Eurofish magazine 5 14

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ISSN 1868-5943

October 5 / 2014 C 44346

October 5 / 2014 Eurofish Magazine

Regional Conference Bari, Italy, 9-11 December 2014

Blue Growth in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea:

Presidenza Italiana del Consiglio dell’Unione Europea

www.aquaculture2014.org

italia2014.eu

Cautious optimism after fifteen months of EU membership EUROFISH International Organisation

Developing sustainable aquaculture for food security

Croatia Aquaculture: Growing interest for fish farming in Ukraine Superchilling: Longer shelflife, better texture Trade: Impact of Russian ban on seafood imports is a member of the FISH INFO network

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In this issue

Croatia starts to enjoy the benefits of EU membership Since joining the European Union in July last year Croatia has had to adapt to the demands of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy, which came into force on 1 January 2014, take the administrative steps necessary to benefit from the European Fisheries Fund as it wound up, and prepare for the new 20142020 programming period. While accession has placed new demands on the administration, for industry it has in fact meant less red tape. Goods flow quicker and with less paperwork across national borders allowing export deliveries to arrive faster at their destinations. This benefits all stakeholders within the industry – fishermen, marine farmers, freshwater farmers and processors. Access to the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) that goes with EU membership will also bring advantages as inefficient fishing vessels can be scrapped and others equipped to handle fish better ultimately adding greater value to the catch. There are potential advantages for the aquaculture industry too as the EMFF will support the development of the sector. Fishermen’s cooperatives are expected to form Producer Organisations once the members accept that they can work profitably together. Read more on page 32 ComFish: The ComFish project discussed some of the problems facing fisheries in the Mediterranean at a recent meeting. ComFish, an EU-funded project, was established to find ways of improving communications between the scientific establishment and other stakeholders in the fisheries sector. The Rome meeting brought participants together from around the Mediterranean to discuss how to put an ecosystem approach to fisheries management into practice, a form of fisheries management considered suited to the specificities of fisheries in the Mediterranean. Among the conclusions from the meeting was that knowledge generated should be disseminated better between stakeholders if the ecosystem approach is to work. Read more on page 16 Deep sea trawling: Bottom trawling has been reviled as a method of fishing that is hugely destructive of the seabed and the life it supports. Graphic reports and images of bottom trawling provoke strong responses, but what is missing from the debate is data that can actually throw light on the impact of trawling both in the short and long term. While bottom trawling can indeed destroy sensitive environments, there are also areas where its impact is benign and may even be beneficial. Read more on this controversial topic from page 18 China: The combination of rice cultivation and aquaculture has been practiced for centuries across Asia. Today China is the country with the largest acreage under this form of polyculture, which apart from yielding a harvest of both cereal and animal protein and thereby augmenting the farmer’s income, also has significant environmental benefits. While fish is still the most commonly farmed product in rice paddies, farmers are also growing higher value species like prawns and crabs. The industry has a lot of potential across Asia but it must also deal with challenges in the form of the lack of availability of seeds, feed, and capital as well as natural factors such as weather, predation, and a shortage of fresh water. Read more on page 24 Thailand reorganises its labour market: The fisheries sector in Thailand has faced a blaze of negative publicity recently following media reports on the inhospitable and often brutal way workers in the sector, particularly immigrants, are treated. The Thai government has responded to these accusations implementing measures that will protect workers and working with the industry to improve conditions in the sector. Seafood exports are worth close to USD9bn and amount to 1.5 of the value of Thai exports and the negative media coverage had resulted in falling stock valuations and boycotts of products in some supermarkets. Read Manfred Klinkhardt’s article on page 55 www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Table of News 6 International News

Projects 16 ComFish Regional Workshop, 16-17 June, Rome Challenges to an ecosystem approach to fisheries in the Mediterranean

Fisheries 18 Threat to the treasures on the seabed Trawling: between polemics and provable facts

China 24 Rice-fish culture in China Reducing rice cultivation’s impact on the environment

Aquaculture 26 Fish farming in Ukraine Growing demand for fish is opportunity for aquaculture industry

Processing 28 Superchilling offers several benefits Fresh fish keeps up to two days longer

Croatia 32 Fisheries and aquaculture in Croatia Accession to the EU has been demanding but beneficial

Cover image courtesy Cromaris Seabass and seabream cages at Cromaris’ Lamjana site.

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Contents 38 Omega 3 is Croatia’s biggest small pelagics cooperative Looking for means to fund a much needed expansion 41 Conex Trade has vessels, processing and distribution EU membership facilitates access to new markets 44 Crna Mlaka needs a different business model Bird sanctuary threatens viability of fish farm 47 Cromaris – Croatia’s biggest seabass and seabream producer Expanding product line with organic fish, meagre, and shellfish 50 Fishermen’s Cooperative Adria Fighting to establish a fish auction

Trade And Markets 52 Western sanctions provoke Russian reaction Ban on food imports from EU and other suppliers 55 Thailand is reorganizing its labour market from scratch Mandatory registration of illegal immigrants

Technology 60 Rotogal – insulated plastic containers for the meat and fish industry Individualised customer service fuels steady growth 61 New tool accurately identifies fish species in seconds Rapidly identifying fish species

Guest Pages: Ante Mišura

Worldwide Fish News

63 Croatian fisheries – one year after accession Distinct benefits to joining the EU

Belgium

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Denmark

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Faroe Islands

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Iceland

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Italy

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Netherlands

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Norway

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Poland

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Portugal

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Spain

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Thailand

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US

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Service 66 Diary Dates 66 Imprint

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Poland: Second edition of Fish Congress to be held in Gdansk The Fish Congress, an event organised by the Fish Market Development Association in Gdynia, will start with a session hosted by Marine Stewardship Council Poland. MSC Poland is looking to cooperate with the Polish fish industry to develop its competitive advantage in the global fish market. The first Polish fishery, Eastern Baltic Cod, has already been certified and the MSC will discuss its experience of this certification

as well as sustainable fishing standards, and, more broadly, its goals in Poland. The second session will be devoted to innovations and new technologies in fish processing and will feature Gonzalo Campos, Fish Marketing Manager Europe in Sealed Air as keynote speaker. Other presentations will be linked to modern packaging systems, including MAP technology, as well as cryogenic freezing of seafood.

The second day of the congress will initially focus on the pelagic sector before moving to the rapidly developing market for salmon in Poland, a topic to be addressed by Kristin Pettersen from the Norwegian Seafood Council. Jacek Juchniewicz from the Polish Trout Breeders Association will present his vision of aquaculture development in Poland. The final session of the event will focus on challenges of the future and

will discuss changes on the retail market, the HoReCa sector and in food law. The conclusions will be summarised by Professor Piotr J. Bykowski from the Maritime Institute in Gdynia. The Fish Congress 2014 will be held 16-17 October 2014 in Gdansk. For more information, contact Tomas Kulikowski, mprfish@gmail.com, or call +48 501 623 816.

Denmark: Fiskens Dag promotes Danish ďŹ sh across the country Every second Saturday of September Denmark celebrates Fiskens Dag (Fish Day); different activities take place all over Denmark with the main scene at Copenhagen City Hall Square. The tradition was initiated seven years ago by Fiskebranchen, an organisation that brings together Danish fishermen, processors, farmers and fishmongers. This year’s edition started on a rather dull grey day but that didn’t diminish the dynamism and high spirits of the event. Companies from different parts of the country gathered in 18 booths to offer seafood from Danish waters – cod, hake, plaice, turbot, mackerel, herring, shrimp, crab claws, lobster amongst others. Several thousands of visitors could sample and buy fresh fish as well as smoked, cooked or canned deli products. Over 500 kilos of fresh fish alone were sold within a few hours.  While the adults enjoyed freshlycooked seafood, beers, friendly conversation and live music, kids could explore marine creatures and touch them (if they had the courage!) on an open display, model fish hats and try their luck at catching toy fish in a bowl of water. Children were also

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At Fiskens Dag on the second Saturday in September Danes were reminded of the benefits of fish and urged to eat more of it. Dan Jørgensen (right), Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, auctions the first lot.

invited to attend cooking school arranged on the spot to learn that preparing fish is easy and can be great fun. The focal point of Fiskens Dag, as it is each year, was the fish auction.

At its opening Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, encouraged Danes to eat more fish. He pointed out that despite Denmark being the sixth largest fishing nation in the world, the most served dish in the country

is spaghetti bolognese while foreign tourists from far away come to taste and buy Danish fish. “Vote for fish!â€? – urged the minister. Dan Jørgensen also led the first lot auctioning off a two-kilo hake for 250 kroner!

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Norway: Russian ban on seafood imports to beneďŹ t other markets The Russian ban on imports of a number of seafood and agricultural products from several western suppliers in response to tighter sanctions related to the situation in Ukraine will also have an impact on Norwegian exports of seafood to Russia, the largest (with France) single market for

Norwegian seafood. Norwegian seafood exports to Russia amounted to 295 thousand tonnes in 2013 worth EUR789m (NOK6.5bn) a 10 increase in value compared with 2012. Salmon and trout were the most important exports to Russia. In 2014 exports to Russia were down by 11 in volume and 3 in

value in the first half of the year. However, the Norwegian Export Council is confident that other markets will be found for the fish and seafood that was otherwise destined for Russia, thanks in part to the industry’s long experience of dealing with trade barriers in Russia. The council will also assess

the situation and identify potential markets and ways to promote Norwegian seafood there so as to reduce the impact of the Russian ban. Salmon is globally traded today and the Norwegian product is well known around the world, so increasing the demand for it should not be an insurmountable challenge.

Faroe Islands: Faroese salmon replaces Norwegian to feed Russian demand Salmon is as popular in Russia as it is elsewhere in Europe. But in the wake of the Russian boycott of salmon and other foods from the EU and Norway, the world’s largest salmon producer, new suppliers are emerging. The Faroe Islands, a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark, have

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evaded Russia’s sanctions and the salmon industry there has noted increasing interest from Russian buyers. There shortage of salmon in Russia has led to a doubling of prices, according to the Norwegian newspaper Finansavisen. The biggest Faroese producer, Bakkafrost, was

selling salmon at EUR7.51 a kilo, the highest price since the 80s. The average price of Norwegian and Faroese salmon in 2013 was EUR4.79 per kilo. The company’s managing director expects sales to Russia to increase from 6 of turnover last year to 15-20. Norway exported 150,000 tonnes

of salmon to Russia which leaves a big hole to fill. Some of that volume will be replaced by frozen fish from Chile, but Bakkafrost, which expects to produce 48,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes of salmon this year, will be sailing fresh fish over to Russia in larger volumes than ever.

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Thailand: SIAL seminar to highlight Thai progress towards labour and social responsibility The Thai government has taken several steps to improve conditions for workers in the fishing and seafood industries following several adverse media reports about the hostile and even dangerous environment in which many workers, particularly immigrants, are forced to toil. At SIAL 2014, a food show in Paris, the Thai government will host a seminar detailing the progress made by the public and the private sectors in Thailand towards the ultimate goal of labour and social responsibility in the fisheries and seafood sector. Highlevel government officials from the concerned departments within four ministries will outline various measures that their

respective agencies have put into practice, in close collaboration with one another. Panellists from the Fisheries Department and the Ministry of Labour, will cover in particular the measures on Good Labour Practices, Social Responsibility as well as the roadmap to address labour issues in the Thai fisheries sector. Three other panellists from the National Police Bureau, the Department of Special Investigation (Ministry of Justice) and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security will discuss law enforcement and prosecution. The last panellist is the Chief Executive of the Fishery Coalition of Thailand representing the private sector. His presentation will be on the

The Thai presence at SIAL 2014 will include the Thailand Pavilion and a seminar “Thai Seafood: Advancement of labor and social responsibility� hosted by the Royal Thai Government. The seminar is on 21 October 2014, at 15.0017.00, in Room 501, Convention Center 5, Paris Nord Villepinte. Interested participants are kindly requested to pre-register by 10 October 2014 by sending an email to sial.thaiseminar@ gmail.com.

private sector’s cooperation and active role to achieve better conditions in the industry. The seminar will be only part of the Thai presence at SIAL 2014. Visitors

interested in food from Thailand should visit the Thailand Pavilion (Hall 4, Stand 4T08) where 135 exhibitors will have a wide range of products on display.

Poland: Aquaculturists introduce Good Poland: Polish shipyards are building Farming Practice more ďŹ shing vessels for Danes Polish fish farmers and scientists have developed a code of Good Farming Practice. The code specifies good practice in fish breeding, animal welfare, environmental protection and primary fish processing. The code’s

aim is to improve the conditions of farming and to communicate these improvements to give carp and trout breeding a better image. Use of the code will be voluntary. Fish Industry Magazine, www. mprfish.com

In Gdan´sk recently, a partly equipped hull of a fishing vessel was launched. This is the first of four hulls which are being built by Remontowa shipyard. Another shipyard, Nauta, has an order from Danish shipyard

Karstensens Skibsvaerft A/S. The contract for building two seiner hulls (one of 69,95 meter, the second 77,25 meter) was signed in July of 2013. A further contract was signed in 2014. Fish Industry Magazine, www.mprfish.com

Italy: Upcoming regional conference on developing sustainable aquaculture for food security For many years, aquaculture actors and stakeholders in the region have been calling for a strategic commitment from governments to ensure coordinated and sustainable growth. The upcoming conference “Blue Growth in the Mediterranean and Black Sea: Developing sustainable aquaculture for food security� arranged in connection with the Italian Presidency of the European Union and with support from the General Fisheries Commission 8

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for the Mediterranean (GFCM) plans to seize this momentum. The event, to be held in Bari, Italy from 9-11 December 2014, will tackle issues of common interest to countries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and will aim to put together a strategic vision for the sustainable development of aquaculture in order to foster socioeconomic growth and food security in the region. More information is available at www.aquaculture2014.org

Regional Conference Bari, Italy, 9-11 December 2014

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Denmark: Research expedition to gather data on marine litter The problem of marine litter presents a growing threat to the marine and coastal environment. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, marine litter is comprised mainly of material that degrades slowly, if at all, so that the continuous addition of litter results in it building up in the coastal and marine environment. Litter originates from

both sea-based and land-based sources; examples of the former include merchant shipping, recreational crafts, fishing boats, oil rigs, and fish farming installations, while municipal landfills, untreated sewage, industry, tourism are some of the main land-based polluters. Plastic litter is a particular problem as it never biodegrades, but with the

action of the sunlight splits into smaller and smaller particles that enter into the food chain as well as become part of the sediment along the coast and on the seabed and thereby affecting marine life. To gain a better understanding of the extent of the problem in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish University of Ă–rebro and

Pangaea Exploration are leading a research expedition that will visit several areas from the Kattegat to the northern reaches of the Bay of Bothnia. The marine environmental NGO Oceana will join the expedition, when it travels north to increase the knowledge acquired during previous expeditions and gather fresh data for future protection proposals.

Poland: Columbus Salmon to hire 500 people. Columbus Salmon Polska Co in cooperation with an American shareholder has invested in a fish processing plant in ZĹ‚ocieniec (North-West Poland). The raw material will be imported from Norway, smoked, and exported.

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The new plant will employ approximately 500 people. Another company, Atlantic, located in Kobylnica (North Poland), is set to become a leader on the Polish trout market. From an income

of EUR6m in 2012 the company jumped to EUR23min 2013, an increase of almost 300. The main product is fresh trout (as well as carp in the season), in MAP for the retail sector. In 2013 the firm was overtaken by a

German owner Excelsior Delikatesy, which produces for the German market. The plans for 2014 assume income will increase to EUR60m. Fish Industry Magazine, www.mprfish.com

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Poland: Trout conference more international The 39th Trout Breeders Conference was held on 9-10 October. This year an additional feature was an international day (with English interpretation) during which

the problems of trout breeders in Europe were discussed. Jarosław Wałe˛sa, a member of the European Parliament, opened the international day. There were lectures

devoted to the general situation of freshwater trout aquaculture in the European Union, trout trade and market aspects at the European level as well as development of

trout farming in Romania, Lithuania and Poland. Promoting trout consumption was also discussed. Fish Industry Magazine, www. mprfish.com

Spain: FAO and Conxemar jointly organise shrimp conference at Conxemar event Conxemar, the Spanish Association of Wholesalers, Importers, Manufacturers and Exporters of fish products and Aquaculture, and the organisers of the annual Conxemar frozen seafood exhibition in Vigo, offered a shrimp conference back to back with this year’s edition of the exhibition. Co-organised with the FAO the one-day conference was held on 6 October 2014, the day before Conxemar opened. Speakers at the conference addressed some of the main issues facing the global shrimp industry including the state of resources, both farmed and wild, global markets and demand, bio-security and disease management, certification, traceability, and sustainability. The global farmed shrimp industry has been affected by the spread of early mortality syndrome (EMS) that has had an impact on production in several countries including China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Mexico. Farm management measures that can prevent the

Global supply, demand, and in light of the disease problems facing the shrimp industry, biosecurity and disease management were among the topics debated at the FAO Conxemar World Shrimp Conference.

incidence and reduce the spread of the disease include using EMS-free broodstock, close monitoring of water and bottom quality, improve farm infrastructure with biosecure ponds, and integrate farm

management among other measures. Prevention is to be emphasised as research in China has shown that the bacteria responsible for the disease is resistant to a range of antibiotics, reports the Global

Aquaculture Alliance. Delegates to the shrimp conference could profitably continue on to the frozen seafood exhibition that lasted for three days and featured about 500 exhibitors and some 24,000 visitors.

Portugal: Fisheries control system upgraded to European standards To ensure that fisheries rules are respected across the EU, the European Commission has recently adopted an action plan to help upgrade the Portuguese fisheries control system to European standards. The action plan was prepared in cooperation with the Portuguese authorities to ensure full compliance with the EU’s 2009 Fisheries Control Regulation and the new Common Fisheries Policy requirements in achieving sustainable fishing. 10

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Its main focus lies on the catch registration system, in order to ensure that essential data to monitor catches are complete, reliable, and on time. For this purpose essential IT tools to collect, share and analyse data have been developed. Catch data are reported by fishermen so control authorities can monitor their use of quotas to prevent overfishing. A few measures of the action plan aim to reinforce the chain

of control, and in particular the flow of catch data between mainland Portugal’s fisheries authorities and those of the Portuguese offshore archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. Also included are measures focused on Portugal’s inspection activities, supporting a more tough control system. Effective control of European fisheries is obviously essential for the sustainability of European

fisheries, but also for the economies of coastal communities and the marine ecosystem. It also ensures a level playing field for fishermen across Europe, ensuring all fishermen play by the same rules. Action plans have previously been adopted and put into force in Spain, Malta, Italy, France, and Latvia while plans for Bulgaria and Romania are being developed. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Denmark: Mislabelling of ďŹ sh undermines conservation

Fishmongers have been found selling other fish disguised as cod.

Tests conducted by Søndagsavisen, a local weekly paper, Go’Aften Danmark, a TV programme, and Oceana, an environmental NGO, have shown that cheaper fish such as haddock and saithe is being sold as cod to unwary customers by

unscrupulous fishmongers. For the survey 120 samples were collected from fishmongers, supermarkets, and restaurants and subjected to DNA analysis to establish their provenance. Eighteen percent of the samples were found to be from

species other than cod. Seafood fraud is widespread in Europe due to a lack of traceability as well as an inadequate level of inspection. Danish fishmongers are not the worst culprits in this regard; previous studies have shown higher

levels of fraud in Italy, Spain, and Ireland, but also lower levels in France and the UK. The problem is that this fraud creates a black market for fish and apart from cheating customers also undermines conservation efforts.

