfish, sole and plaice. Within the EU the Netherlands is one of the big exporting countries for small pelagic species, accounting for 46 of the EU‘s total export volume in this product sector in 2014, corresponding to 391,000 tonnes of fish at a total value of 331 million euros. The main buyer countries for herring, mackerel and horse mackerel were Egypt and Nigeria.

Taking into account all fish species, product groups and export markets, however, the neighbouring countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France undoubtedly remain the most important trading partners for the Dutch fish industry. Approximately half of the exported Dutch seafood products are delivered to these four countries. mk Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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Pharma Marine

Cod liver oil for everyday kitchen use The feature in the last edition of the EuroďŹ sh Magazine (December 2016) on the Blue Legasea project in Ă…lesund, Norway, an undertaking that brings together companies interested in exploiting marine biomass to produce a range of sustainable, high-value, and healthful products, continues in this issue with brief proďŹ les on three companies, Pharma Marine, Rimfrost, and Vedde (Triple Nine Group).

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od liver oil! Generations of older people probably remember with horror the obligatory daily spoonful of this foul-tasting liquid – healthy or not. Pharma Marine, another company from the Legasea group, has taken up the cause of this ancient tradition, freed the cod liver oil of its unpleasant aromas and flavours, and thus moved a product classic that has belonged to Scandinavia since time immemorial into the present-day diet. Leif Kjetil Gjendemsjø, the founder and CEO of Pharma Marine, is convinced that his tasteless cod liver oil will soon be as selfevident in the kitchens and on the tables of modern, nutritionconscious consumers as the jug of olive oil. “Our CodMarine oils are extracted from cod livers in the best quality. The fish comes mainly from the stock in the Arctic Barents Sea and is fished exclusively for food as part of sustainable MSC-certified and environmentally friendly fishing.

This ensures optimum handling and outstanding quality�.

Scientific studies have proven dozens of times that the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are essential to life and contribute towards improving health and well-being. “With our CodMarine product line we can significantly improve the supply of these essential fatty acids,â€? says Gjendemsjø. “They enable consumers to meet their daily 54

requirements of EPA and DHA even if they don’t like fish or have no access to these valuable foods.� The nearly tasteless cod liver oil can, like any other edible oil, be used for salads, mayonnaises, marinades and other cold dishes. To make its use easier, Pharma Marine has developed a small series of products in which the cod liver oil is flavoured by adding herbs or virgin olive oil.

Mindor Klauset, a professional chef in Ă…lesund, has tested the product range and was surprised by the result: “The use of cod liver oil for salads and other cold food was totally new for me, but it actually works and, indeed, it works remarkably well. The neutral flavour of CodMarine-oil opens up new possibilities in the kitchen and also offers people who don’t like fish the chance to meet their omega-3 requirements in a simple and natural way."

Pharma Marine’s CodMarine line is the first Norwegian omega-3 concentrate to be certified by MSC. The company works with fishing vessels that operate in the Barents Sea and extract the oil from the livers of freshly caught cod at sea. Packed under exclusion of oxygen in airtight barrels it is taken to the modern and environmentally friendly production facility Søvik on the west coast of Norway, cleaned, further processed and packaged in different ways.

CEO Leif Kjetil Gjendemsjø. The CodMarine products enable consumers to meet their daily requirements of EPA and DHA.

Pharma Marine has developed a whole series of products in which the cod liver oil is “flavoured“ by adding herbs or virgin olive oil.

Leif Kjetil Gjendemsjø hopes his innovative omega-3 products, which pick up on the rich traditions of Norway in this area, will improve many people’s quality of life. “CodMarine is the

brand name for cod liver oil products but beyond that we have the CalaMarine brand for squid oil and LipidMarine for other fish oils as well as a range of other healthy products�.

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Rimfrost

Top quality krill oil for heath products

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mega-3 fatty acids are not only to be found in fish oil but also in the body fat of a large number of crustacean species. Antarctic krill, a group of small shrimp species that measure only a few centimetres in length, plays a particularly important role here.

They inhabit the marine regions around the South Pole in almost inconceivable quantities (estimates range from stock biomasses of between 125 and 700 million tonnes.) Rimfrost from FosnavĂĽg, a member of the internationally operating Olympic Group, uses these resources for the production of natural extracts of Antarctic krill.