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Denmark: Salmon ShowHow returns to Progress Point Marel’s key event for the salmon industry, the Salmon ShowHow, an exhibition of the latest developments in the company’s equipment for the salmon processing industry will return to its Copenhagen location five minutes from the airport on 11 February 2015. Christened Progress Point the facility was inaugurated last year and is purpose-built for this kind of event with large display areas that can simulate a factory floor, meeting facilities and dining rooms. The event brings senior executives from leading processors together to discuss and learn about trends in the salmon industry. Fuelling this discussion will be reputed speakers who will make presentations on some of the pressing issues facing the sector. As in previous years there will be ongoing live demonstrations throughout the day as new equipment is presented, as well as a wide range of stand-alone machines and integrated processing systems. For further information, see the show website marel.com/ salmonshowhow or write to salmonshowhow@marel.com.

Salmon ShowHow, an occasion for the salmon processing industry to view the latest equipment from Marel, will be held on 11 February 2015 in Copenhagen.

USA: iPhone app helps young mothers safely eat seafood A professor at the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University in the United States has developed a free app (fish4health) for the iPhone that can advise pregnant women and nursing mothers on how to eat seafood safely. While closely associated with health benefits for unborn and nursing children, seafood consumption also raises concerns about heavy metal

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poisoning among these consumer groups who are particularly vulnerable. The app which was developed by Professor Charles Santerre and is available in English and Spanish tracks the intake of seafood, omega-3 supplements, healthy fats, and mercury. Professor Santerre recommends the consumption of eight to twelve ounces (227-340 g) of fish per week for pregnant

or nursing women, including salmon, rainbow trout, whitefish, herring and sardines as they have the highest proportion of healthy fats and the lowest levels of mercury. The recommendations are based on tests of seafood carried out in Santerre’s laboratory to determine levels of healthy fats, trace elements, and heavy metals.

Denmark: New chief executive for BioMar In a change of guard at BioMar, a major supplier of feed to the global aquaculture industry, Torben Svejgard, BioMar CEO since 2008 has resigned from his position to become a full time member of the board. In his place the company has appointed Carlos Diaz, VP with responsibility for the Americas, Continental Europe and business development, who has been with BioMar since 2000. The Danish feed producer has 11 feed manufacturing facilities in Norway, Chile, Denmark, Scotland, Spain, France, Greece, Costa Rica and from 2015 a new factory in Turkey. Roughly 20 of the farmed fish produced in Europe, and South and Central America are fed with BioMar feeds. Worldwide the group supplies feed to around 60 countries and for more than 30 different fish species. Accepting his appointment Mr Diaz, a veterinarian by profession, who also holds an MBA, said he looked forward to consolidating and growing BioMar as a global leader. He starts in his new position towards the end of the year.

Carlos Diaz, the newly appointed CEO of the BioMar Group, has been with the company since 2000.

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Belgium: EU-Canada free trade agreement eliminates import duties on seafood After four and a half years, the EU and Canada in October 2013 finished negotiations on the “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement� (CETA), a free trade agreement covering goods and services of all kinds, as well as investment, inspection of imported goods, and a variety of other important aspects of international trade between the EU and Canada. Details of the final agreement were kept quiet until lawmakers on both sides had time to review CETA’s provisions prior to an EU-Canada

summit in September 2014. However, a month prior to the summit a German media outlet, tageschau.de, obtained and published the complete texts of CETA, offering the public a view of the agreement’s provisions that affect the fish products industry as well as all other sectors of the EU economy. Perhaps CETA’s most important – certainly most visible – provisions for EU fish and seafood industry interests are the planned reductions in import duties. Nearly

all duties applied by the EU and Canada on one another’s products, including seafood, will be eliminated on the date of the enactment of the FTA. Duties will be reduced more gradually on a select few “sensitive� products – those items whose producers are deemed to be especially susceptible to economic injury from an increase in imports following the enactment of the agreement. Currently, EU duties of fish products from Canada average 11 percent, ranging from zero on many

unprocessed fresh/frozen items to 20 percent on cooked shrimp and 25 percent on canned fish. These duties are applied to about C$400 million (EUR280m) worth of Canadian seafood each year, products ranging from live lobsters to frozen scallops and crab claws and legs. Duty elimination for these products will put downward pressure on prices, stimulating demand by EU consumers for these products regardless of where they are sourced, including from competing EU producers.

Belgium: Commission announces deductions from 2014 ďŹ shing quotas Countries that exceeded their fishing quotas in 2013 will suffer deductions in their quotas for those stocks in 2014. Denmark, Spain,

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and Poland are among the 11 countries that will be affected by quota deductions in 2014. The deductions apply to the same stocks as

those that were overfished the previous year with extra deductions applied for consecutive overfishing, overfishing above 5, or if

the stock concerned is subject to a multiannual plan. Compared to 2013, however, the overall number of deductions went down by 22.

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] The deductions are announced on an annual basis and seek to immediately redress the damage suffered by stocks due to overfishing

the previous year. In Denmark the affected species are herring, mackerel, saithe and sandeel, while in Poland catches of Atlantic

salmon and sprat exceeded their quotas. In Spain the total deductions amount to some 555 tonnes spread over 18 species. Apart from

these three countries, Belgium, Greece, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK are also affected.

Netherlands: New vaccine developed against pathogen affecting tilapia in Asia A new vaccine has been developed by MSD Animal Health to protect tilapia and other fish against a strain of Streptococcus agalactiae, the main cause of Streptococcosis in tilapia reared in Thailand and other parts of Asia including Malaysia. Eastern and South Eastern Asia alone produced about 3m tonnes of tilapia in 2012, according

to the FAO, of which Thailand and Malaysia produced about 7 or 205,000 tonnes. To develop the vaccine the company conducted extensive research in the region collecting samples and discovered that Streptococcus was the most prevalent pathogen accounting for 70 of all pathogens collected. Two strains of the pathogen were identified

and the scientists found that S. agalactiae was the variety responsible for the most economic damage. Laboratory tests of the vaccine showed that it conferred protection on the fish for a period of at least 12 weeks, a week after being vaccinated. A field trial showed survival increased by 17 percent, biomass by 11.2 percent, and feed

conversion efficiency improved by nine percent. Fish that are treated with the vaccines are safe for human consumption. The company offers companies a package of measures to combat Streptococcus including confirming the strain present on the farm, a surveillance and vaccination programme, and training on control strategies.

Iceland: Increasing the use of ecosystem-based ďŹ sheries management MareFrame, a research project funded by the European Commission under FP7 and launched in the beginning of 2014, seeks to significantly increase the use of the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management (EAFM), when providing advice relating to European fish stocks. From previous projects it is clear that substantial barriers exist to the use of EAFM. Some of these relate to still insufficient scientific knowledge – models, methods and data – but this is only part of the problem. Barriers to adopting EAFM clearly also exist due to a lack of scientific

cooperation, lack of stakeholder engagement and ownership, lack of documented benefits, as well as institutional and organisational obstacles. MareFrame seeks to overcome these barriers. With respect to science this means creating new knowledge by bringing together and extending existing models, utilising novel methods and data and applying them to relevant cases. On the basis of this a Decision Support Framework visualising the consequences and potential benefits of various

management options will be developed. The lack of implementation can be countered by a much higher degree of involvement in all processes, activities and phases by stakeholders, who ultimately get ownership of all outcomes that affect them, a concept commonly known as co-creation. This will ensure that the results from MareFrame are put into practice, and do not only exist as theoretical models. The project will also develop innovative visualisation tools, using 3D gaming technology, and develop innovative learning simulations

to communicate scientific results and management scenarios and raise public awareness regarding the conservation of biodiversity. The project partners, including SMEs, Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) and ICES, come from 13 countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Romania, Norway, Iceland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) and are led by Matis, an Icelandic research institute. More information can be found at www.mareframe-fp7.org

Participants at the MareFrame kick-off meeting. The project includes partners from Europe as well as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. 14

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FEBRUARY

2015

It’s All About Salmon www.marel.com/salmonshowhow

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[ PROJECTS ] ComFish Regional Workshop, 16-17 June, Rome

Challenges to an ecosystem approach to ďŹ sheries in the Mediterranean In the EU the Mediterranean eet accounts for 46% of total EU ďŹ shing vessels. They comprise up to 22% of the EU eet in terms of tonnage and 34% in terms of engine power. However, landings in the Mediterranean are relatively small, about 12% of total EU landings. Overall, the Mediterranean eet lands an average of 500,000 tonnes of ďŹ sh per year, of which 48% are in Italy.

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he most commonly used gears in the Mediterranean are bottom otter trawlers, pelagic trawlers and purse seines, and drifting longlines. The smallscale fisheries, together with recreational fisheries, are estimated to play an important role in the Mediterranean. However, these activities are not recorded in national statistics and therefore reliable data about these fisheries are seldom available. Further, there is evidence that part of the gross catch at sea is discarded or landed outside official markets – mainly undersized specimens which have economic value in many Mediterranean countries.

Only few species of commercial interest despite great diversity The majority of catches are concentrated in four EU countries in the Mediterranean Sea: Italy, Algeria, Spain and Tunisia. Despite the high diversity of fisheries resources that are caught in the Mediterranean (ca. 300 species), only around 10 are marketed regularly; 30 are occasionally sold (depending on size and market demand) whereas up to 60 species are discarded. Currently, fish stock data for the Mediterranean paint a gloomy picture: according

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Participants at the ComFish regional workshop in Rome discussed the barriers, and ways round them, to implementing an ecosystem approach to fisheries management in the Mediterranean.

to the annual report of the STECF, up to 85 of the Mediterranean fish stocks in European waters are classified as overfished.

extent as commercial fishing in the rest of Europe.

Translating EFA principles into While the Mediterranean shows legislation is a challenge a certain balance between the EU Member States and non-EU countries with respect to catches, there are marked differences with respect to clear management goals to be achieved in the short and medium term. With the exception of some high-value species, such as tuna, fishing in the Mediterranean has not developed in the same way and to the same

Given the peculiarities of the Mediterranean fisheries, a different approach to fishery management has been developed, the Ecosystem Approach to Fishery (EFA) management. The EAF approach aims at involving all stakeholders (from fishermen to scientists) taking into account both local interests and those of the wider public. The

stakeholders’ involvement means, inter alia, participation in fishery management (co-management); improving knowledge on ecology of exploited resources; and contribution to data collection. However, one should not disregard the challenges of putting EFA principles into practice, considering that the roles of stakeholders varies among countries (e.g. EU vs non-EU) and therefore establishing who the stakeholders are, is a pre-requisite in the development of fisheries management plans. However, it seems very difficult to translate EFA principles into quantitative

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[ PROJECTS ] regulations, for example: identifying the number of trawlers; finding the best compromise among the possible fishing patterns; and which take account of Mediterranean peculiarities, like the warm and salty semi enclosed sea with low productivity, but the ability to accumulate high standing stock; high resilience of stocks mainly by rejuvenation, dispersion and flexibility in the exploitation; and the general lack of enforcement at every level. “For us, the underwater activities community, the workshop was really valuable, as we could share our concerns about fisheries management with many Mediterranean experts. Sometimes science is a little bit lost at sea, and workshops like this help to share real needs and roles. We missed more stakeholders and, above all, politicians’ and managers’ participation, but we hope this can be offset in future meetings.â€? was the opinion of Oscar SaguĂŠ Pla, of the International Forum for Sustainable Underwater Activities.

Several examples of successful co-management Examples of successful co-management at regional level in the EU include the artisanal fisheries and the molluscs’ management consortia (CO.GE.PA/CO.GE.MO) in Italy, the Prud’homies in France and the Cofradias in Spain. These institutions attempt to keep their fisheries sustainable (in term of reducing the risk of collapse) and economically viable in some cases by regulating fishing seasons and gears, by imposing more stringent regulations than those stated by the EU, and by implementing systems for local compliance and enforcement. In all these cases, territorial rights are allocated to manage near-shore coastal resources; however, each institution has unique features and management mechanisms www.eurofishmagazine.com

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according to its specific biological and socio-economic background. A practical example of successful implementation is the co-management plan for the artisanal fisheries of sandeel in Catalonia, which was established at the initiative of fishermen. The fishery of this species, which is thought to be very important for the functioning of the coastal marine ecosystem, is under strict rules, including the gear type, number of boats, catching limits and seasonality. Participants at the ComFish regional workshop that was held on 16-17 June in Rome, agreed unanimously that engaging the fishermen through a bottom-up approach is essential for a successful long-term management plan, but scientists should maintain their independence in producing advice. This is particularly relevant in the case of small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean, where a common and unbiased vision on fish stocks between fishermen and scientists is critical. In addition, the fished resources should be linked with the market and economic value of species and for this purpose the local knowledge of fishermen is essential. However, how to engage fishermen and how to sustain their engagement remains an open question. Good communication and trust could be among the envisaged solutions. It is believed that most of the issues related to the Mediterranean region are due to a lack of communication between different stakeholder groups (e.g. fishermen, scientists, governments, regional organisations and the EU) and that the dialogue between these groups needs to be improved.

representatives from both EU and non-EU countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the EU representatives agreed that the glut of rules and regulations was the main reason for the lack of enforcement. In the absence of enforcement, input controls (i.e. keeping the vessel in the port for more time remains the only possibility) which govern EU fisheries have a daunting effect in the region. In contrast, the participants from non-EU countries underlined the gaps in their respective legislation, the missing information and data on stocks, as well as the lack of integrated management and collaboration between different government entities, among the challenges they faced.

Scientific results need to be made more accessible to a lay audience In addition, inadequate direct contact and communication between scientists and fishermen (e.g. the lack of easy-to-read scientific papers) was highlighted, as well as the poor dissemination of scientific information at EU level. The challenge is thus how to validate knowledge (which needs to be agreed and accepted by stakeholder groups) and what

tools need to be developed by scientists so that scientific results are communicated in a simple and straightforward manner that can be understood by all stakeholders. Potential solutions to issues related to knowledge and governance proposed by participants involved: improved knowledge of fishery and resource dynamics; identification of priorities in fisheries co-management; propose management measures on the basis of local knowledge; develop the governance of co-management plans. On the communication side, the selection of an appropriate platform for effective dialogue within the industry sector was recommended; encouraging the use of the existing local and regional knowledge is highly desirable as well as an open dialogue between and within stakeholder groups. Anca Sfetcovici anca.sfetcovici@eurofish.dk

Too many regulations deter enforcement in the EU Issues related to governance were also among the topics discussed by participants at the workshop,

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[ FISHERIES ] Threat to the treasures on the seabed

Trawling: between polemics and provable facts For centuries people have beneďŹ ted from the wealth of the seas, but today many worry that we are placing undue burdens on the marine ecosystems. This is not just about the overďŹ shing of individual stocks, but about where and how we catch ďŹ sh. Criticism mainly centres around bottom trawls and the deep-sea ďŹ shery that allegedly cause severe damages to the marine environment and to ďŹ sh stocks.

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o one can deny that man puts pressure on the world’s oceans. We pollute them with plastic waste and toxic chemicals, we acidify them with our emissions into the atmosphere, we over-fertilise coastal waters with waste water from agriculture and municipalities, and we increase water temperature in the wake of global warming. In order to change this we would have to lower our sights a bit and change our lifestyle. But that would be uncomfortable and possibly explains why it is mostly fishing that we point our fingers at when searching for someone or something to blame for the damages to the marine environment. And there seem to be reasons enough for this: the overfishing of certain stocks, the share of bycatch which is still too high, the ongoing illegal fishing for lucrative fish species, apparent weaknesses of fisheries management and its practical implementation. And the list could be continued. It is deep-sea fishing, however, and the use of bottom trawls that bear the brunt of criticism. It is claimed that bottom trawling leaves a trail of destruction, damaging the seabed and in just a few months or weeks destroying highly sensitive ecosystems that have taken centuries to

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In a region where the sediment is constantly churned up and rearranged by the currents and tides the impact of bottom trawling can more easily be ignored than in areas with relatively static ecosystems that have developed over long periods without such inuences.

evolve. Perhaps this accusation would be better directed at the farmers who plough their fields every year, tearing 30 centimetres deep into the topsoil and thereby destroying populations of creatures that live in and on the earth. Compared to agricultural monocultures, bottom trawling probably causes less severe damages. Although the fishing sector is looking for technical solutions to further reduce

these damages it will probably never be possible to avoid them completely. Perhaps that is why environmentalists and other critics have got it in for the fishery and its trawls. Trawling was the most destructive fishing method, and one which could soonest be compared with the slash and burn clearance of the rain forest. This fishing method caused particularly severe damages in the highly

sensitive habitats of the deep sea that often needed centuries for their regeneration because many of the life processes that take place there are extremely slow. Deep-sea fish species such as redfish or orange roughy grow very slowly, reach maturity late, and then only have relatively few offspring. This makes them particularly vulnerable to overfishing, particularly since deep-sea fishes are often faithful to their www.eurofishmagazine.com

What brings a big smile to this Thai ďŹ sherman’s face?

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[ FISHERIES ] areas where fishing – if at all – should only be allowed with great caution and sensitivity.

When a bottom trawl is dragged over the seabed it can indeed cause serious damages to the ecosystems and habitats there. However, whether the damage caused by bottom trawls is irreversible, as is often claimed, remains questionable.

habitats and rarely leave the seamount ecosystems where they live. Once a fishing vessel has located swarms of fish there it is not difficult to fish them successfully. According to a report by the UN Secretary General, in 2006 95 per cent of the worldwide damages to the seamount ecosystems in the deep sea were caused by bottom trawling. When a bottom trawl is dragged over the seabed it can indeed cause serious damages to the ecosystems and habitats there. The usually large and correspondingly heavy trawls act like huge planes on the seabed. At the sides the net is held open by the pressure caused by the heavy trawl doors that drag over the seabed during slow trawling and plough deeply through it. Fishermen used to hang heavy chains or weights onto the net opening at the bottom to keep it constantly close to the seabed. In the meantime these have mostly been replaced by gentler 20

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rubber rollers but even they are heavy enough to crush clams, crabs and other creatures on the seabed as they roll over them. Whether the damages caused by bottom trawls are irreversible, as is often claimed, remains questionable, however. Another point of criticism is the low selectivity of the fishing gear. Trawls did not only catch the target species but practically everything that finds itself in front of the net opening during trawling. Such bycatches, which in some fisheries can constitute as much as 90 per cent of the total catch, contribute to the reduction of biodiversity in the sea.

Criticism of trawling not sufďŹ ciently differentiated Although the criticism of trawls might be justifiable in individual cases a generalisation of these allegations seems rather excessive, particularly since it does not only relate to otter trawls

but also beam trawls which are mainly used to catch flatfishes and prawns, and dredgers with which mussels, clams, scallops and other molluscs are collected from the seabed. Sometimes even the use of pelagic trawls in shallow waters is denounced because the trawls sink down during slow trawling and can touch the seabed. None of these types of fishing gear is basically good or bad but strictly speaking only suitable or unsuitable for a certain marine region and the seabed found there. Bottom trawling on a densely populated hard seabed should be assessed differently from bottom trawling on a sandy or muddy bed. In a region where the sediment is constantly churned up and rearranged by the currents and tides the impact of bottom trawling can sooner be neglected than in areas with relatively static ecosystems that have developed over long periods without such influences. And of course there are also those highly sensitive

Trawling is carried out both in coastal areas using small open boats and in the deep sea using large factory vessels. When working with rigid fishing gear such as beam trawls or dredges, engines with just 30 or 50 horsepower are often sufficient. More powerful engines are usually necessary for larger trawls that are held open by the hydrodynamic effect of the trawl boards. A speed of four to five knots (seven to nine kilometres per hour) is usually sufficient, however, for catching the mostly demersal fish species. The impact of bottom trawling can only be assessed under the particular prevailing conditions, and a general condemnation or even a ban would not be appropriate for such a complex situation. Criticism of bottom trawls has to be carefully differentiated and that is often the weak point. Environmental associations and NGOs even do their best to dramatise the consequences of this fishery, probably to show how urgent a ban on trawling would be. Bottom trawls destroy the seabed, is the simple message; they leave behind a desert landscape and have a negative impact on biodiversity. It is not rarely even claimed that the damages to the seabed are irreversible, that some species would disappear irretrievably. Photos or films are often used to support these allegations. They show bottom trawls in operation and the damages they cause. Anyone who looks up deep-sea trawling on the internet will get more than 1.5 million hits, most of them describing the negative aspects and devastating impact of this fishing method, frequently polemically presented. What www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ FISHERIES ] is lacking, however, are objective scientific studies on the long-term consequences of the damages and the regeneration capacity of the different ecosystems on the seabed. What consequences trawls have for a given area depends on numerous different factors. For example, the seabed structures and the populations that live there, the size of the net, how often the area is fished and in what spatial density. If the assumed regeneration periods of many years are actually true for some areas then the investigations would have to be carried out over a period of many years, too. This is methodologically difficult, costs a lot of money and demands long-term research concepts that are hardly feasible today. In some respects the situation can be compared to that of discards, for which there were for a long time no reliable basic data. That is why many people relied on estimates by Greenpeace and other NGOs that spoke of 25 to 30 million tonnes of discards per year. It was not until the FAO presented more accurate information that an average discard volume of 6.8 million tonnes per year was determined (FAO Technical Paper T 470). That is of course a significant amount, too, but much less than had been speculated before.

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Far too few meaningful scientiďŹ c studies Because there is a lack of scientific studies the door to speculation and exaggeration is wide open. A lot of statements concerning the risks of bottom trawling are perceived among the public as scientifically proven facts although they are strictly speaking no more than conjectures and hypotheses. The lack of evidence hinders an honest debate, particularly since critics of bottom trawling often reject any findings that do not fit in with their ideas. In 2010, Donna Kline, a fish ecologist at the California State University in Monterey Bay, presented the first results of a five-year study on the impacts of bottom trawls on the seabed of Morro Bay between Los Angeles and Monterey in the New Scientist. She soon reaped the wrath of many environmentalists. Other than they had expected, the team of scientists around Donna Kline had found signs of a revival of the biotope rather than its destruction. Many more organisms than expected had survived the trawls rolling over the seabed. Already a short time later nature seemed to have largely regenerated and new forms of life had even settled there. Donna Kline sees the recovery of the ecosystem as a

result of the better structure of the seabed: the bottom trawl had scratched furrows and small ditches into the seabed enabling invasive species to colonise there. The scientists themselves limit the generalisation of their findings, however. It was much too early to view the results as secure and they could not be applied directly to other marine regions. What had led to the revitalisation of the ecosystem in Morro Bay could have completely different effects elsewhere. It was not only the structure and colonisation of the seabed that must be considered but also the size of the trawls and the frequency of fishing. In spite of these limitations the study is still noteworthy, however, because it does not demonise bottom trawls in principle and tries to come to an objective assessment of the fishery. Fisheries experts and environmentalists are largely in agreement with regard to the vulnerability and need for protection of the seabed and its inhabitants in the deep sea. Here, where many life processes run in slow motion, any kind of intervention in the natural systems that have evolved over millennia will have long-term

serious effects. In the year 2010 the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) found that all the commercially exploited deep-sea fish stocks in the North East Atlantic were outside safe biological limits. Although there is often a lack of adequate data on many deep-sea species this is alarming because it is often precisely these species that take decades to regenerate. What makes matters worse is that bottom trawling in international waters outside of the national jurisdiction zones is practically not subject to any regulation. One of the few exceptions is the Antarctic region where the use of bottom trawls is greatly limited in accordance with the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Resources. The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) has also banned bottom trawling temporarily in some sensitive regions of their area of responsibility. Similar efforts are being made in the South Pacific where the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) called on all fishing nations in May 2007 to stop bottom trawling in the deep-sea areas until scientific reviews and risk assessments were available for the affected areas. The necessary preventive measures

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[ FISHERIES ] were then to be initiated on this basis. But it remains open how these rules can be controlled in practice for the affected area of the South Pacific constitutes almost one quarter of the world’s oceans.

Proposal to ban deep-sea bottom trawling initially failed in the EU Many nations have taken measures for more effective protection of the deep-sea areas in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ). Norway, for example, has operated a study programme since 1999 to determine the dissemination of the cold-water coral Lophelia off the coast in order to close bottom trawling in these areas. In the same year Australia’s government banned the bottom trawl fishery in the southern Tasman Sea. In 2004 Australia also demarcated the world’s largest marine protective area, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, in which not only bottom trawling but any sort of fishing activities are prohibited. Canada protects its coral reef ecosystems off Nova Scotia. The Northeast Channel was closed for fishing in 2002, and two years later the Gully was declared a Marine Protected Area (MPA). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the USA has prohibited bottom trawling since 2006 nearly everywhere off the Pacific coast, and since then also in other marine regions that are 3 to 300 nautical miles off the coast. Only these regions fall under federal US jurisdiction, the coastal zones within 3 nautical miles are the responsibility of the respective states. In 2006 Anote Tong, the President of the

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Pacific island state of Kiribati, announced the foundation of the world’s first deep-sea marine reserve Phoenix Islands Protected Area. Compared to these efforts, Europe is currently still finding it difficult to implement similarly far-reaching bans. They did, however, for precautionary reasons close the sensitive Darwin Mounds off Scotland for bottom trawling in 2004. The FAO General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) banned bottom trawling in 2005 in all Mediterranean regions below 1,000 metres and as from January 2006 other ecologically sensitive regions off Italy, Cyprus and Egypt have been closed for fishing, too. In mid-2012 the EU made the historic proposal to ban bottom trawling in the deep sea for EU fishing vessels in the North East Atlantic. From an economic point of view that would probably be reasonable despite the fact that the EU is responsible for 75 of all catches of deepsea species in this area and the member states possess about 100 vessels that are equipped with the technical gear for this special fishery. That is equal to about one third of the worldwide vessels suited to deep-sea

fishing whose number was estimated in 2008 by the FAO at 285 vessels that are registered in 27 states. All the deep-sea species together account for only 1.2 of the EU states’ landed volume and 1.3 of landed value. The significance of the deep-sea species for the world fishery is similarly low. According to FAO statistics the catch volume of the 76 deep-sea species and species groups was in 2009 just 3.3 million tonnes or 4.1 of the total global catch. More than half of that were blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) and large-head hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus). Deep-sea fishing is technically demanding and expensive, and without subsidies most vessels would soon be unprofitable and would have to give up this fishery. That is why critics of bottom trawling and the deep-sea fishery hope that the EU will manage to come to a clear decision on the stronger protection of deepsea fish stocks and eco-systems and announce a complete ban on bottom trawling in these regions. The vote was narrow and initially disappointing. With 342 to 326 votes and 19 abstentions the MEPs voted in the European Parliament on 10 December 2013

against a complete withdrawal from deep-sea trawling. The pressure on the ministers for this decision was huge. They had to weigh up the various aspects against each other: the protection of the marine environment and sustainable exploitation of fishery resources, the rising food demands of a growing world population, and incomes and jobs in the fisheries. Even if the EU ministers’ decision might seem incomprehensible to many there are now signs of new, much greater risks to the ecosystems in the depths of the ocean which make the danger from trawls seem almost petty. For a lot of states are now reaching out for other treasures that lie on the ocean floor: manganese nodules, polymetallic formations, the truffles of the deep sea. This industry promises much higher profits than could ever be achieved with fish. And with that it also has much greater technical possibilities and potential that could also become a danger to fish stocks and thus to the fishery. It is possible that environmentalists and the fish industry will have to join forces in the future to protect and enforce their basically similar interests against an economically much more powerful opponent. MK

Underwater mountains Seamounts and the abundant life there In numerous marine locations steep rugged mountain ranges and individual peaks rise from the ocean floor: seamounts. They can rise 1,000 metres and more from the seabed. Although presumably not all their locations are yet known their number in the Atlantic is already estimated at more than 800, in the Pacific even over 30,000. In areas with hard floors veritable forests of cold water corals, sea pens, sponges and gorgonians grow on the mountain sides, and between them live crustaceans, spider crabs and other marine organisms. Some species such as orange roughy or deepwater dory also seek protection here from the strong underwater currents. On the slopes’ softer floors live various worms, mostly polychaetes, but also slipper lobsters and other species. The seamount ecosystems are particularly fragile and vulnerable to destruction because a lot of the species in the ice-cold depths only grow very slowly and the ecosystems take decades to regenerate once they have been disturbed.

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Rice-ďŹ sh culture in China

Reducing rice cultivation’s impact on the environment

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lobally, rice crops use about 162 million hectares (2010) more than 88 of which is in Asia. About 134m ha is suitable for the cultivation of fish and other aquatic species. In China for over 2,000 years farmers have been capturing and culturing fish in paddy fields, but it has only become a popular aquaculture method over the last few decades. According to the FAO, in 2010 China was the biggest producer of fish from rice-fish culture with an area of about 1.3m ha of rice fields yielding about 1.2m tonnes of fish and other aquatic animals. In a 2009 report Weimin Miao from the FAO regional office for Asia and the Pacific stated that the industry was 13 times bigger than it was two decades ago and there was great potential for continued growth.

Several ďŹ sh species can be grown in rice ďŹ elds Rice-fish cultures are successful because both rice and fish have traditionally had important roles in China. The industry rapidly grew in the 1980s because this was when fish became significantly more expensive than rice. Consequently, fish were integrated into traditional rice plots as a way of augmenting incomes. The stagnation in China’s capture fisheries contributed to the 24

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rise of this form of aquaculture. Traditionally, rice fish-cultures used common carp (Cyprinus carpio), the most commonly farmed fish in China because of its high viability. The fish lays its eggs under natural conditions in ponds and lakes and farmers collect them and introduce them into the paddy fields. Other species including grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), goldfish (Carassius auratus), tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), pond loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus), and Amur catfish (Silurus asotus) are also seen in these production systems. Increasingly, however, highly valued species, like freshwater prawn and crab, are being used in rice fish farming. These can be sold for 3-5 times as much as carp and in some cases these species adapt better to the rice field environment. There are now approximately thirty species used in rice fish cultures.

Socio-economic beneďŹ ts of rice-ďŹ sh culture Rice-fish cultures have, for the most part, been family endeavours, with many families relying on 30-50 year government long leases. Although the plots of land that one

@FAO Aquaculture photo library/M. Halwart

Combining paddy cultivation with the culture of ďŹ sh is a technique that has been practiced across Asia for centuries as farmers have endeavoured to lift the productivity of their ďŹ elds. Research shows that this polyculture brings beneďŹ ts to the environment too. China is one of the leaders in the use of this technique, but efforts need to be made to increase the area under this form of cultivation, both in China and in other parts of the world.

Rice ďŹ eld ďŹ sheries are important in Yunnan, P.R. China and not just for proďŹ ts but also for the environment.

family can use are not very big, this practice is effective as it enables families to obtain income from two different products. A significant current issue in China is the large population flow from rural areas to cities. Increases in population and technology have made it harder for people to earn a living in agriculture. However, rice fish cultures offer greater financial rewards than those from traditional rice farming, so this nascent industry has had

some effect in slowing down this population shift.

Rice-ďŹ sh symbiosis offers environmental advantages Rice-fish culture is a production system in which the fish and the crop exist in a mutually beneficial relationship that reduces pests, diseases, and weeds in the crop and gives shade and fodder www.eurofishmagazine.com

@FAO Aquaculture photo library

CHINA

Rice ďŹ elds near Hubei in China where ďŹ sh cultivation can reduce the needs for pesticides and fertilizer.

to the fish. By bumping into the paddy stems the fish dislodge insects which fall into the water and are then preyed upon by the fish. Striking the paddy also shakes dew drops from the plant reducing the risk of rice blast disease (a fungal infection) on the leaves of the paddy. The fish also feed on or uproot weeds in the fields removing competition for the rice. In addition the fish provide natural fertilizer to the rice, regulate water conditions, and loosen the surface soil bringing about increased oxygenation and thereby faster decomposition of nutrients in the soil. In turn, the paddy plants provide the fish with shade and the decaying leaves are a source of microorganisms on which the fish feed. However, according to Lansing and Kremer in an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) the combined cultivation of fish and rice also has wider benefits for the environment. Since the fish prey www.eurofishmagazine.com

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on several rice pests it reduces the need for pesticides, which increases populations of natural enemies of rice pests such as spiders and parasitic wasps, thereby contributing to greater biodiversity. Since in a rice-fish culture the fish naturally enrich the soil with their excretions, the use of chemical fertilizers can be decreased reducing the release of nitrogen and phosphate into the environment. The combination of these factors means that this form of aquaculture has an efficient feed to protein conversion rate. In a paper Jianbo Lu and Xia Li point out that paddy fields are responsible for 10-20 of atmospheric methane, a greenhouse gas. Combining fish and rice cultivation can reduce methane emissions from paddy fields by over a third in comparison to rice monoculture. Further, rice cultivation and fish farming are both water dependent industries and so combining the two helps to more efficiently use water, which is becoming an increasingly scarce resource.

Large variations in productivity need to be addressed The rice-fish culture industry has great potential for the future. Altogether China has about 30m ha (2010) under rice cultivation, of which it is estimated that 10 million ha would be suitable for ricefish culture. This suggests there is significant scope to increase production from this type of system. There is also a huge efficiency discrepancy across different parts of the country. The national average yield of fish from this polyculture is 780 kg/ha/year, but output varies from 160 kg to 2,466 kg. Of course, part of this can be attributed to natural conditions, but if technology and best management practices were spread nationwide, there could be a significant increase in

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EuroďŹ sh/Thomas Jensen

CHINA

national productivity. If the industry expands to its predicted capacity and if farming becomes more efficient nationwide, rice-fish cultures

could create significant amounts of jobs, wealth, and food for many Chinese with a proportionately lower impact on the environment.

On the other hand rice-fish culture also faces challenges in the form of availability of seed, feed, and capital as well as natural risks from

disease, predation, and the availability of good quality fresh water, a resource that is in short supply in many developing countries including China. Rice-fish farming has many adherents in the international community which has led to policies being formulated and recommendations made that should promote the practice. For farmers the greater profitability of their operations from the farmed fish should provide the incentive to switch to this method of cultivation. Guy Johnston guy@eurofish.dk

[ AQUACULTURE ] Fish farming in Ukraine

Growing demand for ďŹ sh is opportunity for aquaculture industry On 27 June 2014 Ukrainian president, Mr. Petro Poroshenko signed an Association Agreement with the European Union, which was ratified by the Ukrainian and European parliaments in September. Many Ukrainian’s are hopeful that the signing of this agreement will mark a change in the economic fortunes in a country where economic growth has lagged behind its neighbours in recent years. One sector hoping to benefit from this step is the Ukrainian fishing and aquaculture sector.

W

ith a population of over 45 million people, infrastructure and distribution enhancements in recent years have made Ukraine an attractive consumer market. Across the country the supermarket network has increased exponentially over the past 10 years. Supermarket retail sales have trebled in the past ten years to over ₏37 billion per annum. Food retail sales alone have increase by 160 in the past five years. Ukraine has a largely urban population. The largest 25 cities have a combined population greater than 15 million people. Fifty 26

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percent of current retail sales occur in the five largest urban markets. Presently, over 40 of Ukrainian animal protein consumption is derived from fish. Ukrainian’s consume on average 14 kilograms of fish per capita per annum, double the consumption levels of the 1990’s. This per capita consumption is expected to increase further to 20 kg per capita by 2020. With a total market size exceeding 600,000 tonnes per annum, Ukraine has a significant trade

deficit in fish. With an aging fleet and lack of investment, Ukraine’s domestic catch has declined from approximately three hundred and fifty thousand tonnes in 2000 to two hundred thousand tonnes today. At the same time demand for fish products have continued to grow, with fish imports exceeding 425,000 tonnes in 2012. Whereas the value of Ukrainian fish exports has never exceeded ₏20 million over the past ten years, the value of imports has continued to sky-rocket. Fish imports exceeded ₏650 million

in 2013. The value of Ukrainian fish imports has increased by 55 in the past five years. Seventy percent of these imports consist of frozen products. However, an interesting trend has been the growth of fresh or chilled fish imports, the value of which has increased by close to 300 in the past five years.

Farmed ďŹ sh could replace some imports Presently, only 13 of domestic fish production is sourced from aquaculture. Consequently, Ukraine has www.eurofishmagazine.com

the opportunity to expand its fish farming activities to meet growing market demand. With this growing demand for fresh quality product, Ukrainian entrepreneurs have started to look at business opportunities for domestic aquaculture ventures. One such company, FishFarmUkraine, is a Ukrainian startup whose founders have an established track record within Ukrainian business circles. They compliment their local knowledge and experience with international technical fish expertise and food business know-how. Petro Berezhnyi, a founding partner, explains that through its relationship with key Ukrainian food retailers the company discovered there was a shortfall within the Ukrainian market for fresh fish. He sees an opportunity to develop an aquaculture business in Ukraine that is focused on delivering quality, freshness, and superior customer service. Ukraine has over 71,000 rivers and lakes. Mr. Berezhnyi sees opportunities to locate such fish farms in the western half of the country where the topography, infrastructure, and water quality is ideal for aquaculture growth. For decades Ukraine has had a reputation as a leading agricultural producer and exporter. To put the country into a European context, Ukraine has a greater landmass than France. Fifty-four percent of Ukrainian land is used for

Cherkassyrybkhos, SR OOO

[ AQUACULTURE ]

Ukrainian entrepreneurs have started to look at business opportunities for domestic aquaculture ventures.

agriculture, ranking it 3rd globally in this area. In fact, Ukraine’s agricultural arable land area is almost one-third of the existing agriculture land area of the entire European Union. FishFarmUkraine also plans to take advantage of Ukraine’s prowess as a leading food producer. Tom O’Callaghan, Advisory Board Member, says that Ukrainians traditionally appreciate high quality food. Yet at the same time Ukraine needs to do more to promote itself across the world as a country with an abundance of natural resources that compliment superior food production. Now that the Association Agreement with the EU has been ratified the company anticipates both an overhaul and modernisation of Ukrainian

food legislation, coupled with a greater awareness across Europe of the food production capability of Ukraine. We strongly believe that these two factors will also help strengthen and grow our business, he adds.