The company operates a fishing vessel that is specially equipped to meet the requirements of krill fishing and the difficult climatic conditions of Antarctic waters. On board the “Juvel� the tiny crustaceans are processed to krill meal. Because the tiny animals spoil quickly the fishermen only catch that amount of krill that can be processed very quickly. Research Director Inge Bruheim describes the gentle process which takes place at low temperatures using enzymes: “The catch-fresh krill are hydrolysed immediately using enzymes and afterwards the shells are removed using a centrifuge. They contain fluorine in high concentrations which after the animal’s death passes into the muscles making the flesh inedible.� Afterwards the remains are pasteurised which also deactivates the enzymes, removes excess water and then the krill meat mash is vacuum dried at low temperatures. Packed under

Research Director Inge Bruheim and Vice President Ole Arne Eiksund. The positive effects of krill oil on the heart and brain functions, liver and fat metabolism and visual abilities have been adequately proven in clinical tests.

protective atmosphere the krill meal is reliably protected from oxidation. Every individual work stage is documented, the whole process can be traced back to the start. “We produce about one tonne of krill meal from five tonnes of fresh krill“, says Bruheim. “The fishery is sustainable, as confirmed by MSC and Friend of the Sea (FoS).�

Later on, krill oil is extracted from the krill meal. This process takes place on land in factories in North Carolina (USA) and New Zealand.

Krill oil consists of one quarter of omega-3 phospholipids and is also rich in cholin and astaxantine. It is better absorbed by the body than fish oil, and the fatty acids are, according to Rimfrost, intact and effective, something which has been confirmed in studies conducted by the Technical

University of Denmark, Oslo and Bergen Universities and Wollongong University in Australia. Krill oil from Rimfrost generally gets higher scores in tests than other krill oils. Ole Arne Eiksund who, as vice president of the company, is responsible for worldwide marketing puts this down mainly to the gentle processing of the fresh krill on board the Juvel. “A lot of companies are put off by the higher cost of processing at sea and use frozen raw materials. But then it is hardly to be avoided that part of the raw material oxidizes and loses quality.� The differences were already visible in the colour of the oils, says Ole Arne Eiksund. “A dark brown coloured krill oil is always a sign of advanced oxidation. In contrast, krill oil from Rimfrost has a light ruby red colouring which indicates top quality.� That has its price,

however, and the krill oil capsules from Rimfrost cost at least twice as much as fish oil with similarly high EPA and DHA concentrations.

Ole Arne Eiksund believes the high price is justifiable because krill oil was much more than a conventional omega-3 preparation: “It is a natural multi nutrient concentrate that contains 60 phospholipids and 250 mg EPA and DHA per soft gel capsule. Apart from that, the oil is rich in astaxantine which acts as a natural antioxidant.â€? This composition made krill oil extremely attractive for health-conscious consumers and the claimed effects were confirmed and in accordance with the health claims permitted by the EU. At “Vitafood 2016â€? in Geneva Rimfrost received a lot of attention and acknowledgement for its ultra-high krill oil capsules.

Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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Vedde (Triple Nine Group)

Increased use of ďŹ sh oil for human consumption

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edde AS produces fishmeal and fish oil of optimum quality. It is marketed, mainly to European buyers, by Nordsildmel AS. Since 2013 Vedde has been a member of the TripleNine Group, Europe’s largest producer of fishmeal and fish oil. Total production volume (including the group’s production facilities in Africa and South America) amounts to up to 80,000 t fishmeal and 40,000 t fish oil per year. Vedde alone processes over 100,000 t raw fish per year (about one quarter of it trimmings from the filleting industry) and produces from it 25,000 t fishmeal and 4,500 t fish oil. The main customers are feed producers that serve the aquaculture and agriculture industries.

Founded in 1884 as a herring oil factory, Vedde today operates one of the most efficient and modern fishmeal factories in Europe. Modernisation measures and conversions have made production more energy-saving and environmentally friendly.

Ola Flesland, the Research and Development Director at Vedde, has calculated that the energy saving measures have led to savings of nearly 15 million kWh per year. Apart from that, the company’s fishmeal production has been very sustainable because they only accept slaughter wastes and certified raw materials. In Norway Vedde cooperates with about 80 fishing vessels that

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fish in accordance with MSC standards or fulfil the Responsible Fishing criteria of the international fishmeal association IFFO. The growth in world population (according to OECD and FAO more than 9 billion people are expected to live on the earth in 2050) and the global economy as well as the increase in the affluent middle class are increasing demand for animal protein. That is why Ola Flesland sees excellent development potential for Vedde and TripleNine in the medium and long term. “The future outlook in the three market segments aquaculture, agriculture and pet food, where the core competences of the companies in the TripleNine Group lie, are really very promising. In spite of this we are working hard on finding new application fields for highquality fishmeal and fish oil and have thus joined the Legasea Project.� The strategic focus within the group lay strongly on research and development with the aim to achieve more value adding within the product range.