Regional demand for ďŹ sh will continue to exceed supply Indeed, Ukraine’s traditional relationships with neighbouring Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries facilitates the potential for greater regional growth. Neighbours Poland, Russia and Belarus imported over â‚Ź1.4 billion in fresh whole fish in 2013. Regional demands for fish products

will continue to outstrip supply for the foreseeable future. This adds to the attractiveness of aquaculture development across Ukraine. CEE and CIS countries account for about 8 of global fish imports. However, the signing of the EU Association Agreement will bring added possibilities for Ukrainian food businesses to develop within the world’s largest import market for fish. Mr Berezhnyi says that the company’s existing business model is initially focused on fulfilling the untapped demands of the local Ukrainian market. “However,â€? he adds, “looking at the horizon, we foresee teaming up with international partners to exploit wider export opportunities across Europe.â€?

COLUMBUS SPEDITION GmbH Food Transport & Port Logistics We offer „Full-Service“ in frozen logistics " " " " " " ! " "

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[ PROCESSING ] Superchilling offers several beneďŹ ts

Fresh ďŹ sh keeps up to two days longer Temperature is of key signiďŹ cance for the quality and shelf-life of ďŹ sh and seafood products. Superchilling is a particularly effective cooling technique: the temperature is reduced to slightly below 0°C so that the ďŹ sh is subject to intensive chilling without, however, freezing. Superchilling offers major beneďŹ ts compared to conventional cooling with ice: the shelf-life is extended and the texture of the esh becomes ďŹ rmer.

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hen a fish is stored in melting ice its body temperature falls to about minus 0.5 to 0.6°C, or below the significant limit of 0°C when liquid freshwater solidifies to ice. But although white fish such as cod, saithe and other fish species consist of 80 water they do not freeze at these temperatures because salts, proteins and other dissolved substances reduce the freezing point of their body fluids. In the case of cod, for example, the first ice crystals develop in the blood and tissue fluid at a temperature of minus 1°C. This means that it is possible to cool the fish to slightly below 0°C without it freezing completely and thereby losing the valuable quality status of a fresh product. This cooling

technique, which is somewhere between deep freezing and “normalâ€? storage on ice, is called superchilling. The word is used in everyday language for almost every cooling technique for which the temperature is slightly below the critical value of 0°C. However, the whole fish – both on the outside and in its interior – must have temperatures of nearly -1°C to a maximum of -3°C for it to be “realâ€? superchilling. There are certain differences from fish species to fish species but in general it can be said that at temperatures of -2.0 to -2.2°C about half of the fluids contained in the fish’s body will be frozen. Only “realâ€? superchilling will bring the desired key benefits of this technique. The lower

When the fillets leave the cooling tunnel they have a core temperature of -1 to -1.5°C which means they can be more efficiently skinned. 28

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temperatures in comparison with normal ice storage reduce bacterial growth which strongly retards spoilage and decomposition processes, so the fish keeps and remains edible for longer. Depending on the quality and freshness of the original product superchilling can extend shelf-life by two to four days. This widens the time slot that exporters and traders have at their disposal for marketing the product. Superchilled products can, for example, be transported over longer distances to the customer without suffering serious freshness loss which allows exporters to choose a more economical means of transport, such as sea freight instead of air freight. Compared to conventionally ice cooled fishes, traders have more

time in which they can offer the products in the usual quality. Just exactly how long, depends largely on the concrete conditions of superchilling. When stored in chip ice white fish such as cod with a water content of 80 to 82 are edible for about 15 days. If the raw materials are fresh, and cooling measures are carried out correctly, there are practically no serious quality differences during the first 12 days between fish that is stored conventionally on ice and superchilled fish. The superchilling technique shows its real value when storage time exceeds this. At temperatures of about -1.0°C where about 10 to 15 of tissue fluid has solidified to tiny ice crystals shelf-life already rises to about 20 days. At

Immediately after filleting, the fillets are washed in ice-cold water which precools them. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ PROCESSING ] -2.2°C even to 25 days. However, at this stage already a good half of the tissue fluid has frozen to ice. This is considered acceptable because it hardly limits the usability as a fresh product. At -2.8°C, when the fish’s shelf-life rises to 35 days, nearly all of the tissue fluid is frozen. The fish still has a certain elasticity but it is no longer suited to processing forms such as smoking. Drip loss rises considerably during filleting because the ice crystals grow during gradual freezing and pierce the cell membranes like sharp needles. In contrast to shock freezing where due to sudden lowering of the temperature only very few ice crystals develop, during superchilling at a temperature range of around -3°C when the cooling process

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slowly turns into freezing, a very large number of sharp ice crystals are formed which penetrate the sensitive cells and tissue.

Superchilling makes the tissue structure of the fillets firmer Superchilling is a very effective, but also very demanding, sensitive and complex cooling technique. To prevent extensive freezing of the product surfaces and the development of ice crystals within the tissue (which can cause structural damages, deterioration of fillet texture, and increased drip loss) processors today try to keep the temperature in the range of -1°C to -1.5°C during superchilling. This temperature range is what could be

called a compromise at which the benefits of the technique can be enjoyed to a large extent without the product being exposed to the risk of a possible quality loss. Superchilling has other advantages than the extension of shelflife. If the chilling technique is used correctly the whole fish is chilled right into its interior to a temperature of about -1°C. In this range, just before freezing, the blood and other body fluids are viscous or semi-fluid which makes the flesh firmer, more elastic and more resilient for the subsequent processing stages. The firmer tissue enables particularly smooth cuts and much more attractive fillets that differ noticeably from conventional products – even to the unskilled

eye. Such premium quality usually gets higher prices on the markets, too. The firmer flesh also enables a clearer, more exact cut during trimming of the fillet. The yield rises on average by 2 to 3. Because the fish is already very cold when filleted and the fillets continue to store this cold, product quality remains largely constant throughout processing. On top of that, the process is less expensive because less ice – if any ice at all – is needed for cooling the fish at the processing plant and during transport to the customer. In fact, cooling with ice would even be of disadvantage if the temperature of the superchilled fish is below -1°C because some kinds of ice are warmer and would thus neutralize the benefits of superchilling. Because

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[ PROCESSING ] as drip loss in both superchilled temperature ranges were less marked than would have been theoretically expected. The most outstanding differences were in the textural hardness of the fillets which was significantly higher in the fillets that had been kept at -3.6°C than those that had been kept at -1.4°C. The most important result, however, was that the shelf-life of vacuum packed salmon fillet portions could be more or less doubled with superchilling at both temperatures compared to conventionally ice cooled products.

Raw materials must be absolutely fresh Superchilled fillets can be more easily skinned, giving the fillets a smooth, firm and very attractive surface.

no, or hardly any, ice is needed this increases the efficiency of transport since more fish can be transported in the insulated polystyrene boxes. Sometimes a bit of dry ice snow will be added to the fillets for longer journeys to keep the temperature low. Up to now, the superchilling technique has mainly been used for sensitive fish species and their fillets. For example, white fish such as cod or haddock: the shelf-life of these species can be extended measurably at a temperature range of between -1.2°C and -1.4°C. This has been confirmed by scientific experiments that have been carried out, for example, in Iceland and the UK. An Icelandic study which compared the chemical, microbial and sensory properties of cod cooled conventionally with ice and superchilled cod products confirmed for example a two-day extension of shelf-life and freshness in the superchilled products. This result rather surprised

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the scientists because the differences between the two product groups in pH value, water content, water retention capacity, and bacterial contamination were actually only very slight. The researchers see the reason for this only minor difference in the optimal and constant cooling of the samples in the laboratory that ensured almost the same basic conditions and they announced that they wanted to repeat the test under conditions that more resembled real working conditions. However, the superchilling technique is also of course suited to other fish species, for example salmon. In Norway, Atlantic salmon from aquaculture have been examined to see what differences there were in superchilled fillet portions that were kept at different temperatures (-1.4°C and -3.6°C) compared to conventionally ice chilled and frozen portions. Here, too, the differences in key values such

Although superchilling maintains the freshness and quality of fish and seafood products for a longer period, once freshness or quality has been lost they cannot be restored. A fish in which spoilage processes are fairly advanced will not get better through superchilling. That is why this complex chilling technique is only worthwhile for top-quality products of absolute freshness. Fishes from aquaculture are particularly suited to superchilling, for example, since they can be harvested as required and immediately cooled to the desired temperature. In the case of fishes that have been caught at sea it is usually day fresh catches that are used, i.e. fishes that are landed on the day they are caught. But even catches from fishing vessels that remain at sea for longer can be suited to superchilling if the fish is immediately cooled on board to below 0°C and subsequently stored at this temperature. Different techniques are used here but most of them are based on the same principle. The fish is first packed in ice as usual and

then the temperature of the fish and ice mixture reduced further with the help of technical cooling techniques and kept constant at just under 0°C. On some Portuguese trawlers that operate in warm water regions of the Atlantic the holds have been divided into several sections using vertical stainless steel walls. After the catch, the boxes that are filled with water, ice and fish are placed between these vertical walls, the distance between which is about that of the width of the fish boxes. Water and ice serve as the cooling medium that ensures consistent heat transfer. The stainless steel walls are fitted with U-shaped pipes through which a refrigerant constantly flows. Its temperature is precisely controlled and adjusted using technical refrigeration units. This system makes it possible to keep the fish at the desired value of below 0°C with high accuracy. The catch arrives superchilled in the port and can then be further processed as required. Because it is fairly expensive to convert a fishing vessel to enable the use of this Portuguese chilling method some British trawlers use a simpler superchilling technique. This method is based on blowing in ice-cold air. Flat fish boxes are stacked on top of one another after icing so that sufficient gaps and intermediary spaces remain between them for the ice-cold air that is produced by refrigeration sets to flow through and circulate. This simple superchilling technique is perfectly suited to storing fish below 0°C straight after the catch at sea. However, it is considerably more difficult to achieve a uniform homogenous cooling

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[ PROCESSING ] result using the cold-air refrigeration technique. Whilst fishes that are lying on the surface often freeze in the ice-cold air, it can be several degrees warmer in the interior of the fish box. This endangers the freshness status of the fishes and often even leads to the fishes at the bottom sticking together and forming blocks when melting ice-water freezes again in the cold air. Heat then has to be used to get the fishes apart again and this, of course, interrupts the superchilled chain. Superchilling on fishing vessels above all offers the advantage of being able to increase the duration of the fishing trip in accordance with the durability of the fish species. Depending on the on-board storage temperature, for example, cod can have been caught already three weeks prior to landing. Of course, in spite of superchilling, such fishes will have a lower quality and freshness than fishes that have only been stored for a few days on ice. Superchilled catches only enable freshness benefits when they are compared with fishes that are just as old that have been kept on ice the whole time. Superchilled fish whose potential storage time after the catch has already been largely used is hardly utilisable for the fresh market. And such raw materials are not suitable at all for the production of frozen foods such as IQF fillets.

Superchilled cod from the Lofoten Islands for customers throughout Europe In the meantime some technology producers have even developed mechanical solutions for superchilling fresh white fish fillets and loins efficiently prior to packaging. The SuperChiller www.eurofishmagazine.com

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from Marel, for example, combines the advantages of the well-known blast and contact cooling techniques. Before the 1-4°C fillets pass through the chiller on a Teflon conveyor belt they go through a cooling bath with slurry ice (made of frozen salt water) which has a salinity of between 1 and 2.5. This prevents the fillets from freezing to their interiors in the minus 8°C air current of the chiller. Through close contact with the Teflon conveyor belt and the icy air current so much heat is removed from the fillets that when they leave the chiller again after eight to ten minutes their core temperature is approximately -1°C. The superchilling process stabilises the fillet structure so that it will be more resilient to subsequent mechanical stresses that occur during processes such as skinning. The Norwegian company Aker Seafoods is one of the companies that has for years been offering superchilled white fish fillets. The company’s marketing concept is based on maximum processing of the fish. Their range comprises mainly fresh fillets, loins and portions. Cod accounts for about 55 of superchilled production, a quarter is haddock and the remaining 20 saithe. Fresh products spoil quickly however, and every hour that the fish loses during processing and transport shortens the remaining shelflife in the counter or shelves at the retailer’s. The superchilling line at the Stamsund processing plant on the Lofoten Islands has enabled Aker to broaden its expertise in the freshness segment. The whole line in which the company invested more than 4 million euros has a daily capacity of 20,000 kg product weight. Aker mainly processes daily catches to superchilled products

but partly other raw materials, too. These must not, however, be older than 3 to 5 days. Because the Aker company on the Lofoten Islands is located at the centre of highly productive fishing regions for cod and other white fishes, two thirds of the landings can be processed to superchilled fillets and portions. Only in autumn and winter is the landed cod often not fresh enough for superchilled products because the fish swarms migrate northwards and the trawlers thus have to overcome longer distances to the fishing grounds. Everything in the company is geared to fast processing. From the pier at which the trawlers land their catches it is only a few metres to the filleting machines. After filleting, the fillets are washed and

then immediately cooled in a cooling tunnel to -1 to -1.5°C. The icecold fillets can be skinned more sparingly and have less gaping. After skinning, an Intelligent Portion Cutter cuts the tails off the fillets in a pre-defined size. The most important product of the superchilled line is loins which are cut and trimmed by hand to ensure maximum yield. After that the fresh loins and fillets are packed in insulated boxes for transport. The whole process from arrival of the fish to the superchilled fillet takes just under ten minutes. The main buyers of the high-quality products are located in France and nearly half of the production of the Stamsund Aker plant are exported to there. The remainder is divided between Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Benelux states and Germany. MK

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The Croatian small pelagic fishery is mainly with purse seiners. Sardines and anchovies are the target species and the boats fish with lights to aggregate the fish.

Fisheries and aquaculture in Croatia

Accession to the EU has been demanding but beneďŹ cial Croatia has a coastline of just under 6,300 km, nearly three quarters of which can be attributed to the roughly 1,250 Croatian islands in the Adriatic. The long and picturesque coast combined with temperate weather and good food has made Croatia a favoured destination for tourists from all over the world. In 2012 10.3m foreign tourists visited Croatia, a 40% increase since 2003. The Croatian coast does not only support tourism, but is also the source of an active ďŹ shery and marine aquaculture industry producing pelagic and demersal ďŹ sh and seafood, farmed seabass, seabream, shellďŹ sh, and tuna. In the interior of the country there is both capture ďŹ shery and farmed production of freshwater ďŹ sh – primarily carp and trout.

T

he fisheries and aquaculture sector in Croatia makes a very small contribution to national GDP estimated at somewhere between 0.2 and 0.7. As in many other parts of Europe this low proportion hides significant regional differences. In parts of Croatia, fisheries or aquaculture may be the only significant economic activity and an important source of jobs and livelihoods for the local community 32

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particularly on some of the islands. A thriving fisheries and aquaculture sector is therefore critical for the sustainability of these communities. Since Croatia joined the European Union in July 2013 the fisheries and aquaculture sector has access to funding from the European Fisheries Fund, and in the new financial period the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which offer support for the

implementation of the European Common Fisheries Policy. The country’s accession took place as one programing period (20072013) was concluding and the next (2014-2020) was about to begin. This brought several practical problems as the old CFP was applied, while simultaneously the implementation of the new one had to be prepared, a situation that placed huge demands on the administration.

Scrapping may lead to a more profitable fleet Commercial fishing is carried out in the Adriatic Sea, where the Croatian fishing area is administratively divided into the inner and the outer division which are further subdivided into 11 zones. The Croatian fleet is overwhelmingly made up of small vessels. According to the EU Fleet register out of a total www.eurofishmagazine.com

CROATIA

Petar Baranovic, Head of the Fisheries Advisory Council, and Member of the Croatian Parliament

of 7,500 vessels over 90 or 6,900 vessels have a length of less than 12 m. A variety of different gear is used to fish, including dredges, trawls, purse seines, beach seines, gill nets, longlines, and pots and traps. Many of the vessels are multipurpose vessels that use different kinds of gear depending on the season and the species to be targeted. However, of the total catch the largest volumes are caught by purse seines (over 90) followed by towed gears (6). The bulk of the remainder was caught using gillnets and beach seines. Catches with other types of gear are negligible. The fleet is fairly old with only 8 of the vessels less than five years old, and 46 between twenty and forty years, while a further 12 is between forty and fifty years. Some of the fishing vessels are poorly equipped with inefficient engines, and inadequate cooling and storage facilities, which affects competitiveness. They thus require investments to improve working conditions and safety on board. The vessel scrapping programme could pave the way for very old and non-viable vessels to be removed from the fleet and make the remainder of the fleet more profitable. Petar www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Lav Bavcevic, Head of the Fisheries Advisory Centre

Baranovic, the head of the Fisheries Advisory Council, a body that advises the Minister of Agriculture on fisheries policy, feels that if the compensation offered is fair, instead of investment in renewal of non-competitive vessels older fishermen and those with obsolete vessels will be encouraged to leave the business. Since Croatia has 70 of the sardine catches in the Adriatic reducing the pelagic fleet could contribute to stability of the stock, says Lav Bavcevic, the head of the Fisheries Department within the Agricultural Advisory Service. On the other hand, reducing the demersal fleet will have less impact on shared stocks in the Adriatic as here it is the Italians who catch the majority.

Better infrastructure at ports to improve product quality Croatia also suffers from a lack of landing sites with the necessary infrastructure to maintain the quality of the catch. In addition the competition with other users of the facilities such as pleasure vessels and recreational fishermen compounds the difficulties faced by commercial fishers. Cooling

and storage facilities, distribution infrastructure, as well as facilities for the provision of fuel, vessel repair and maintenance all need to be upgraded at ports and landing sites. Better services in the ports such as the availability of ice and cold storage facilities will lead to improved handling and ultimately better quality, which should fetch a higher price for the fish. This should work as an incentive for fishermen to bring the catch where it can be properly handled. These ports with good infrastructure will presumably also be better at monitoring the landings and maintaining the data for the official records than other landing sites. Ante Misura, the head of the Directorate of Fisheries, thinks that the number of landing sites and ports that now number some 250, should be brought down to perhaps 70. Further steep reductions are probably not feasible as fishers cannot be expected to sail an extra 20 miles to land the fish.

Evolution of cooperatives to POs expected gradually Croatian fishermen have joined together forming a number of

cooperatives before Croatia joined the EU. Today there are 19 cooperatives with some 450 members which were established primarily to improve the prices that fishermen got for their catch. Cooperatives vary in size and also in the kind of services they provide their members with some of them taking delivery of, storing, and finding buyers for the catch, while others have gone a step further and also invested in processing facilities. Cooperatives may only have members from one fishery, say the small pelagics purse seine fishery, or may have a combination of pelagic fishers, demersal fishers, and mixed fishers as members. With accession to the EU it is hoped that cooperatives will become producer organisations (POs), which will play a meaningful role in the management of fisheries and in achieving the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy. While some cooperatives are keen to turn themselves in to POs as soon as possible others are more diffident saying they need to wait for changes to national legislation before they can become POs. Croatian fishers, like those in other countries, tend to be individualists and forming cooperatives, which called for cooperation rather than competition was in itself a major step. POs place even greater demands on their members to cooperate. These are significant cultural changes which cannot be hurried. POs and the ideas behind them will work only if the fishers accept them, says Lav Bavcevic. As the EU legal framework governs these issues almost exclusively, the possibility to significantly influence them by way of national legislation is minor. It is expected that the first POs will be formed within a year, and once the others see the benefits, they will follow.

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CROATIA

Small pelagics form the overwhelming majority of catches The majority of the species caught is small pelagic fish – mainly sardines and anchovies, with some very limited quantities of horse mackerel and chub mackerel. Demersal fish is a valuable product group comprising mainly red mullet and hake, with smaller volumes of sole among other species. Demersal fish are typically sold fresh to Italy. Catches also include small volumes of cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish), crustaceans (nephrops, prawns), and bivalves (clams, scallops, mussels). The catches have gone from 52,400 tonnes in 2010 to 75,269 in 2013, fluctuating between the years. About 97 of the catch is made up of pelagic and demersal fish while cephalopods, crustaceans, and bivalves constitute the rest. Between 2010 and 2013 the structure of the catch has changed with the catch of sardines increasing as a proportion of the total. Sardine catches went from 27,000 tonnes in 2010 to 53,000 tonnes in 2013 increasing from 51 of the total marine catches in 2008 to 70 in 2013. At the same time anchovy catches have declined from 14,000 tonnes in 2010 to 8,900 tonnes in 2013 and as a proportion of the total from 26 to 12. Although there is a clear sign of increase, some of these trends can also be explained by much stricter control rules and improvements in statistical data collection. Both pelagic fishermen and canned fish producers have noticed a decline in the size of the anchovies and the sardines they are catching. Some attribute it to the tuna which have apparently increased in number and which are feeding on the larger sardine and anchovies individuals. Tuna and other large predators are 34

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also responsible for scattering schools of small pelagics making them difficult to catch, as well as damaging nets. Changes in the volumes of pelagics caught and in the structure of the catch may also play a role in the smaller average size. The fisheries administration is also concerned and is introducing prohibitions on fishing during certain seasons and in certain areas to protect the spawning fish as well as juveniles, and to safeguard the areas they breed in.

Recreational fishers keep freshwater capture production stable Croatia's freshwater fishery includes both commercial and recreational fishing. Commercial fishing has declined significantly, only 33 licenses were issued in 2011, compared with the pre-war period when more than 10 times as many permits were allotted. The fishing takes place on the Croatian stretches of the Danube and the Sava rivers, with most of the permits being for the Danube. Catches in 2013 amounted to about 53 tonnes which is about 9 of the total fishery. Total freshwater catches amounted to some 612 tonnes in 2013, but it is sports

Total EU allocations of European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, selected countries, euro Rank out of 27 Spain

1,16 1,620,889

1

Italy

537,262,559

3

Poland

531,219,456

4

Croatia

252,643,138

7

Denmark

208,355,420

10

Romania

168,421,371

11

Latvia

139,833,742

13

Estonia

100,970,418

16

63,432,222

19

Lithuania Others

2,585,572,385

EU27 (*)

5,749,331,600

* LU is excluded, because it is not recipient of EMFF. DG MARE

fishing that is responsible for most of the catches. Sports fishing is a popular pastime in Croatia with anglers reporting catches of almost 560 tonnes of fish in 2013. Volumes from the freshwater capture fishery have remained more or less stable for the four years up to 2013, fluctuating around 635 tonnes. In 2013 catches of common carp were some 27 of the total followed by Prussian carp at 17. Other species included common bream, pike and grass carp. The problem with recreational fishing is that while the volumes are apparently not

large it is difficult to get accurate data as much of the catch remains unrecorded. Another problem related to this category of fishing is direct sales to hotels and restaurants, which represent a great challenge to the inspection services.

New sites, support from EMFF should boost marine aquaculture production The aquaculture sector in Croatia comprises both marine aquaculture and freshwater farming.

The marine aquaculture sector in Croatia produces predominantly seabass and seabream. The demarcation of new sites and support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund is expected to encourage production. www.eurofishmagazine.com

CROATIA

Croatia was a pioneer in the farming of seabass and seabream in the Mediterranean growing these species in cages in the sea back in the 80s. This early advantage could not be maintained however and was set back significantly by the war in ex-Yugoslavia. Croatian mariculture production today consists mainly of seabass and seabream with a small volume of mussels and oysters in addition. Farming of Atlantic bluefin tuna is a more recent activity involving the capture of young tuna, which are then stored in cages and farmed on a diet of small pelagic fish in a cycle varying from 1 to 3 years. This production is governed by ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Altogether, mariculture production (seabass, seabream, tuna, mussels and oysters) has increased from 9,000 tonnes in 2010 to 10,500 tonnes in 2013. This data, however, is partially the consequence of the changes in statistics – the final production data is still to be validated. Seabass and seabream output has fluctuated between 4,000 and 6,000 tonnes, while tuna production has been between 1,600 and 2,600 tonnes. The new CFP recognises the importance of aquaculture, but Croatia is a popular tourist destination and any expansion needs to take into account the impact on tourism. In some counties, says Lav Bavcevic, the coastal zone planning has been done and it is possible to establish a fish or shellfish farm, but to really see an increase in production, we need to open new areas to farming activities. At the moment, this is a highly time consuming procedure as it needs to go through several levels of government and after that the business plans of potential investors need to be evaluated. However, the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Aquaculture (NSPA) and the www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Commercial ďŹ shing vessels (including the 3500 vessels within the category of small scale coastal ďŹ sheries) by size, 2013 Size of vessels (m)

Tonnage (GT) Engine power (kW)

Number of vessels

0 >=5.99

3026

42292

2555

6 >=11.99

14773

216962

4559

12 >=17.99

7135

63695

398

18 >=23.99

8272

35836

128

24 >=39.99

128

19590

64780

>=40

656

2500

2

Total:

53452

426064

7770

Directorate of Fisheries

Commercial ďŹ shing vessels (including the 3500 vessels within the category of small scale coastal ďŹ sheries) by gear, 2013 Type of vessel

<12

>=12

Total

Dredgers

7

6

13

Trawlers

244

373

617

Purse seiners

109

220

329

Gillnetters

5645

39

5684

Vessels using hook and line gears

91

5

96

Longliners

291

3

294

Trap setters

189

1

190

Vessels using beach seines

227

3

230

Other

311

6

317

TOTAL

7114

656

7770

Directorate of Fisheries

The cooperative Adria is managing the newly renovated port in Tribunj for its member vessels and other fishers. Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014

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CROATIA

Croatian capture fisheries, tonnes Species Pelagic fish

Crustaceans

Cephalopods

2012

2013

European pilchard

26,749

46,051

43,527

53,085

13,758

14,382

8,109

8,904

Jack and horse mackerel

399

368

297

461

Atlantic bluefin tuna

388

372

373

389 5,553

5,417

3,133

4,474

European hake

690

777

919

1,138

Red mullet

791

1,143

1,318

1,104

Mullet

143

208

94

112

Pickarel

180

215

194

162

Bogue

149

122

104

98

Common sole

238

318

47

253

Other species

1,907

1,710

1,681

1,447

17

15

10

13

526

490

477

672

8

12

55

233

Mediterranean mussel

27

32

29

49

Other bivalves

73

123

101

193

213

289

320

391

82

105

182

189

605

629

663

768

Common spiny lobster Norway lobster and other crustaceans

Bivalves

2011

European anchovy

Other pelagic species Demersal fish

2010

European flat oyster

European squid and other squids Common cuttlefish Common octopus and horned and musky octopuses

Other marine organisms (corals, sponges, etc.) Total

37

41

52,397

70,535

27 63,001

40 75,269

Directorate of Fisheries

Production from Croatian carp farms has been stable for the last few years. While carp is popular consumers are not willing to pay more than a certain amount for the fish so producers are fighting to reduce their costs and are diversifying into related activities such as nature tourism, angling, and bird hunting. 36

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Operational Programme (OP) for the period 2014-2020 is expected to address these issues resulting in significantly simplified procedures and faster licencing. While the lack of sites and the corresponding lack of coastal infrastructure for fish and shellfish farming is clearly one of the barriers to increasing aquaculture production in Croatia, another has been the high investment, the long gestation period, and the uncertain returns associated with farming. However, the EMFF offers support for aquaculture activities which should spur investments in the sector and lead to an increase in production over time.

Carps and rainbow trout the main freshwater farmed species The freshwater farming industry includes semi-intensive production of cyprinids in natural earth ponds and the cultivation of rainbow trout usually in raceways. Cyprinid production is dominated by common carp with smaller volumes of bighead carp and grass carp. The fish are grown in monoculture or in polyculture with ponds containing, in addition to the species mentioned, pike, pikeperch, and catfish. The fish in the ponds are typically fed with a mixture of grain and have a growing cycle of three years, while in the case of rainbow trout it usually takes two years to achieve a market-sized fish. Freshwater farmed production is essentially split between cyprinid species and rainbow trout, which together account for 99 of the yield. The relative proportions have varied over the five years to 2012 with rainbow trout accounting for between 28 and 50 of the total. Total production has remained more or less steady at about 4,500 tonnes with a peak in 2011 of 6,100 tonnes. www.eurofishmagazine.com

CROATIA

Freshwater catches from sports ďŹ shing and commercial ďŹ shing*, main species, tonnes Species

2012

2013

Carp

186

2010

185

2011

179

164

Prussian carp

112

109

109

107

Bream

68

64

64

65

Pike

51

48

42

50

Grass carp

56

57

52

48

Wels

40

40

38

39

Sander

20

19

17

20

Other

119

124

131

120

TOTAL

651

645

632

612

Directorate of Fisheries, *Commercial ďŹ shing catches averaged 52 tonnes per year

Regionalisation is a welcome step forward Joining the European Union has influenced the fisheries administration’s approach to tackling issues. Living in a small country Croatians are close to their institutions and can approach them through representative bodies, says Mr Bavcevic. Now as a small part of a big EU we are not going to easily be able to influence decisions, so we need to change our approach to how we solve problems. Mr Bavcevic is therefore well satisfied with the idea of regionalisation which is enshrined in the new Common Fisheries Policy and will enable

countries fishing in the same sea basin to suggest common measures. For example, in the case of the discard ban Croatia is working together with Slovenia and Italy to formulate a plan to implement the ban for the Adriatic. Krstina Jelavic, the representative of the fishing affiliation within the Croatian Chamber of Economy in MEDAC (Mediterranean Advisory Council), says that administration, industry, and other stakeholders from all three countries work together on the plan to create a policy that is broadly acceptable. What is important is that policy takes into account regional specificities rather than having the same regulation for

Krstina Mislov Jelavic, Representative of the Fishing Affiliation within the Croatian Chamber of Economy in MEDAC. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Freshwater farmed ďŹ sh production, tonnes Common carp Rainbow trout Grass carp (=White amur) Bighead carp Silver carp

2010

2011

2012

2013

1,816 2,482 231 309 73

2,891 2,481 158 522 95

2,484 1,000 202 296 88

2,100 345 209 303 127

Directorate of Fisheries

Marine farmed ďŹ sh and shellďŹ sh production, tonnes European seabass Gilthead seabream Atlantic blueďŹ n tuna European at oyster Mediterranean mussel

2010

2011

2012

2013

2,800 2,400 1,680 60 2,000

2,775 1,719 1,610 150 3,000

2,453 2,173 1,907 150 3,000

2,825 2,978 2,616 50 1,950

Directorate of Fisheries

everyone. This point is emphasised by Ivan Birikic, President of the Fishing Affiliation within the Croatian Chamber of Economy, who points out that it is very important to consider the differences between sea basins, fishing traditions, and fisheries, when formulating policy. By doing that the regional approach could ultimately give us a better and more complete picture of what is happening in the sea, he says. The ban on discards in the small pelagics fishery comes into force

Ivan Birikic, President of the Fishing Affiliation within the Croatian Chamber of Economy.

from 1 January 2015 while for some demersal species the ban is effective from 2017, and for others from 2019. For whitefish the issue is far more complex than it is for small pelagics, a point that is forcefully made by Mr Baranovic. He feels strongly that a discard ban in the demersal fishery makes no sense in the context of a multi-species fishery. Rather than landing undersized fish it would be better to return them to the sea as fodder for other fish. In an oligotrophic (poor in nutrients) sea such as the Adriatic this would be a better way to utilise these fish, he says. Another issue that could cause problems is the lack of data on discarding. Since the ban only comes into effect in two years it should be possible to collect this information. Joining the EU has placed significant demands on Croatia. The response from the fisheries sector so far has been one of cautious optimism. This is likely to get more enthusisastic as unfettered access to a huge market opens new possibilities, funding from the EMFF starts to flow, and cooperation with neighbouring EU members gets closer resulting in a more sustainable and profitable fisheries and aquaculture sector.

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Omega 3 is Croatia’s biggest small pelagics cooperative

Looking for means to fund a much needed expansion Producer Organisations are one of the pillars of the European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). They contribute to achieving the objectives of the Common Organisation of the Market (CMO), an integral part of the CFP. The broad objectives of the CMO, which has been a part of the CFP since 1970, are to stabilise the market and guarantee fair prices for producers. It also seeks to improve the competitiveness of European producers, ensure a level playing ďŹ eld for all products sold in the EU, and support sustainability, among others. Producer Organisations (PO) play an important role in achieving these objectives.

A

lthough Croatia have does not have any recognised POs, it has a number of fishing cooperatives, which are slated to become POs. As of May 2012 there were 18 recognised fishing cooperatives in Croatia with a total of 443 members. Membership in the cooperatives varied from 7 members to 90 members.

Kali – a village with a long fishing tradition Omega 3 is one of the fisheries cooperatives established in the town of Kali on the island of Uglijan. Kali has been the site of a fishing tradition that goes back centuries and today too is well known as a hub of the fishing industry. In fact all the three ports on the island are in Kali. Some 90 of the approximately 1,700 inhabitants are connected to the fishing industry, either directly as fishers or working in a related industry. Residents from Kali have also emigrated to other parts of the world, such as Australia, where many of them continue to be involved in the fisheries sector in their new host country. This close connection to the sector made Kali an obvious choice to base the Omega 3 cooperative, when it was established at the end of 2008. Today it can 38

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boast 24 members with total catch volumes of 13,000 tonnes of small pelagic fish from 30 purse seiners. Of these vessels three are small, between 15 and 18 m, while the others are from 21 to 30 m. They all however exclusively target pelagic fish. The total volume caught by Omega 3 is bigger than any other cooperative and amounts to about 25 of the total Croatian catch of pelagics. In 2012 with the help of IPARD (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance in Rural Development) funds Omega 3 established a processing facility based in an industrial estate in Sopot-Benkovac on the Croatian mainland about an hour’s drive from Kali. Alen Lovrninov, the logistics manager at Omega 3, says the primary focus of the cooperative today is to try and maintain the quality of the fish that is caught so that even if volumes are lower the price is higher. This not only means encouraging the fishers to invest in ice and equipment such as tubs that will contribute to the quality. More than machinery we have to encourage a change in the way the fishers think, says Mr Lovrinov, as some of them have been fishing for the last 20 years and have very definite ideas about how they want to do things. Zlatomir Franov, the president of

Zlatomir Franov, President, Omega 3

Omega 3, fully supports the idea of improving the quality at the expense of quantity. We want to catch euros not fish, he says, and the price for premium quality fish is 30 higher than for the next grade. Omega 3 supports its members in improving the equipment on board that will result in better quality. Ice machines, refrigerated water systems, insulated bins will all help. So will the technology used to draw the fish from the water. The fisher has to learn to handle the fish better, which means not

taking 500 kg of fish from the water at a time, but taking 150 kg instead, so that the fish does not get damaged. At Omega 3 the quest for better quality does not stop on board the vessel, but continues through the value chain. When the fish is landed the effort is to get the fish as soon as possible into the factory and on to the processing line, so the cooperative has invested in fleet of five trucks that transport the fish to the factory. In case of need other trucks are hired as well. Often a truck will drive off with half a load www.eurofishmagazine.com

CROATIA

fish is frozen while the rest is sold to domestic canneries, to tuna ranchers who use it to feed the tuna, and for salting (mainly anchovies). Since the production facility went on stream in July 2012, it produced 3,000 tonnes of frozen product last year and expects to reach 4,000 tonnes by the end of 2014.

Sime Kosor, Manager, Omega 3

so as to reduce the time taken to get to the factory as a two hour wait can easily move the fish from premium grade to a class I product which means a 30 difference in price.

Cooperatives strengthen fishers bargaining power The cooperative system was set up primarily to create a market player that, because of the volumes of fish it was handling and the facilities it had invested in, would be

Lovre Vidov, Sales manager, Omega 3

in a stronger position to negotiate with buyers and get a better offer for the individual fishermen. This contrasted strongly with the situation before when fishers were at the mercy of buyers who could strike deals with the fisher knowing that he had no place to store the fish. Also, when the fishing was good there would be a glut of fish on the market and the prices would fall. This ability to store the fish is critical for the success of a cooperative. It means that you do not have to rush to the market with the

Three of the vessels in the Omega 3 fleet are small, between 15 and 18 m, while the others are from 21 to 30 m. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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fish. Other cooperatives that do not have cold storage facilities cannot negotiate terms that are as favourable to the fishers, says Sime Kosor, the manager of Omega 3, who conceived and implemented the project to build the freezing and storage capacity. Today this capacity is 4,000 tonnes, but our members catch 13,000 tonnes of fish in a year. This entire volume is also sold to the cooperative as the first buyer, which negotiates the contracts with the subsequent buyers of the fish. Four thousand tonnes of

Lovre Vidov, the sales manager at Omega 3, has found markets for the cooperatives products in other parts of Europe. The frozen fish is being sold to buyers in Spain, France, Italy and Greece. In Spain the frozen fish is used as bait by longline fishermen targeting hake. Fish for bait has to be of very high quality, says Mr Vidov, and the Spanish buyers are willing to pay high prices for it. In fact higher than the prices that a domestic cannery will pay. In France Omega 3 is supplying two canneries with sardines from the summer and fall catch, when the fish have a high fat content. Anchovies, either frozen or marinated, are exported to Spain, Greece, Italy, and Morocco, though the fish destined for Morocco is typically bought by French, Spanish and Italian customers who have it processed in Morocco. In Spain fish from Omega 3 is also sold on the retail market and to the HORECA (Hotels, Restaurants,

The catch is anchovies and sardines and depending on the season fishers can sometimes catch a mix of the two species. Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014

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CROATIA

1.5-2 tonnes an hour. The IQF machine that is currently installed can process 3 tonnes an hour and in addition there is a tunnel freezer for the production of frozen blocks that can deliver 20 tonnes of blocks a day. Typically the block freezer is used for the production of sardine blocks. For Omega 3 increasing its activities is important not only for the fishers who are its members, but also for the wider community in Kali as it is so closely linked to the fishery industry. As Mr Franov says when anything happens to the fish industry we feel it in Kali because unlike Zadar or other towns Kali is dependent on the fisheries sector for its wellbeing.

The factory is equipped with an individual quick freezing (IQF) machine and a tunnel freezer for the production of blocks. Omega 3 plans to add a further IQF machine and increase its storage capacity by 1,000 tonnes to be able to process more of the fish its members catch.

Catering) sector by local distributors. Altogether about 70 of the exported production goes to Spain.