The positive effects of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA in fish oil are particularly well documented. They help prevent high blood pressure, diabetes and circulatory problems. Fish oil capsules and other food supplements for human use are a growing market in which Vedde

Ola Flesland, R&D Manager Vedde AS. Not only EPA and DHA have positive effects in fish oil but also LC-Mufa.

and TriĂśleNine want to share.

The company group presented a fish oil “Nordic Silverâ€? in a quality that is suitable for use in food at Vita Foods Europe in 2014. New cooling systems at the Vedde operation are said to keep the freshness of marine by-products at food grade level for longer. TripleNine already has a production facility in Thyborøn (Denmark) for the production of fish oil for human consumption. The Danish food authorities approved the

final product in October 2013. Ola Flesland is convinced that it is not only EPA and DHA that have positive effects in fish oil. “Fish oil from the North Atlantic also has high concentrations of LC-mufa (long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids). These stimulate in salmon the conversion of vegetable fatty acids to EPA and DHA which is becoming more and more important due to the increased use of agricultural raw materials for feed.

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[ PROCESSING ] Metal detection in the food industry

Product inspection as part of HACCP concepts Food must be free from metal contaminants and other foreign bodies that could harm consumers. All food producers are liable for their products and must carry out rigorous inspections to ensure that no risks arise from them. This responsibility results in an ongoing challenge for the producers because metallic impurities often enter the products during machine processing or packaging.

T

he food we eat must be safe, free from hazardous foreign bodies, and pose no risks. These basic requirements, which in most countries are required by law, must be met by all companies involved in the food industry. Anyone wanting to offer their fish products on the market thus has to comply

with requirements such as those defined in Directive 21CFR Part 11 of the Food and Drug Administration of the USA (FDA). The number of inspections, tests, laboratory analyses and certificates required of food manufacturers to market their products has grown greater and greater over time. Some of the necessary

controls are concerned only with the finished products, others have to be carried out continuously during the ongoing production process. Testing for metallic impurities is a particularly frequent necessity. Food producers employ highly sensitive metal detectors to detect such impurities so that they can remove the

products that contain them from the production chain.

In doing so, they meet statutory requirements and prevent potential risks to consumers. At the same time, however, they are also protecting their processing machines from possible damage which could result from

Today there are numerous possible applications and installations available that make metal detection both fast and precise. Pictured is the Marel MCheck 2 Checkweigher system with a metal detector on the right.

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[ PROCESSING ] targeted sabotage. In the fish processing sector hooks that have been left in the fish are often to be found. Metal particles can thus already be contained in the raw material deliveries or they can enter the product later on during the production process. Even if they cause no harm to consumers the consequences are often serious and costly because recall actions damage a brand’s image and reduce trust in the products concerned. If metal fragments damage the processing machines in any way repairs can be very time-consuming, and the search for the source of contamination often results in production losses.

A lot of fish processors do not only use a metal detector at the end of the production chain but install several such devices at various points along the processing line right from the start when the raw materials arrive so as to be able to detect and effectively remove any defective material wherever it occurs.

This x-ray machine can be used to automatically inspect and detect foreign objects in food including metal.

undetected metallic foreign bodies. Metal detectors are an integral part of companies’ HACCP concepts and are often regarded as an essential prerequisite for successful certification, e.g. according to IFS, ISO or BRC standards. European Directive 93/43/EC, which obliges European food producers to establish effective control systems for food hygiene based on HACCP systems, does not explicitly stipulate the use of metal detectors. However, this is not necessary since the HACCP principles themselves already specify effective control of the possible physical risks. According to HACCP hazard analysis, all sensitive areas within the production 58

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chain that could present physical, chemical or biological hazards are considered „critical control points“ (CCPs) that must be monitored on an ongoing basis.

Possible physical hazards include not only bits of broken glass, tiny stones or splinters of bone, but above all product impurities caused by metallic particles.

Metallic impurities can enter foods in various ways, for example due to abrasion of moving parts or broken machine parts, especially of the knives and cutting tools used. Metal fragments can enter the process chain during maintenance work or as a result of carelessness of employees or

Growing spectrum of metal detectors Modern metal detectors are able to detect a variety of different metallic contaminants, both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, aluminum, and even stainless steel.

The detection method uses the contaminants’ magnetic properties or their electrical conductivity. Ferrous contaminants are both magnetic and conductive, non-ferrous contaminants are not magnetic but they are good conductors, so both groups are relatively easy to detect. Stainless steel, however, is available in various qualities, many of which are non-magnetic or are poor electrical conductors and so difficult to detect. The ability to detect stainless steel is also hindered if the products are wet or have a high salt content, something which is

often the case during fish processing. In addition to salt and water, normal detectors also respond to an increased sugar or mineral content in a product which in this context is then sometimes termed “product effects�. In order to eliminate such effects without sacrificing the detector’s sensitivity special metal detectors are required which are equipped with multicoil systems and evaluation electronics. Electric smog or strong vibrations at the installation site can also reduce a detector’s sensitivity.