Fresh pelagic fish is difficult to export It is the fresh fish that Mr Vidov wants to concentrate his efforts on. In general fresh fish is more difficult to deal with, particularly fresh pelagic fish, as it has a shelf life of only a few hours. However there may be markets for it for example in Italy, where pelagic fish is not caught for a couple of months in the year. This should present an

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opportunity for fish from Omega 3 at a much better price, than what can be got on the domestic market. The problem is getting the fish to the Italian market on time. Fishers in Istria to the north of Croatia and close to the Italian border can get their fish to the Italian market in a matter of hours, but for Omega 3 it is a more difficult task, as it is located further south. The more immediate focus for the cooperative is increasing freezing capacity and frozen storage. We plan to increase storage capacity by 1,000 tonnes and invest in another IQF machine that will handle

Omega 3 is no longer trying to recruit new members as its facility does not have the capacity to process additional volumes of fish. However, it is likely that some fishers, perhaps 15-20, will leave the sector in response to the Common Fisheries Policy’s vessel decommissioning scheme, feels Mr Franov. If that happens the cooperative will try and enrol more members. But the most important issue now is to try and find the funding necessary to expand the facility.

Fishermen’s Cooperative Omega 3 S.v.Lovre 64 23272 Kali Croatia Tel.: +385 23 281227 Fax: +385 23 281355 l.vidov@rz-omega2.hr www.rz-Omega 3.hr President: Zlatomir Franov Manager: Sime Kosor Sales manager: Lovre Vidov Logistics manager: Alen Lovrinov

No. of members: 24 No. of vessels: 30 pelagic purse seiners Main species: Sardines, anchovies Volumes: 13,000 tonnes per year Products: Fresh, frozen, marinated pelagic fish Facilities: IQF freezer, tunnel freezer for blocks Markets: Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Croatia

www.eurofishmagazine.com

CROATIA

Conex Trade has vessels, processing and distribution

EU membership facilitates access to new markets The Croatian fisheries sector includes marine capture fisheries, fresh water production, fish farming in the Adriatic and on land, tuna ranching, and a processing sector that converts the raw material into fresh, frozen, smoked, and canned products. In volume terms the Croatian fleet’s most important catches are those of Adriatic sardines and anchovies catches of which have averaged about 55,000 tonnes over the last five years. These species are the mainstay of a salting, marinating, and canning industry in Croatia that exports its products across Europe.

T

raditionally anchovies have been salted in Croatia. This is an artisanal product for which freshly caught Adriatic anchovies are used. The fish is layered in barrels with salt and allowed to mature for a period. In the past once the fish was ready it was filleted and the fillets placed in jars which were topped up with oil. Today however this second stage of the production process usually takes place in countries, where the cost of labour is lower, such as Albania, Tunisia, Morocco, or Algeria as the work of filleting the fish is highly labour intensive and can only be done by hand. There are exceptions however. Some companies in Spain and Italy have very strong brands and a long tradition of producing locally and their products have a very good reputation. As a result they can charge the high prices needed to maintain their production at home. These however are typically small companies with low volumes and only a minor share of the market.

Frozen, canned and salted small pelagics The fish canning industry in Croatia is relatively small and is dominated by perhaps a half a www.eurofishmagazine.com

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dozen big players. Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and in preparation for this these companies have over the last couple of years invested in new facilities and equipment to be able to compete on equal footing with canneries in the older EU states. Among the best known Croatian canned fish producers is the company Conex Trade that dates its existence back to 1989, when it specialised in the fishing and trading of white fish. Today however, Conex Trade specialises in the production of frozen fish, canned products, based on sardines, and salted anchovies from its facilities in Caporice about 30 minutes from Split along the Croatian coast. To ensure adequate supplies of raw materials Conex Trade has signed agreements with several local fishermen, but also has three of its own vessels catching these pelagic species in the Adriatic. Although these three vessels supply only about a quarter of the company’s needs of 9,000 to 10,000 tonnes of fish a year, they provide the company with a kind of insurance in case of need. As a result we have no trouble securing the volumes of fish we need for our production, says Mladen Milakovic, the sales director. The

Mladen Milakovic Jr, Director, Conex Trade

problem commonly voiced by companies using small pelagic fish from the Adriatic is that the fish have become smaller over the last few years. While up to a few years ago the average size was 32 pieces to a kilo, today the average has shrunk to 40 or 42

pieces a kilo meaning that fish can be anywhere between 38 and 45 pieces to a kilo. Processing smaller fish is less effective than processing bigger fish, they are more difficult to head and gut and wastage is

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014

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CROATIA

The raw material comes from the company’s own fleet of three purse seiners as well as from other vessels with whom the company has agreements.

proportionately higher. While the volumes are the same smaller fish mean greater numbers have to be processed to achieve the same output, which means higher costs. Processors are therefore concerned about the lack of larger fish. Among the theories being put forward is the presence of larger volumes of tuna in the Adriatic. Tuna feed on anchovies and herring and fishermen have noticed how tuna seem to be more prevalent in their fishing areas. Croatian purse seiners use a system of lights to attract and agglomerate the fish, which are then surrounded by the net. Fishermen complain increasingly about tuna that attack the schooling fish and disperse them, and they feel that greater numbers of larger specimens of may be falling prey to the tuna.

Products for human consumption as well as tuna feed Conex Trade built its first processing plant some four years

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ago. This was to process salted anchovies and included a freezing line. A couple of years later the processing operation was expanded with another plant, this time a cannery for the production of sardines. These can be produced economically in Croatia, as it is possible to use machines rather than labour to head and gut the fish before placing it in a can and cooking it. We do not however use machines to place the fish in the cans, says Mr Milakovic, as this does not give as attractive a product as when the fish are introduced manually. We buy anchovies, sardines, as well as mixed fish, which we freeze and sell to the tuna ranching industry, he continues. Anchovies and sardines have different seasons so normally they are not caught together, however there is always some overlap. The peak season for anchovies is May to October, while sardines can be caught more or less throughout the year with the low season in October and November. Although catches of mixed

While the first processing line for the production of anchovies was established four years ago the second which started working two years ago was for the canning of sardines.

fish can be sorted, the more we handle the fish the lower the quality, says Mr Milakovic, so we prefer not to sort it to maintain the high quality that tuna ranchers expect. For the preparation of the salted anchovies the fish are headed and gutted manually and then laid in salt for a period of up to three months depending on the customer’s requirements. The semi-finished anchovies are then sold to be processed into

the final product which is popular on the Spanish, and Italian markets. With its canning line for sardine products Conex Trade was among the first canneries to introduce a 90 g sized can of sardines as opposed to the more traditional 120 g can. The smaller tin combined with the emphasis on smart branding has sparked a wave of imitations in the canning industry,

Sardines can be headed and gutted by machine, but they are placed in a tin by hand to ensure a neat and attractive appearance.

www.eurofishmagazine.com

CROATIA

says Mladen Milakovic with the result that cans from other companies also now weigh between 90 and 150 g. The company’s brand of canned fish, Adriano, covers for the time being a line of seven products. These include sardines in olive, sunflower, or vegetable oil, and sardines in a piquant, lemon, or tomato sauce. Sardines canned with vegetables completes the line-up. The market for these products is Spain which is a big market for canned seafood. Not only does Spain have its own canning industry it also imports canned products from North Africa, East Asia and other parts of Europe. However, Mr Milakovic feels that Conex Trade’s products are of high quality that they will displace cheaper products from the market. Already, he has noted that sales of his 90 g cans has been on the increase.

Efforts to increase quality start at sea The high quality starts already on board the vessels. These are equipped with ice generators, refrigerated water machines, insulated tubs, and other equipment to maintain the quality of the fish from the time it comes on board. The purse seiners usually go out for short trips leaving late in the evening and returning to shore the next morning. The fishing area extends from north of Zadar to Dubrovnik in the south. The catch is loaded rapidly into waiting trucks and is driven immediately to the factory so that it is processed within a short time of being caught. Purse seines are also the gentlest way of catching the fish as soon after the fish is caught it is transferred from the net in to the storage bins filled with icy water on the vessel. If there is too much fish it may be necessary to freeze it and process it on days that there is no fish. This is the case on 10 to 15 days out of 30 due mainly to www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The cans of sardines are topped up with oil, either olive or sunflower, or another vegetable oil.

natural phenomena. The four or five nights just before and right after a full moon are no good for fishing as the light from the moon prevents the use of the lights on board which are used to attract the fish. Then there are always some days when the vessels cannot fish due to bad weather. Quality control is monitored by the in house laboratory that checks samples of the raw material and the finished product. Analyses are carried out at the laboratory or the samples are sent to state approved facilities if more detailed tests need to be made.

Joining the EU has made deliveries faster The processing factory is currently operating a single shift for the canning activities producing 55,000 cans from 8 tonnes of fish. Mr Milakovic expects to start a second shift in the near future, but depends on

sales to the new markets the company is hoping to enter. Canned fish has a shelf life of up to two years and his potential new clients in France and the UK are taking their time about evaluating the product. The fact that Conex Trade is looking for new clients further into the EU is partly due to the advantages conferred on Croatia since it became a member of the

EU. This has meant a definite simplification in terms of the paperwork as well as the removal of customs inspections so that goods can reach their destinations in the EU quicker than before. While the EU market has opened up due to Croatia’s accession last year Conex Trade is also looking at markets in the US and Canada as well as countries in West Asia.

Conex Trade d.o.o. Caporice 144 HR 21240 Trilj Croatia Tel.: +385 21 712200 Fax: +385 21 712205 mladen.milakovic@conex-trade.com www.conex-trade.com/ Director: Mr Mladen Milakovic Activites: Fishing, freezing, salting, canning

Products: Salted anchovies (semifinished), canned sardines in different oils and sauces, IQF frozen fish Canning capacity/current production: 25m/12m cans Facilities: Canning factory, salting and freezing plant Certificates: ISO, IFS Markets: Spain, Italy, Croatia

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Crna Mlaka, a farm with 645 ha of ponds combines fish cultivation with a bird sanctuary, and is a protected site under the Ramsar Convention.

Crna Mlaka needs a different business model

Bird sanctuary threatens viability of ďŹ sh farm The freshwater farming industry in Croatia though not large has consistently produced around 6,000 tonnes for the decade up to 2012. The fact that this volume has not increased can be attributed to several factors and in this Croatia mirrors the rest of the EU, where aquaculture production has stagnated for years. In the rest of the world aquaculture is the fastest-growing animal protein production industry and it is expected to make an increasingly signiďŹ cant contribution to health and nutrition, global food security and employment among marginalised communities. The European Common Fisheries Policy recognises the potential of aquaculture and hopes to change the stagnation that dogs the sector in Europe by improving the policy framework so that it too can contribute to the economic and social wellbeing of coastal and other communities. In Croatia the freshwater farming sector comprises the warm water cultivation of cyprinids (chiefly common carp, grass carp, bighead carp, and silver carp) and the cold water production of salmonids (rainbow trout). The warm water species are usually farmed extensively in large earthen ponds in polyculture. These ponds often include small volumes of the carnivorous species pike perch and pike that apart 44

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from being valuable themselves are also useful in holding down the proportion of trash fish, species of no commercial value that enter the ponds through the water supply. There are approximately 30 pond farms in Croatia and the bigger ones in particular, because of the large water area, the presence of the fish, and the rural setting in which they exist, attract other birds and animals, many of which feed on fish.

Low density, environmentally friendly farming This has attracted the ire of fish farmers as the predators can do considerable damage to their stocks of fish. Beavers build unwelcome dams that can interfere with the flow of water into and out of the ponds, cormorants and herons both feed on the young fish and injure larger individuals resulting

either in secondary mortalities a few days later or leaving them too damaged to be farmed further, and other birds eat the feed that is intended for the fish. Farmers respond by shooting the predators or rigging up systems to scare them away. There is however one farm where the birds and animals are left completely undisturbed. This is Crna Mlaka, a farm with 645 ha of ponds owned by Ivan Prepolec an entrepreneur with a background in www.eurofishmagazine.com

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in the form of cereals, mostly corn, some barley, and some wheat. This feed together with the naturally occurring benthic fauna and plankton in the ponds provide the fish with the combination of energy and protein that gives them a firm and tasty flesh. Extruded feeds on the other hand are very expensive, lead to fish with too much fat, and waste the naturally occurring feed in the pond.

Extensive use of machinery to maintain ponds

Ivan Prepolec, Director of Crna Mlaka

the building industry. Crna Mlaka is both a fish farm, a bird sanctuary, and a protected site under the Ramsar Convention. Unusually, the land is actually owned by Mr Prepolec as opposed to being leased from the government, which is the case with most farms. Farming fish in a bird sanctuary is somewhat counter intuitive, but at the same time is not without its advantages. Firstly, says Mr Prepolec, there is no lead in the environment

as shooting and hunting is not permitted. Birds ingest small stones which they store in their gizzard and use to masticate the food they eat. Lead pellets released from hunters’ cartridges into the environment could thus end up inside the bird. Secondly, the farming is extensive with a low density (about 800 kg) of fish per ha, no aerators as the pond surfaces are too large, and no use of extruded feed. The only feed that is supplied to the fish is

The main species farmed are common carp, grass carp, bighead card and silver carp, with common carp dominating the production. Small volumes of pike and pike perch are also cultivated. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The Crna Mlaka site has existed since 1906, but was bought by Mr Prepolec in 1993. At that time the war had reduced production to a fraction of the farm’s capacity. Mr Prepolec brought with him a lot of machinery from his construction company and used it rebuild the 47 km of pond banks, which had fallen into a state of disrepair, and to repair and clean the ponds themselves. The use of machinery was a major improvement in terms of quality and efficiency compared with the manual labour that had been used before to maintain the ponds. It enabled the removal of tree roots that remained from the time the forests were chopped down to create the ponds at the turn of the nineteenth century, and cleared out vast quantities of mud and silt that had accumulated over the decades. While no changes were made to the number of ponds, the water surface was made larger as the weeds that covered parts of the surface were cut back in a number of places. In others, the weeds were left undisturbed to provide the birds with nesting places and because they had a positive impact on the stability of the pond banks. All the initial repair and maintenance work was not a one-off effort emphasises Mr Prepolec, but the first

step in a continuous process that is still ongoing. As part of the modernisation of the farm Mr Prepolec built a new hatchery with a capacity of 10m larvae in one cycle (a new cycle is possible each 8-10 days), which, in theory, is enough to supply the whole country. The hatchery has sections for broodstock, for incubation, hatching, and early on-growing indoors. However the hatchery is only used to produce the larvae needed for the farm’s own needs and thus is only used for one and a half to two months in the year. During the reproductive season in May and early June the broodstock are stimulated with hormones and the eggs and the milt collected. This is then mixed together to allow the milt to fertilise the eggs and the fertilised eggs are stored in incubation jars for about three days, when the larvae begin to hatch. The larvae are siphoned into bigger holding vessels, each of which has a capacity of 1m larvae, where the larvae stay there for 4-5 days during which time they feed on the yolk and do not need to be supplied with other feed. The larvae can be fed from the third day of hatching, but if they are introduced into ponds without the indoor on-growing it is not necessary to feed them. If they need to be kept inside due to bad weather or some other reason, they can be fed on artemia or some other simple larval feed – carp is not very demanding in the early life stages, says Kresimir Drasner, the farm manager.

Common carp dominates production Although the hatchery is currently only being used to produce larvae for the farm’s own requirements of common carp, grass carp, silver carp and bighead carp, Mr Prepolec is considering different options to utilise its capacity better. Among them is producing

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larvae for other farms, for restocking fish in the wild, or to start a breeding programme for other species. Pike and pike perch larvae are not produced in the hatchery explains Mr Drasner because the necessary volumes are too small. Instead he breeds them in small outdoor ponds under semicontrolled conditions. Although pike perch is a valuable species carp ponds are not the ideal environment to breed them because of the mud and the higher water temperature. For pike on the other hand the environment is not the problem. On the contrary they grow fast and can eat a lot of carp fry so they are stocked at low densities with market size carp. Therefore the volumes of these two species are relatively low; of the 350 tonnes of market-sized fish produced at Crna Mlaka, pike perch and pike amount to only 2-2.5 tonnes each. Eighty percent of the production is common carp and the remainder is distributed between grass, silver and bighead carp. After 4-5 days in the hatchery the carp larvae are introduced into small ponds of 1 ha to 2.5 ha. These ponds are carefully prepared before the larvae are introduced, the water is drained, the soil dug up, lime is added, and finally the water is fed back in through a 200 micron mesh to prevent trash fish larvae, insects and other hazards for the carp larvae from entering with the water. Near the banks of the pond piles of chicken manure are placed to trigger the build-up of the plankton that the carp larvae will feed on. It is a time consuming process, but one that, if done properly, can reduce mortality rates among the carp larvae from 80 or 85 percent to 50 percent. After a month or 45 days when the larvae are 2-3 g a fraction is fished out and introduced into 4, 5 and 10 46

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ha ponds. This reduces stocking density and enables bigger body masses. Were fry not removed, the high density would keep them small. By the end of the first year the fish are 50-100 g in weight. A three-year cycle refers to three feeding seasons rather than three calendar years so that the fish are actually only about 2.5 years old at the end of the cycle. After the second season they are 200-600 g and after the end of the third season they are 1.2-2.5 kg depending on the stocking density and their genetics. Mr Drasner has started a selection programme that will identify the fish with the best traits – size, shape, rapid growth, resistance to disease, tolerance to low oxygen levels – and use them as spawners.

High quality raw material for others to add value The harvesting of the marketsized fish starts at the end of September. Four fifths of the production is exported – to Germany, Italy, Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina. Exports almost exclusively take the form of live fish. Greater value addition, gutted fish on ice or fillets, are not really an option due to the realities of the market, says Mr Drasner. Germany and Italy have their own production and buyers are not interested in importing anything other than raw material at a favourable price so that the value can be added there; in Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia they have a preference for large fish which they consume at religious festivals and which they will clean and process at home, while in Croatia the market for processed freshwater fish does not exist and it would take a significant effort to create one. A portion of the fish is also sold for angling purposes in Croatia and abroad. Selling the fish live is easy

and lets us concentrate on our production rather than getting involved in the processing business, says Mr Prepolec. Despite the fact that the production is environmentally friendly because it comes from a protected site, the fish does not enjoy a premium on the market. Even in Germany, where consumers are generally conscious of the environment, the fish is sought because it is a threeseason fish that is fed on cereals giving the meat a better consistency, and not because it comes from a bird sanctuary. Similarly, we see little point in seeking an organic certification, says Mr Prepolec. The feed, organically grown cereals, will be significantly more expensive, yet the market will not accept the higher prices, we would have to charge. According to Mr Prepolec, this is the main reason that production of carp in Croatia is either stagnating or showing a declining trend, consumers are unwilling to pay more for the fish and fish farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to cover their costs.

Long term outlook of the farm is in some doubt Those that do are diversifying into other services, for example, shooting or angling. If Crna

Mlaka could function like any other carp farm and was not responsible for the sanctuary, it could earn substantial fees by allowing hunters to shoot ducks and coots. Other farms offer nature tourism or set aside ponds for angling purposes, but Crna Mlaka’s status as a sanctuary means visitors have to be strictly controlled. The inherent contradictions between maintaining both a fish farm and a bird sanctuary are making Crna Mlaka an unsustainable proposition. Mr Prepolec sees three options, either the government starts paying the farm compensation for the losses it suffers, or it lifts the protected status of the area and allows Crna Mlaka to be run as a regular commercial farm, or he stops production. The problem with stopping production is that over time the ponds will get covered in vegetation, the fish will disappear and if both water and fish vanish the birds will follow suit. This would completely undermine the sanctuary, which currently attracts some 200 species of birds including uncommon migratory species, but the essential incompatibility of the two activities, fish farming and bird protection, may leave Mr Prepolec with no alternative. How the government will react in this situation remains to be seen.

Crna Mlaka Tel.: +385 1 3755799 Fax: +385 1 3755 810 crna-mlaka@zg.htnet.hr Director: Ivan Prepolec Farm manager: Kresimir Drasner Activities: Freshwater fish farming Production: 500 tonnes (fry and market sized fish, roughly 35:65)

Species: Common carp (80% of production), grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp, pike, pike perch Product: Live fish Markets: Germany, Italy, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia Surface area of ponds: 645 ha No. of ponds: 20 Pond sizes: 1 ha to 240 ha

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Cromaris – Croatia’s biggest seabass and seabream producer

Expanding product line with organic ďŹ sh, meagre, and shellďŹ sh Croatia was one of the pioneers of the farmed seabass and seabream farming industry in the Mediterranean, experimenting with artiďŹ cial spawning techniques that would enable females to spawn several times in the year and with feeds that would provide the newly hatched larvae with nutrition. By the mid-seventies Croatia had a small commercial production of seabass and seabream.

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ther countries in the Mediterranean had however also been conducting trials and the initiative soon shifted from Croatia to Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece. Production in these countries soon exceeded output in Croatia, where the political problems in the 90s further constrained the development of the industry. In 2009 the Adris Group, a company with interests in tobacco, tourism, distribution and retail, consolidated three long-established players in the seabass and seabream farming sector, Cenmar, Marimirna, and Marikultura Istra, to form Cromaris. Today Cromaris is a fully integrated producer of seabass and seabream, which is the core of the production, and in addition, is farming meagre (Argyrosomus regius) and bivalves – mussels and flat oysters.

Seabass, seabream production spread over five sites Cromaris today is the biggest Croatian producer of farmed fish by a long margin. Estimated production for 2014 is 5,000 tonnes and is set to expand further. In contrast, the second biggest farmer of fish in Croatia has an output perhaps ten times less than that of Cromaris. The industry is quite fragmented in Croatia with one company sitting at the top of the www.eurofishmagazine.com

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pyramid, another five or so with a production of 200 to 500 tonnes and then a broad base of about 20 farms each producing about 50 tonnes. At Cromaris the seabass and seabream farming is spread over five sites, Lim and Budava in the northern part of the Adriatic, and Lamjana, KoĹĄara, and Dugiotok in the central Adriatic. In addition there is a hatchery at Nin in the central Adriatic, which is currently being completely restructured and renovated. The shellfish production is also in the north, in the Lim Bay and the Budava Bay in Istria. The company has invested heavily in technology to improve the quality of the final product. The commitment to quality starts already with the site selection and extends to all aspects of the production including proper handling all the way through the fish’s life cycle from larvae to the market-sized product. All our sites are in areas that are completely free of any kind of pollution, says Lovre Peraic´, the brand manager, and the feed the fish receive is from internationally recognised brands. The company is very particular about testing the feed in its in-house laboratory to make sure that the feed conforms to the declared specifications and contains no gmo’s (genetically modified organism) or terrestrial animal protein. As one of the ways

Marko Domijan (left), Farm Manager at the Lamjana site, and Lovre Peraic, Brand Manager

of monitoring the feed Marko Domijan, the farm manager at the Lamjana site, maintains trial cages that mirror the production cages. Thus, whatever feed is given to the production cages, the same procedure will be repeated in the trial cage. This way says Mr Domijan, if there are any problems in the production cages we will immediately check the trial cages to see if the problem is reflected there. If it is, then we will know the feed is very likely the culprit.

Market sized fish of 400 g is the main product While the company can produce fish of 1-1.5 kg the most commonly produced size is 400 g. This is due to a combination of market demand as well as the realities of

production. Producing 1 kg fish will require the number of cages to be doubled and will therefore need a larger site. In addition, the fish will have to be kept for two more feeding seasons, so costs multiply prohibitively. As a result most producers grow the fish to 400 g keeping a few which they grow to 1 kg. At Cromaris the fry are introduced into the cages from spring to October. The fry introduced in spring reach market size in 18-20 months. While those put in the cages in autumn will take over 24 months to reach market size as the fish do not grow in winter even though they are fed. In the second year the fish lose weight again due to spawning and need to compensate for this loss through the feed. It is thus cheaper and better for the cash flow to farm fish to 400 g and place them on the market.

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Cromaris is the single largest producer of seabass and seabream in Croatia. Total production including small volumes of dentex and meagre was about 5,000 tonnes in 2013.

In addition to seabass and seabream Cromaris is now producing its second generation of meagre. This is a fast growing and tasty fish, the problem however is that because it is a new species the market for it is still small. Building a market is a long term and expensive strategy and will take a dedicated effort as consumers are generally conservative. Seabass and seabream are today well established species with a high degree of market acceptance, but it has taken 30 years for them to reach where they are today. Cromaris is promoting meagre using public relation shows and articles in newspapers and is hoping to see consumption to pick up in the future.

the upgrade the hatchery will be able to produce 30m fry in two years and supply all the on-growing sites including Lamjana, which is located off Uglijan an island close to Zadar. Lamjana is Cromaris’ secondbiggest site and is divided into four areas, depending on the weight of the fry. The fish grow from 3 g, when they are introduced into the cages, to 100 g in the first area. Here the cages are 16 m in diameter while the net has a depth of 13 m and a mesh size of 8 mm. The area is safe for the fish, currents are not strong and the cages are easily accessed for maintenance

The fish are fed using different methods. Here the fish (seabream) themselves nudge a trigger to release the feed.

and to feed the fish. This is particularly important as at this stage the fry eat 5-7 times a day and the feeding is done manually. Once they reach 100 g the fish are moved to the second area, where the cages are bigger and the feed is delivered by feeding cannons installed in a boat. From 200 g to market size of 400 g the fish spend in the third area. Here the cages receive the feed automatically from a feed barge. This is a Norwegian system that dispenses the feed at regular intervals. Hoses from the barge connect to the cages and at fixed intervals the feed is propelled

through the hoses by air under pressure and is flung out from a rotating disperser in the cage which distributes it evenly at the water surface. The entire feeding process is monitored both at the surface and at a depth by cameras that transmit back to screens on the barge, so that the staff can see how the fish are feeding and interrupt the flow of the feed if necessary. As feed is 50 of the production cost preventing wastage is paramount. The system is so efficient that it requires just two people to feed and monitor all the cages at the site.

Continuous programme of investments Since 2009 when Cromaris was established and up until 2012 the company has invested EU30m in farming and processing technology. A further EUR20m is being invested in the hatchery to rebuild it completely. Currently the hatchery produces seabass, seabream, and dentex fry, however, the volumes are not big enough for the company’s requirements and it is forced to import 40 of the fry it needs. With 48

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A feeding barge is used to supply feed to the cages with the largest fish. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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As the fish grow in size the cages get bigger too as well as the mesh size of the net. The smaller the mesh the greater the impact of fouling as it tends to block the mesh and prevent the free exchange of water. This can result in a lack of oxygen in the water in the cage and so it is important that the nets are regularly removed and cleaned. The nets are cleaned in large rotating drums simply using water and friction. Using nets with chemical antifoulants would reduce the maintenance, but their use is incompatible with some of the certifications the company has achieved and is no longer permissible. A network of ropes supports the cages anchoring them in place. Mr Domijan estimates that there are about 20 km of ropes at the Lamjana site. These ropes provide a substrate for the mussel spat that occurs naturally in the Adriatic. As a result, each meter of rope has some 7 kg of mussels growing on it. These mussels form part of the Cromaris mussel production. The mussel-bearing ropes are taken out of the water and taken to a site where the mussels can grow to commercial size. Last year mussel production amounted to 100 tonnes. In fact, if the mussels are allowed to grow undisturbed they will either sink the cages or break the ropes, so they have to be removed in any case. The fourth area at the Lamjana site is where the company maintains its experimental cages. These are small cages where the growth rate of the fish using a certain feed is monitored, trials are run for new species, and other tests are carried out.

Fresh fish in Italy within 24 hours of harvest The fish is typically harvested from the cages at 06.00 in the www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The company has its own chain of eight retail outlets in Croatia.

morning and is then placed on ice in large thermally insulated tubs. These tubs are then sailed back to the delivery facility from where they are taken on to the sorting and processing factory in Zadar. Sixty-five percent of the production is exported and one of the biggest export markets is Italy. The importance of the Italian market is such that in 2013 Cromaris opened a branch in Italy, Cromaris Italia S.r.L. The company has a second sorting facility in Istria in the north and very close to the Italian border. Depending on where the fish has to go in Italy it can reach its final destination within 24-36 hours of being harvested. If the fish has to go to the south of Italy it would travel by ferry to Ancona, a journey of some 8 hours, and then be distributed from Ancona, for example, to Rome which takes a further 6 hours. Going to Verona and being distributed from there means the fish can be placed on the market within 24 hours. Cromaris currently produces about 5,000 tonnes of seabass and seabream and has reached

its maximum capacity at some of its production sites. At Lamjana, for instance, Mr Domijan is in the process of applying for a new license that will expand capacity by about 30 from 1,800 tonnes to 2,500 tonnes. The company is not just looking at increasing its volumes, but also at other niches. Among them is the organic production of seabass and seabream.

Cromaris Organic is the name of this new line of products which is intended for markets in Western Europe. Production today is a modest 100 tonnes, but it is set to double over the course of next year. Apart from the market in Italy, the company also has customers in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia and is in discussions with potential clients in France and the UK.

Cromaris Gazenicka cesta 4/b 23000 Zadar Croatia Tel.: +385 23254960 Fax: +385 23250883 info@cromaris.hr www.cromaris.hr Brand manager: Lovre Peraic Farm manager: Marko Domijan Activities: Fish farming, processing, sales, distribution, marketing Species: Seabass, seabream, meagre, common dentex, mussels, flat oysters Volume: 5,000 tonnes

Facilities: Hatchery, five cage farming sites, processing facility Products: Fresh fish, fillets, smoked fillets, marinated fillets, organic seabass and seabream, shellfish Packaging: Fresh on ice, fresh in MA packaging, vacuum packaged, wooden containers for the flat oysters Markets: Italy, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Croatia Certifications: ISO 2001, 14001, 22000; IFS; FSSC; Naturland, Bio Siegel, AB, EU Organic Employees: 307 Turnover: EUR25m

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Fishermen’s Cooperative Adria

Fighting to establish a fish auction Almost all the approximately 150 pelagic fishing vessels and many of the demersal fishing trawlers in Croatia are now members of cooperatives. In 2012 18 cooperatives with a total membership of 443 were officially recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture. The cooperatives can be exclusively for pelagic fishers or for demersal trawlers, but in many cases a cooperative will have a mixed membership. The cooperative Adria in Tribunj for example has both pelagic purse seiners and demersal trawlers among its members.

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ike most cooperatives Adria was established to try and improve the lot of the fishermen, to help them with funding for modern equipment on board their vessels, to improve the quality of the catch, to enable them to get better prices, and above all to improve their strength and negotiating power on the market. Taken together these measures will contribute to a more sustainable fisheries sector both environmentally and economically.

Catch includes demersal species and small pelagics Adria was founded in 2007 in Tribunj, a coastal town in the Sibenik-knin County that has good road links to other parts of the country. Currently 20 owners of 28 fishing vessels are members of the cooperative. These vessels include twenty bottom trawlers targeting demersal species, five purse seiners catching pelagic fish, and three vessels that use different gears to target a variety of species. All the vessels are between nine and 24 m with half larger than 15 m. About 3,000 tonnes (2013) of fish pass through the port in Tribunj which is managed by the cooperative. Roughly half is from vessels that are members of Adria, while the remainder

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Robert Popov, Manager, Fisherman’s Cooperative Adria

comes from vessels that use the facilities that the cooperative has established against the payment of a fee. These vessels, about 20 in number, have formal agreements with the cooperative but are not members. Adria manages the fishing port at Tribunj, an area of 40,313 square m of which 8,857 is land, and 31,456 is sea area, which has been completely modernised with berths for the fishing vessels where they can unload the fish. The pier is 300 m long and the depth varies from 2 to 7 m allowing 15 to 20 vessels to discharge their cargos simultaneously. The cooperative

Ante Sladoljev, Fisherman’s Cooperative Adria

has also created new facilities for the sale, processing, storage, and distribution of fish. These services as well as others are available to the members of the cooperative for a nominal price, fishing vessels with which the cooperative has an agreement pay a higher price for the same services, while other vessels pay an even higher fee. The list of services is extensive and range from entering the port, and berthing, to servicing the vessel, and providing ice, electricity, or fuel. Membership of the cooperative is growing, from 7 members in 2007 to 20 today, and vessel owners that are interested can still become members,

following a six-month probation period, and avail of all the advantages of membership. The fee for membership is calculated based on the size of the vessel. These benefits are set to increase if the cooperative’s plans to develop a wholesale market come to fruition.

Vested interests resist auction plans Today, says Robert Popov, the manager of Adria, about 70 of the catch is exported, however it is not exported directly by us, but goes through local traders who sell to traders abroad who in turn

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The technical requirements for the cooperative Adria’s new auction are all in place, but the resistance of certain parts of the distribution chain needs to be overcome before the auction can be inaugurated.

Members in Adria own 28 vessels, twenty bottom trawlers targeting demersal species, five purse seiners catching pelagic fish, and three vessels that use different gears to target a variety of species.

sell to the final customer. What Adria would like to do is to establish a wholesale market where the fish can be purchased directly at an auction. This would eliminate the middlemen and give both the fishermen and the buyer a better price. This idea, not unsurprisingly, is meeting with resistance from certain quarters which has delayed its implementation. This is an issue which has affected attempts at establishing fish auctions or wholesale markets in other Croatian fishing ports. According to Mr Popov, what is needed is legislation that makes it mandatory to sell the fish through the auction. This will compel fishers to use it contributing to the transparency of the sales process. Today buyers can purchase the fish directly from the vessel at some pre-arranged price and part of it may be exported. If fishers can get higher prices for their catch at the auction they will prefer to sell it there. Part of the reason for fishers to sell their fish directly from the boat was the lack of landing facilities, a problem that has now been resolved with the renovation of the port.

was caught, who caught it and how it was handled. The brand will only be used for the best fish and over time will come to serve as a proxy for products of the highest quality.

Supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and the local government, www.eurofishmagazine.com

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the cooperative has several ambitious ideas to develop the local fishery, among which the auction is only one. According to Mr Popov not only will local buyers be able to bid for the fish but he is hoping to place the auction online to enable interested customers from Italy, Greece, and Spain, for example, to place bids as well. Having a large pool of buyers will potentially push up the prices for the fish which in turn should attract more sellers. As with any auction a critical factor for its success is the number of buyers and sellers. But the diversity of species offered by the local waters could also attract buyers. There are around 40 species of fish and seafood including hake, mullet, sole, picarel, and monkfish, crustaceans such as nephrops, and cephalopods including octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. The auction will be run by the cooperative which will earn a commission based on the volume of fish and the price. Mr Popov is also interested developing a brand for locally caught fish that will include a logo and perhaps a bar code which will encode information about the fish, its origin, when and how it

Members increase slowly in number Having an auction in which international bidders can also take part is perhaps one way of reducing the current differential between prices on for example the Italian market and on the Croatian. There is currently almost a 100 difference in the average price and Mr Popov feels

that this should allow an increase in the first sale price in Croatia. Being a part of the cooperative has several benefits, but persuading the fishers of the merits of these benefits is an uphill battle, says Mr Popov. This is why he wants the auction to start working as soon as possible so that the fishers learn for themselves the advantages of being members. Mr Popov, himself a former fisherman, knows that they are deeply conservative and it will take a lot of convincing before they change their minds and decide to adapt to the changes that membership of the cooperative will bring.

Fisherman’s Cooperative Adria Jurjevgradska 6 22212 Tribunj Tel.: +385 22446013 rzadria@gmail.com Manager: Robert Popov

Main species: Hake, mullet, sole, picarel, monkfish, nephrops, octopus, squid, and cuttlefish Volumes: 3,000 tonnes per year Facilities: Port, landing facilities, fish storage facilities, ice, electricity, fuel for the vessels

No. of members: 20 No. of vessels: 28 (20 bottom trawlers, 5 purse seiners, and 3 vessels using different gears)

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[ TRADE AND MARKETS ] Western sanctions provoke Russian reaction

Ban on food imports from EU and other suppliers The Russian Federation in August imposed a broad ban on imports of food and other agricultural products, including fresh, frozen, processed (dried, salted, smoked) fish and other seafood products, from a large group of countries across three continents, including most of Europe and North America, as well as Australia.

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hese countries had earlier this year imposed a series of financial, visa and other sanctions on Russia for, in the words of the European Commission, “(Russia’s) actions destabilising the situation in eastern Ukraine.” The measures included visa restrictions for certain Russian citizens, international financial controls, and sanctions related to the military and energy sectors of the Russian economy.

Some countries’ exporters may benefit In retaliation, Russia recently imposed counter-sanctions. Announcing the move on 6 August, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev stated “Russia has completely banned the importation of beef, pork, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, cheese, milk and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and the Kingdom of Norway.” The principal exceptions to Russia’s import ban are alcoholic beverages, baby food, pet food, and personal purchases abroad by travelers entering or reentering Russia (such purchases remain subject to normal Russian customs limits). Also excluded are fish roe and larvae. Initially “otherwise processed, prepared or preserved” seafood (e.g. canned fish) was excluded, but Russian processors that compete with the imported 52

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finished products have objected and Russian authorities are considering an expansion of the ban to include processed products. Among the non-EU European countries avoiding sanctions are Iceland and the Faroe Islands, as are Turkey, Belarus and Ukraine. Published news reports indicate some industry interest in importing sanctioned seafood into these countries for processing (to change the products’ legal “country of origin” by reclassifying them to different parts of Russia’s tariff classification) before shipment to Russia. Merely landing fish caught by a harvester in its own country’s waters into the port of another country does not change the product’s country of origin. Most fish products are included in Russia’s import ban, which is expected to remain in place for one year (the same scheduled length of time as the western sanctions on Russia). As a result, some major implications exist not just directly for European, North American and Australian suppliers and consumers, but indirectly for suppliers and consumers worldwide.

Seafood exporters in Baltics, Norway, UK among most affected Fish products do not make up a large share of the total food trade

The ban on fresh and frozen fish and seafood from the EU and other western countries could benefit some other countries, such as Turkey, which exports rainbow trout as well as seabass and seabream to Russia.

affected by the ban – fish is not in the top 10 list of food groups exported by the EU to Russia, trailing food products like fruits and vegetables, pork and dairy products, and it constitutes less than 10 of US food exports to Russia. Nevertheless, some European seafood exporters are significantly affected. For example, Russia is Norway’s single largest seafood market, with exports (mainly

salmon, but also cod and several other species) totaling more than EUR 1.5 billion in 2013. As well, the UK’s chief market for herring and mackerel is Russia, which has historically purchased large volumes of small pelagics from Scottish and other UK suppliers. Perhaps most affected are the Baltic countries, because of their shared border and historically important economic ties to Russia. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ TRADE AND MARKETS ] fleets that could yield greater harvests to replace the supply previously imported into Russia. In the meantime, supplies for the Russian market will have to be imported from non-sanctioned countries, such as China, Vietnam, or Chile, to name three likely examples. Again, the cost of such alternative supplies will be higher, or the quality lower, otherwise those supply sources would already have been engaged.