Not every metal detector is therefore suitable for every application. A number of features and characteristics must be taken into account when selecting them.

For one thing it is necessary that the sensors are adapted to the size of the products and their expected metallic contaminants.

Large detectors are usually less sensitive when used with relatively small products or cost considerably more when fitted with accordingly higher sensitivity. But not only the size of the detector is important: the temperature at the installation site, the degree of protection of the sensor and the material it is made of also play an important role. Hygiene standards are high in the food sector and this means that appliances have to be made of stainless steel or food-grade plastics.

The range of available accessories and optional equipment should also be considered, for example, if the detectors are to be integrated into a processing line or a company’s data networks. Irrespective of the material throughput, the size and condition of individual products, it must be guaranteed that all metal particles are reliably detected and removed from the processing chain. The detection limits are based on the latest state of the art and are defined,

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Metal detectors are used particularly frequently on conveyor belts. They usually surround the conveyor belt in the form of a frame through whose opening the products for inspection have to pass.

for example, by GMP standards (Good Manufacturing Practice).

Frequent checks at different points of the production process are important in order to prevent a metallic impurity from being increasingly fragmented during processing so that it is no longer reliably detected during final inspection.

Metal detectors are used particularly frequently on conveyor belts. They usually surround the conveyor belt in the form of a frame through whose opening the products for inspection have to pass. These units always include a mechanism that selectively removes metal-contaminated parts from the belt. There are various options for achieving this, for example using pushers or air blast rejection which directs an air jet precisely at the undesired

product. Metal detectors are also used in downpipes, through which loose or powdery materials pass.

To detect metal particles in liquid or paste-like products such as sauces or dips so-called inline systems are used. Here the impurities are removed by means of separating filters or special 3-way valves.

Detection sensitivity has increased significantly Today there are numerous possible applications and installations available that make metal detection both fast and precise.

Although there are different types of metal detectors most of those used in the fish industry are based on the transmitterreceiver principle (“balanced coil system�) which has been known for a long time but has only been used for metal detection for just

over 60 years. These detectors are based on sensors with one or more coils and operate according to an inductive measuring principle. They are usually equipped with one transmitter and two receiver coils. The transmitter coil generates a permanent, high-frequency electromagnetic alternating field, comparable to that of a radio transmitter. The two receiver coils are usually arranged in front of and behind the transmitter coil. When a metal part passes the detector the magnetic field is changed, and this is registered by the receiver coils. The reaction depends on the conductive and magnetic properties of the detected metal.

The field lines can, for example, be deflected and altered in shape, or the field strength can be slightly attenuated. Sometimes the signal in the receiver coil is

hardly more than a fraction of a volt. Nevertheless, these effects are registered by the sensitive electronics, electronically amplified and digitally processed in such a way that the intended allor-nothing reaction takes place.

In the end, this corresponds to the decision whether the product remains in the process or is eliminated from the belt.

Another detection technology, which is only suitable for detecting ferrous metals, however, is based on magnetic field systems. When a metal-contaminated product passes through the tunnel of the sensor, all the iron-containing particles are magnetized by the generated magnetic field. During their further passage they subsequently induce a weak current pulse in the subsequent coils of the detector, and this is amplified by the Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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[ PROCESSING ] measuring electronics and serves as a trigger for the output signal of the sensor. Here again, the decision is always plus or minus: the product remains within the process or is removed.

As might be expected, there have been considerable technical advances, particularly in the field of electronics, which have significantly improved the performance, sensitivity and reliability of metal detectors in recent years. Nevertheless, the performance of these systems has certain limits which must be taken into account to ensure detection accuracy. These include, for example, product effects resulting from substances with dielectric or electrical conductivity properties which can produce effects similar to metal particles. Detection ability is also influenced by the size ratio between the opening width of the detector tunnel and the product dimensions. The smaller a product and the larger the tunnel, the less certain is the detection of metal particles. In general, the sensitivity of the detectors is inversely proportional to their size. In order to be sure, therefore, their accuracy must always be checked at the geometric centre of the tunnel opening, the least sensitive position.

Qualified staff needed for care and maintenance To ensure the functioning of the sensitive systems, metal detectors must be serviced by

professionally qualified staff – not only in the event of a disturbance in work routines, but also on a regular basis within the framework of a maintenance programme as a means of problem prevention. Drilling, welding and soldering work on the sensors must be avoided as well as provisional repairs, for example using wire, additional screw connections or adhesive strips.

Nuts, screws, and washers that are required during repair work on the detector must be stored in labelled containers. Abrasive dust and other metallic residues should never be blown off with compressed air but must be removed immediately, completely and safely. Regular inspections which, depending on product throughput and risk of hazards, often have to be carried out and protocolled several times per day, also include checks on the cutting tools and fixtures, sieves and metal conveyor belts for breakage, excessive wear or visible splintering.

The company’s cleaning and disinfecting staff should also be made aware of the peculiarities of metal detection and its susceptibilities.

Before production is resumed after repair, maintenance or cleaning work has been carried out it is necessary to check the correct functioning of the metal detector. However, such controls should also be carried out during the ongoing production process, at the beginning and the end of the day‘s production, at change

of shift, or in the case of new products or product batches.

The shorter the interval between controls is, the smaller are the product quantities which have to be rechecked or even recalled if the control system fails. Most manufacturers of metal detectors also offer test specimens made of different materials in various shapes and sizes which can be used to determine the correct functioning of the sensor or to identify any possible reduction in performance. Usually, these are spherical or stripshaped structures which are passed through the detector in a product dummy. If the foreign body is detected, the test is considered passed.

In standard detection practice it is usually sufficient to carry out one test per test specimen and position. However, if the sensitivity of the system is to be tested, e.g. for a BRC certification (“verification tests�), several tests are necessary. This is usually done according to the “worst case scenario� and so the tests will be carried out under conditions that place the highest demands on the metal detector. In this case test specimens will be used that are particularly difficult to identify, or the products will be placed at locations where the detector is most insensitive, or several contaminated products will be sent through the sensor directly one after the other.

Only if, in spite of these harsh conditions, all test objects are recognized and cleared from the

belt or alarm signals are triggered is the detector suitable for the intended application in practice.

As in the case of foods contaminated with metal the test products containing the test specimens must not, of course, enter the supply chain or the market. This is why they are usually marked with distinct colours which will be noticed at the very latest when the products are packed. And it is no less important to ensure that the metal-contaminated products which are removed from the ongoing production process by the automatic sorting mechanism are correctly dealt with. In order to prevent an employee from accidentally putting them back on the belt they, too, must be clearly marked (e.g. with a warning label) and stored separately.

All companies – not only those that work according to HACCP, ISO 9000 or BRC standards – should document their package of metal monitoring measures completely and in writing. Above all they should keep records of the detector’s standard function, the performed tests as well as the set test parameters. This documentation is useful not only in the context of product liability but also gives the producers the desired security and simplifies procedures during possible recall actions. Many manufacturers of metal detectors now equip their devices with data interfaces which enable integration into company management systems or connection to protocol printers.

"Advertising in EUROFISH MAGAZINE enables us to reach many more potential exhibitors and visitors to POLFISH (International Fair for Seafood Processing and Products). Our long lasting relationship with Eurofish, helps us to promote POLFISH widely at fish shows as well as directly to individual companies." ´ International Fair Co., Poland Monika Pain, POLFISH Project Director, Gdansk Contact EUROFISH on +45 33377763 or info@eurofish.dk to learn how we can help you effectively reach your audience.

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EUROFISH

Copenhagen

GLOBEFISH Rome

INFOSAMAK

INFOPECHE Abidjan

Montevideo

INFOYU

Beijing

Casablanca

INFOPESCA

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INFOFISH Puchong

FISH INFONETWORK NEWS

News

2017 promises to be a busy year for EuroďŹ sh Eurofish held the 16th session of its annual Governing Council on 26 and 27 January 2017. The event brought together 27 representatives from 18 European countries including from all the Eurofish member countries (Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Turkey). Representatives, who are typically from their respective ministries of agriculture, were joined by observers from embassies and partner organisations, the FAO, and the Baltic Sea Advisory Council (BSAC).

Eurofish invites the observers to inform them about the organisation and the benefits it offers to its members, as well as to identify and discuss potential areas of cooperation. The group discussed the organisation’s activities in 2016 and approved the draft work programme for 2017 after including some additional activities that Eurofish will carry out for the benefit of its member countries. The second day of the session was devoted to routine

administrative and financial matters. Representatives also voted unanimously to appoint Aina Afanasjeva as director for another three-year term.

The official work of the Governing Council was interspersed with three presentations. The representative from Romania summarised the outcomes of a meeting on Black Sea fisheries and aquaculture held in October 2016 in Bucharest to highlight the importance of and encourage greater collaboration between the Black Sea riparian countries.

From Eurofish, Ekaterina Tribilustova presented the results of a Europe-wide study on consumption trends among fisheries and aquaculture products, while the FAO representative in her intervention described measures to ensure the sustainability of seafood including the FAO Port State Measures Agreement, voluntary certification schemes, and import regulations to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud.

The Eurofish Governing Council reviewed the work done by the organisation in 2016 and approved the programme of work for 2017.

]

InfoďŹ sh co-organises tuna event in Papua New Guinea The Western and Central Pacific Ocean contributes almost 60 of the global catch of tuna species and is thus an area critical to the health and well-being of the industry. The biannual Pacific Tuna Forum, an event focused on developments in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, is co-organised by a number of local and regional organisations including Infofish, and is supported by Globefish. This year the forum will be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on 13-14 September 2017. The conference

theme is sustainable tuna management and how it can contribute to environmental, economic, and social benefits, and there will be sessions on resources, investments, and markets among others. Speakers will also discuss the scope for financing tuna-related projects in the Pacific region, and presentations are also expected to cover technology and equipment for the industry. This is the sixth edition of this regional event and promises to be a useful meeting for all those involved in the tuna business.

Publications

Understanding the nutritional requirements of ďŹ sh Eurofish has recently translated into English a book on fish nutrition written by a team of experts from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The book starts with the morphology and physiology of the digestive system of fish before describing nutrients, their digestion and absorption. Chapters are devoted to the analysis of feeds and the principles of energy exchange. The links between nutrition and health are explored and there are individual chapters on warmwater fish, rainbow trout, and marine fish. This encyclopaedic volume runs to over 550 richly illustrated pages including a glossary, with the final chapter providing an overview of fish feed production technology. The authors show that successful farming of fish is founded on feeding with adequate feeds and balanced feed mixtures, and knowledge about the digestive system facilitates the selection of feed and the

FISH NUTRITION

[

Fish Nutrition is a comprehensive work on feeds and feeding for adult and juvenile fish. It can be used as a reference for fish farmers or as a text book at high school or university level.

preparation of feed mixes. The English edition of the book is only in the form of a pdf file and discussion are ongoing about whether to print it electronically.

For more information about the book please contact Eurofish at info@eurofish.dk.

Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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The Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Denmark

Russia’s aquaculture sector poised to grow rapidly Russia is among the biggest producers of fish in the world (FAO, 2014) catching millions of tonnes from its main fishing grounds in the Northwest Pacific and in the Northeast Atlantic. The abundant fish resources enable Russia to meet over 80% of its domestic requirement for fish and seafood. However, the contribution from domestic aquaculture production to the total supply is relatively modest, something the government is committed to changing by taking measures that will, among others, make it easier to import technology, eggs, and fry. Denmark has established a name for itself in the aquaculture sector and Tatiana Volozhinskaya, the Russian Trade Representative in Copenhagen, is working to foster the trade between the two countries.

Please describe the mission of the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Denmark.

What are the main industrial sectors in which it is involved and how important is fish and seafood in the representation’s work? What are Russia’s main interests in Denmark?

Russia maintains 55 trade representations in countries around the world, in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. The aim of these offices is to develop mutually beneficial trade and business links between these countries and Russia. The Denmark office has existed since 1946, a time when all trade was conducted by the state.

Today, of course, it is mainly the private sector. Our main priority is supporting Russian producers to export to Denmark, but we also seek to attract investments and new technologies to Russia.

At a more practical level we assist Danish and Russian companies in dealing with authorities in both countries to try and remove irritants and ensure the cooperation is smooth and well-functioning.

Twice a year we organise seminars, where we invite Danish companies and inform them about the current situation in Russia. The 62

Tatiana Volozhinskaya, the Russian Trade Representative in Copenhagen, hopes to attract Danish expertise in the aquaculture sector to boost farmed fish production in Russia.

seminars focus on different areas, for example, agriculture, industrial production etc. We prepare presentations about the economic perspectives in Russia, and, for example, about establishing production there. As speakers we often invite representatives from Danish companies that work in Russia, and we always try to invite a representative from the Danish embassy in Moscow to make a

presentation. In the past we have had the Danish ambassador to Moscow, the Danish consul from St. Petersburg, and the Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri) representative in Russia, so there is always a speaker to represent the Danish view in Russia.

We see that despite the political issues there is a demand for these events and information exchanges and that companies are interested

in learning about opportunities in Russia. Danish companies can always come to us to talk about setting up production, business conditions, tax preferences and other benefits that they can avail of as investors in Russia.

What are the areas that Denmark can contribute to specifically?

Where does the representation see Denmark’s strengths

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Efforts to promote the consumption of fish include the organisation of events like this one, a fish festival held in Moscow a couple of years ago, to create interest and awareness among consumers, and to encourage supply.

in particular? For example, as a source of investment, knowhow, or something else altogether.

The Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Denmark is responsible for developing trade relations between Russia and Denmark and the Danish expertise in aquaculture, particularly recirculation systems, and in fish processing equipment is particularly interesting. Recirculation systems have an important role to play in the sustainable development of aquaculture and this is an area that we want to promote in Russia. Companies from Russia have attended DanFish / DanAqua exhibition to gather more information and to initiate discussions with potential Danish partners. In Russia, we are trying to encourage companies to come and establish

production facilities by offering legislative and financial incentives. The latter include removing the import duty on equipment, fish eggs, and fingerlings, and allocating RUB350m (EUR5.5m) in support of investments in the aquaculture. In addition, fish farming companies will be exempted from property tax, the tax on profits (except dividends), and VAT (except on imports).

Instead they pay a 6 agricultural tax. Moreover, the national strategic plan for the development of aquaculture seeks to double output to 320,000 tonnes by 2020 and to achieve this goal a sum of RUB92.5bn has been budgeted. These funds will be used to finance research in aquaculture, to develop infrastructure, and to assist companies with concessional terms of credit. Since the national strategic plan started in

2013 we have already achieved some results. For example, at a recent meeting between the prime minister and the head of the federal fisheries agency it was noted that in two regions, Murmansk and Karelia, farmed production has risen 40 during the first nine months of 2016.

There are over 160 Danish companies in different industrial sectors active in Russia, of which more than 30 have production facilities. In the fisheries and aquaculture sector the relationship between the two countries has so far been based on trade – there are currently no Danish fish farmers with production in Russia. Foreign companies may own farmed fish production or processing factories in Russia, but may not be involved in the country’s

catching sector, unless they register a Russian subsidiary.

What are some of the characteristics of aquaculture in Russia?

Is production spread across the country?

Fish farming activities are not evenly spread across the country because weather conditions in some parts are unfavourable with very high temperatures in summer and very low temperatures in winter. Farming is found mainly in the central federal region, the southern region, and those areas where natural water resources for aquaculture are abundant. The central Russian region has a lot of fresh water in the form of rivers, ponds, lakes, and has all the necessary resources and infrastructure for a successful aquaculture industry. In addition, this is the Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017

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most populous of all the Russian regions, so there is a ready market for farmed fish production.

The Arctic is an area of cooperation between the Arctic States, of which Russia is one, and indigenous communities. How does the representation see this cooperation developing? What are the Russian Federation’s priorities in the Arctic with respect to marine activities?

Russia has a long northern border and is part of the Arctic council, through which it cooperates with the other members on issues of mutual importance in the Arctic. These include fisheries and maritime activities, where Russia contributes to mutually beneficial cooperation in the Arctic. For example, Russia, with its atomic icebreakers, has the capacity to open the northern sea route that will reduce transportation costs for companies, and allow the movement of fish in winter. Russia also participates in fishery quota negotiations and in scientific research to maintain the sustainability of resources in the region.

Some fisheries in Russia have already been certified to the Marine Stewardship Council sustainability standard. Are more fisheries expected to apply for this certification? Is it something that is also recognised on the domestic market or are there local equivalents of such standards? Are Russian consumers, supermarkets, or NGOs pressing for greater sustainability in fisheries?

In many countries the Marine Stewardship Council is wellknown, but this is not the case in Russia. Russia has several scientific institutions in each coastal

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region, and their research contributes to keeping catches sustainable. These institutions and control organs exist both in the eastern part and the northern part of the country and they are responsible for controlling the bio-resources in the region and monitoring by satellite vessels’ fishing activities. They also track that vessels do not exceed the quotas, and that the resources are exploited sustainably. The main capture species are herring, cod, Alaska pollock, plaice, while farming is focused on salmon, sturgeon, trout, carp, pike-perch. Some companies are very concerned about the sustainability of seafood resources. An international fast food chain buys fish that is completely traceable and monitor that it meets the sustainability requirements they set. Other companies have simpler systems, but the government attention to aquaculture shows that it pays a lot of attention to sustainability.

How would you describe the market for fish and seafood in Russia? How has the Russian trade embargo impacted the market and what steps are being taken to mitigate the effect on companies and individuals?

The sanctions and countersanctions have led to both negative and positive developments in the Russian seafood sector. Western sanctions against Russia that were imposed more than two years ago, limit investments and high tech imports into Russia. In response, Russian counter sanctions limit the import of foods including fish products from those countries that have supported the sanctions against Russia. As a result, the import of seafood from the EU has fallen drastically, while it has increased dramatically from countries that

are outside the EU and that have not supported the sanctions, such as, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and countries in Latin America.

Companies that have production in Russia have benefited, because they are not affected by sanctions.

The sanctions led us to conclude that we had to develop our own aquaculture production.

In the past, we had a mutually beneficial trade so we did not have the incentive to develop our aquaculture industry. Developing our aquaculture production was a positive outcome of a negative situation. The national strategic plan for the development of fisheries and aquaculture was introduced before the sanctions, but it received much more attention and the need to finance it was really recognised only when the situation, where we had to provide fish for the population because of the sanctions, arose.

Before the sanctions, Russia was 80 self-sufficient in fish supply, and since the sanctions this may have increased to 83.

But the problem is that we are not ready to manage using only our resources. Russia is a big country and the main volume of wild fish is caught in the Far East or the northern seas, yet people everywhere eat fish not just those that live close to the coast. To maintain the supply of fish we have to develop efficient ways of transporting it from the place of production to the final consumer so that he or she can purchase fresh fish.

What can you say about fish and seafood consumption in the Russian Federation? Are there significant regional disparities?

What trends can be observed in consumer preferences in terms

of species and products, consumption at home, and outside the home?

Average fish and seafood consumption per year is around 14 kg per capita. In Soviet times, 25 years ago, consumption was 21 kg. The national strategic plan aims to increase consumption, though perhaps not to 21 kg in the first instance. One of the directions of government support is to provide consumers with the possibility to buy fresh and high quality fish. Currently, the main consumption is frozen fish as it is the only way fish can be transported from where it is caught and processed to where it is consumed. The development of aquaculture will enable the supply of fresh salmon and freshwater fish to the final consumer.

The consumption figure of 14 kg per capita is the average of all the regions. It is naturally higher in the coastal regions than in the central part.

Finally, what about your personal preferences with regards to fish and seafood?

Do you eat the recommended two to three portions a week?

What are your favourite types of seafood and how do you like to prepare them?

My fish preferences are not different from other people’s. I prefer fresh fish as the quality of frozen fish is sometimes not very high. When in Russia I live in Moscow and because of the higher living standards here fresh fish is readily available.

However, this is not the case throughout Russia and I hope that with the national strategic plan it will become easier to purchase fresh fish also in remote parts of the country.

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DIARY DATES 8-11 May 2017 TuttoFood Milan, Italy Tel.: +39 02 4997 6239 info@tuttofood.it www.tuttofood.it 14-16 September 2017 Russian Fisheries Forum Moscow, Russia +7 906 731 92 79 reklama@rusfishexpo.com www.rusfishexpo.ru

7-9 March 2017 North Atlantic Seafood Forum Bergen, Norway Tel.: +47 22 87 87 00 www.nor-seafood.com 7-9 June 2017 POLFISH Gdan´sk, Poland Tel.: +48 58 5549 362 monika.pain@mtgsa.com.pl www.polfishfair.pl

19-21 March 2017 Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America Boston, USA Tel.: +1 207 842 5504 customerservice@divcom.com www.seafoodexpo.com/north-america

29 March – 1 April Seafood Istanbul Istanbul, Turkey Tel.: +90 212 465 74 76 Ext: 2370 ahmet.sucakli@cnr.net www.cnrseafoodistanbul.com

27-30 June 2017 World Aquaculture 2017 Cape Town, South Africa www.was.org

15-18 August 2017 Aqua Nor Trondheim, Norway Tel.: +47 73 56 86 40 mailbox@nor-fishing.no www.aqua-nor.no

24 April 2017 6th European Tuna Conference Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +31 6 30 33 02 08 support@europeantunaconference.com www.europeantunaconference.com

25-27 April 2017 Seafood Expo Global / Seafood Processing Global Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +1 207 842 55 04 customerservice@divcom.com www.seafoodexpo.com

3-5 October 2017 Conxemar Vigo, Spain Tel.: +34 986 433 351 Fax: +34 986 221 174 conxemar@conxemar.com www.conxemar.com

11-13 October 2017 DanFish/DanAqua International Aalborg, Denmark Tel.: +45 9935 5555 info@akkc.dk www.danfish.com

17-20 October 2017 Aquaculture Europe Dubrovnik, Croatia mario@marevent.com www.marevent.com

13-15 September 2017 Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition Kopavogur, Iceland Tel.: +44 1329 825335 icefish@icefish.is www.icefish.is

9 November 2017 International Cold Water Prawn Forum Reykjavik, Iceland Tel.: +45 4079 1011 icwpf@gemba.dk http://icwpf.com/

A d d y o u r e v e n t t o w w w. E u r o f i s h M a g a z i n e . c o m

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EUROFISH International Organisation H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark

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