Salmon and sea trout from Norway, which supplied 80% of Russian imports in 2013, will either be re-routed through third countries unaffected by Russian sanctions or replaced, at least partly, by products from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Chile.

In part because of the complexities of the international seafood trade, it is impossible to predict with precision the effects of the ban on value and volume of seafood exports from affected nations, but it is clear that revenues will fall (indeed, are already falling) even though the quantity of shipments might be only slight (and volumes are redirected to non-Russian markets). For aquaculture, especially, a year-long ban might have negligible effects on the quantity sold. It takes years for a fish such as salmon to grow from egg to market size, and therefore, barring the extreme step of destruction of existing inventory, production levels in aquaculture for the next few years are already set – it

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is only a question of where and at what price the product will be sold.

Alternative markets, alternative supply sources? Exporters in the EU and other countries, and importers in Russia now face challenges. Exporters formerly doing business with Russian buyers now have to find alternative markets for their products, while Russian importers, processors and traders must find alternative sources of supply. In both cases, turning to the domestic market may solve part of the problem, but much of the challenge will be finding alternative markets or supply abroad.

Russian distributors of fish products might wish to turn to domestic supply sources, but presumably they would have done so in the first place if such sources existed. Domestic supply prior to the embargo in Russia is either nonexistent or too costly or of inferior quality compared with imports and that is why so much fish was imported prior to the embargo. This problem will take a while to overcome, since it takes time to develop new farms to produce fish from eggs or smolts (which at first must be imported from non-sanctioned countries). As for “wild” fisheries in Russian or foreign waters or on the high seas, there are not many sustainable and underutilised fisheries available to Russian

Other potential sources of fish to Russia do exist. In addition to those listed above, possible increases in imports might be supplied by Malaysia, Japan, and Korea, in Asia; by Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico, in the Americas; and by an array of countries in Africa. Already, Russian companies, with the assistance of their government, are developing contacts with new supply sources. The above list of countries is not exhaustive, but the countries all share one thing in common: their fish products are either more expensive or of lower quality than the supplies that Russia has now banned – otherwise, Russian buyers would have selected them over the nowbanned products in the first place. EU and other sanctioned exporters of fish products will have to find new markets for their products, or reduce their prices in existing markets to stimulate demand. Either avenue means reduced net revenues. North American exporters are at an advantage compared with European exporters as the former are less dependent on the Russian market than the latter. But, particularly disadvantaged are eastern European exporters, some of whom (such as Baltic countries) have depended on Russia for half or more of their sales volume. Norway and Scotland

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[ TRADE AND MARKETS ] Norwegian exports of fish and seafood to Russia, August 2013 vs August 2014 Species

Value in NOK 1000, Aug 2013

Total

543,637

Salmon Trout Herring Mackerel Haddock Other fish Greenland halibut Blue mussel

Value in NOK 1000, Aug 2014 99,876

Change in per cent -82 %

337,580

63,382

-81 %

104,249

16,524

-84 %

58,769

13,625

-77 %

19,080

2,920

-85 %

2,989

1,693

-43 %

1,114

1,092

2%

3,085

593

-81 %

108

47

-56 %

Norwegian Seafood Council

– entails added costs, especially high costs for shipping high-valued fresh seafood.

Winners and losers It’s easy to see the biggest winners in this trade challenge: they are the consumers of fish products in most of the western world. With the Russian market cut off, exporters in the sanctioned countries will find themselves having to reduce prices in order to stimulate demand among existing and new consumer markets worldwide. Additional winners include the seafood industries of Iceland, New Zealand, China, and many other important producers not sanctioned by Russia, who are already being approached by Russian byers as alternative seafood sources.

The Russian ban on imports of fish from western countries has left the retail and food service sector scrambling for supplies of salmon of which there is an acute shortage.

have also depended on Russia for sales of salmon and small pelagic fish. Turning around their shipments to European markets will be hard for many such European 54

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producers when every other European firm affected by the embargo is doing the same thing; and yet the next best alternative – exporting to the Americas, Asia, or Africa

It’s also easy to list the losers, but it’s a much longer list: the losers include exporters, processors, fishermen and other workers in the seafood industries in Europe, North America, and Australia; also, Russian seafood importers, distributors, and workers; and Russian seafood consumers. Sanctioned exporters will have to find new markets for the products previously sold to Russia, and that necessarily means reduced net revenues (otherwise

those markets would already have been targeted if they were more valuable than Russia). Russian importers and distributors will have to find alternative sources of supply, raising their costs – either in the form of higher prices or lower quality. And Russian consumers are among the real losers, facing the choice whether to consume more costly and/or inferior seafood, or avoid seafood altogether. To make matters worse for the producers and consumers of seafood – and other food products – the Russian food import ban comes at a time when the economies of Russia and most of Europe are in the doldrums. Economic growth in most European countries is stagnant, and some national economies have sunk back into recession. The economic effects of a trade blockade of food – an important component of daily consumer life and the source of millions of livelihoods – is, according to numerous news reports, already showing up. Consumer price inflation in Russia is now above 7 percent – far higher than in the rest of Europe – and the ban on food imports will only exacerbate this problem. Roger Corey roger.corey@eurofish.dk www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ TRADE AND MARKETS ] Thailand is reorganizing its labour market from scratch

Mandatory registration of illegal immigrants In June the public was shocked by a report in the British newspaper “Guardian” which described inhumane, sometimes even slavelike, working conditions on some ships registered under Thai flag. Trash fish from these vessels was said to have been processed to fishmeal and then further processed to shrimp feed. Large retail chains reacted immediately to the allegations with a purchase boycott, and some have already taken shrimp products out of their range as a precaution. Eurofish Magazine was in Thailand to gain a direct impression of the situation.

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p to 20 hours of physically demanding work a day and not much food; some ships stay at sea for months on end, few of the crew members receive the promised payment. Anyone who gets sick, doesn’t do as they are told, or shows resistance in any way, is bullied by “gang masters”, perhaps beaten, and there are even said to have been random killings. The descriptions of the 15 sailors who had escaped from such “slave ships” and could be interviewed by reporters of the “Guardian”, are beyond imagination. And they confirm earlier suspicions that were suggested by a UN inquiry into people trafficking in 2009. At that time, 59 of the forced labourers on Thai fishing boats said in interviews that they had themselves seen people killed on board ship. It is partially due to these alarming reports that the United States is now threatening to reduce Thailand to the lowest ranking (3) in the US State Department’s Human Trafficking Index that regularly grades states according to how well they combat and prevent human trafficking and forced labour. This would jeopardize the country’s current trade status with the United States.

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Level 3 in the US Trafficking Index would put Thailand on the same level as countries like North Korea, Zimbabwe and Cuba. The very idea outrages many Thais for they are convinced that have done more than other countries in Asia to achieve decent working conditions. Hardly any other country in the region is so committed in its fight against child and forced labour, human trafficking, unequal pay, workplace discrimination and other forms of exploitation. Whereas Thailand favoured transparency and reported openly on any still existing deficiencies, other countries preferred to conceal much of what they did – and so now look better. And indeed, Thailand has in recent years significantly intensified its activities in the fight against human trafficking. The number of police investigations in this area has more than doubled from 306 in 2012 to 674 in 2013. But just as false as the claim that all employees in “risk industries” are automatically victims of human trafficking, would be the presumption that with this all problems have now been solved. Unlike its neighbours, Thailand stands on a very sound economic

Dr Waraporn Prompoj, Senior Expert on International Fisheries Affairs, DoF. All vessels in the fishing fleet will be registered and the data linked with the crews and fishing licences.

footing. The economy is booming and suffers from a chronic shortage of workers. The legal minimum wage of 300 baht / day, nearly 7.50 euros, is four to five times higher than the average daily earnings of workers in neighbouring countries. These are attractive conditions, and they act as a strong pull for the region’s poorest people. For more than 10 years immigrants have been entering the country illegally via the approximately 5,300 km long, virtually uncontrollable green border. Most of them (that is around 90) come from Myanmar, the rest

mainly from Laos and Cambodia. Professional smuggler gangs have developed that are specialised in the business and are paid well for their “services”. A lot of immigrants intentionally leave their ID cards and ID documents at home to conceal the fact that they have left the country. The risk is otherwise great that mafia gangs will demand cash from the remaining family members at home. Sometimes even entire families are tempted to cross the border, for example for the sugar cane harvest. During these three months, parents often let their children work in order to

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[ TRADE AND MARKETS ]

Boontham Aramsiriwat, Managing Director of Thai Feed Mill Association (TFMA), and Pornsil Patchrintanakul, President of TFMA. Two-thirds of the raw material for fishmeal are trimmings and processing waste.

scrape together more money for the rest of the year. Many illegal immigrants are already heavily in debt when they come into the country and are therefore willing to accept any job they can get. According to Dr Poj Aramwattananont, President of the Thai Frozen Foods Association (TFFA), the key to solving the problems of human trafficking and illegal work lies less in Thailand, but more in the illegal immigrants’ countries of origin. Exactly how many people live illegally in Thailand today can only be guessed. According to estimates, their number was probably between two and three million. Many of them are without documents, untrained and largely deprived of any legal rights; they cannot speak, read or write the Thai language, and are not entitled to social benefits. They form a reservoir of workers in a legal gray area whom unscrupulous profiteers are only too happy to exploit. That said, Thailand’s labour law can withstand international comparison. The Labour Protection 56

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Act B.E. 2541, for example, defines basic standards such as working hours, overtime, work breaks, holidays, fair remuneration, severance pay, rules for temporary employment, termination rights and possible penalties in case of violations. The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act B.E. 2551 from the year 2008 makes all forms of human trafficking a punishable offence. The cases described in the “Guardian” could thus have been prosecuted and lives might even have been saved on the “slave ships,” if the reporters had made their contact persons known to the responsible authorities in good time, which they hadn’t, however. Apparently the journalists had been more interested in their newspaper’s circulation figures, complains Songsak Saichuea from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The official government statistics confirm his statements. In 2011, 19 people were arrested for infringing the Human Trafficking Act. In 2012 and 2013, the number of arrests was even higher at 43 and 80 cases respectively.

Most companies treat immigrants correctly Foreign workers are to be found in almost all sectors of the Thai economy: in the catering, building and domestic sectors, in industry and agriculture, but especially in the fish industry. According to official figures from the government, nearly 300,000 people work in the country’s fish industry, 90 per cent of them allegedly migrants. The vast majority of these workers are treated well and paid fairly, say Poj Aramwattananont from TFFA and Dr Chanintr Chalisarapong, President of the Association of the Tuna Industry TTIA. And foreign workers were urgently needed: without them a lot of companies would probably have to close down. For this

reason alone no company could afford to harass or exploit people. A study conducted in 2012 in shrimp peeling plants in Samut Sakhon City, a centre for such work in Thailand, revealed that even in very small businesses the workers were paid the minimum wage. In large enterprises with more than 50 employees, peelers on average even earned 407 baht / day, because wages in the preprocessing area often included a performance-related component. In July 2014, the Thai Frozen Foods Association, which represents virtually all major seafood processing and exporting companies in Thailand, published a twelve-page position paper defining the attitude of the association members on human trafficking and other related problems. In it, the companies subscribe to the principles of Good Labour Practice (GLP), and reject without reservation child and forced labour. Companies organized in TFFA have set up telephone hotlines via which foreign workers can immediately contact the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation (LPN) if they have any complaints or need help. Burmese-speaking staff are

also available there as a contact. The hotline number is visible on posters in various languages. If a company fails to comply with the requirements of the position paper, sanctions can be imposed under Article 12 of the TFFA statutes, which provides for severe penalties in the event that someone intentionally harms the industry. The first violation will lead to TFFA sending only a warning letter with a request that in future the company complies with all regulations and guidelines. A second violation can mean that TFFA will refuse to provide health certificates and DS-2031 forms, which are necessary for export to the EU or USA. A third violation can lead to the suspension of the company’s association membership or even to expulsion from TFFA, which is tantamount to a full export ban. In November 2013, the eight largest organizations in the fish industry joined forces to form the “Thai Fishery Producers Coalition” (TFPC) and as their first joint action signed a “Declaration of Intent” which clearly speaks out against human trafficking, child labour and forced labour.

Dr Chanintr Chalisarapong, President of Thai Tuna Industry Association (TTIA), Dr Poj Aramwattananont, President of Thai Frozen Foods Association (TFFA), and Sanguansak Akaravarinechai, President of Thai Fishmeal Producers Association (TFPA). www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ TRADE AND MARKETS ]

M.L. Puntrik Smiti, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour. “Anyone who is registered and recorded in the system can also be protected.�

It was not by chance that the “Guardianâ€? named Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods in connection with “slave labourâ€? on fishing vessels. Basically, one could have pointed a finger at all other establishments where fishmeal is given as feed. But for the purpose of drawing worldwide attention to the issue, CP was, of course, a very good choice. They have an annual turnover of more than USD33 billion and are thus a true global player in the food industry, mainly distributing their products in the western world. And it worked: shortly after publication of the “Guardianâ€? article the company’s shares (CP is listed on the London Stock Exchange) fell against the market trend by 6.1. Subsequently the market value of Thai Union Frozen Products (-3.6) and GFPT (-1.5) fell sharply, too. Retail chains took CP products off their shelves, and some put business with the company temporarily on ice. CP itself is not even accused of people trafficking or forced labour. But the company could not rule out with absolute certainty that a share of the fishmeal processed by www.eurofishmagazine.com

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the group’s five feed mills was produced from fish that came from “slave shipsâ€?. Strictly speaking, only a few fishmeal users in Thailand and other Asian countries can currently claim this, because traceability in this area is still in its infancy and not guaranteed to be without gaps. CP itself owns neither fishing vessels nor fishmeal factories and relies on suppliers for this important feed component. In 2013, CP purchased approximately 45,000 tonnes of fishmeal from 55 independent fishmeal producers, of which 40 (73) are already certified and buy their raw materials in accordance with current sustainability standards such as the IFFO RS-label. In the past, CP had also always sought to buy flawless fishmeal, said Nutnicha Limpanawat, who is responsible for the purchase of raw materials for the feed mill Banbueng. CP had in 2013 alone, for example, paid premium prices of 1.5 million US $ above the regular market value for fishmeal whose raw material without doubt came from non-IUU declared fishing. Already on 17 June, just a week after the suggestion by the “Guardianâ€? that fishmeal from

dubious sources involving forced labour could be in the supply chain, CP had imposed a moratorium on all suspicious fishmeal supplies, confirmed Pitipong Dajjarukul from the group’s Feed Raw Material Office. They were now in the process of introducing a rigorous change in purchasing policy and reducing the number of suppliers. As from 2015 CP intends only to use fishmeal from certified suppliers (e.g. IFFO RS). At the Banbueng plant CP has already introduced a modern traceability system, which allows the tracing of all components via a 13-character code.

GLP Action Plan should permanently improve working conditions Pornsil Patchrintanakul, President of the Thai Feed Mill Association (TFMA) said that although fishmeal was important for Thailand’s animal feed industry it only accounted for 4 of the processed raw material for animal feed in agriculture and aquaculture, of which around 15.5 million tonnes were produced in 2013. Sanguansak Akaravarinechai, President of the Thai Fishmeal Producers Association (TFPA)

confirmed this information and said that the 90 fishmeal factories in Thailand had in 2013 together produced 500,000 tonnes of fishmeal, of which 120,000 t were exported. 400,000 t remained on the domestic market. About twothirds of the raw materials were trimmings and waste that occurred in processing plants when processing tuna and tilapia or during surimi production. The remaining third came from fishery catches – mainly by-catch and fish species that were unfit for human consumption. An industrial fishery for the supply of fishmeal plants like that in Europe or South America does not exist in Thailand. Because virtually every small boat and large deep-sea vessel could, on its return to port, also land raw materials for fishmeal, it was very difficult to trace the origin in each individual case, especially since the “black sheep� of the industry, on whose vessels illegal immigrants are often forced to work, freeze their catch at sea in block form, and transfer it to mother ships to disguise its origin. Such goods are usually funnelled into the market chain via auctions and brokers, something that was

Up to 90% of the crew members on board ships ying the Thai ag are allegedly of foreign origin. Many of them entered the country illegally with the help of smuggler gangs. Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014

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[ TRADE AND MARKETS ]

All vessels operating outside of territorial waters must install a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) which enables the monitoring of ship positions.

The crowds at the 82 registration stations in the country are huge: 800 people are registered every day.

detectable only with great determination and at great expense, however. TFPA and the state authorities are currently in the process of implementing a certification system for raw materials which will make it possible to trace back all raw materials with no gaps. This package includes written explanations on “nonIUU conformity�, detailed catch records (fish species, quantities, catch areas, vessel, landing port, etc.) as well as a “captain’s declaration�, in which he confirms compliance with all regulations and laws.

A special focus of the Action Plan, however, is on the GLP rules for fishing, explains Dr. Waraporn. In addition to the applicable laws, the ILO Work in Fishing Convention 188 and Recommendation 199 have been taken into consideration in the plan’s wording. This means that key provisions such as the recruitment of seamen, employment contracts, safety and accommodation on board, working hours, breaks and holidays are regulated by law. Child labour, human trafficking

Thailand is striving not towards a “patchwork of individual rules�, but rather a comprehensive solution to the problem of human trafficking and forced labour, says Dr. Waraporn Prompoj from the Department of Fisheries (DoF). They do not only want to fight the inhumane conditions on individual vessels, but to align working conditions throughout the Thai fishing industry to international standards. The fish industry is very important for the country’s economy. It produces about 4.2 million tonnes of fish and seafood

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per year, 90 of which is exported for a total value of 8.8 billion USD, representing 1.5 of Thailand’s exports. In close cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the relevant government departments and industry associations in Thailand, the DoF has prepared an action plan that is constantly being revised and updated. At its core this plan provides for the adoption and implementation of codes of Good Labour Practices (GLP) in all companies in the industry. The main points of GLP are the prohibition of child and forced labour and human trafficking, and a fundamental improvement in the working conditions and social standards within the industry. The GLP rules were modified and adjusted for processing plants, the shrimp industry and the fisheries in order to meet the special requirements of each of these sectors more effectively. To prevent the exploitation of foreign workers, work recruitment centres will in future take over the placement and legal protection of employees.

and other exploitive practices are not tolerated. Until mid-2014 pilot tests were carried out to assess the suitability of these GLP rules on fishing vessels. Once the results have been evaluated and any necessary corrections made, the rules will be put into practice. The Marine Department of the Ministry of Transport has already begun to officially register all vessels in Thailand. Parallel to this the crews are being documented (names, photos, fingerprints) and the fishing gear licensed.

At the beginning of the registration process all relevant personal data, the preferred area of work, and the planned region are recorded.

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[ TRADE AND MARKETS ] These data serve as a basis for control by police, coast guard and surveillance authorities. All vessels operating outside of territorial waters must install a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) which enables the monitoring of vessel positions and activities and is to prevent IUU fishing. Official guidelines for the inspection of ships at sea and in port are currently being drawn up. Stricter controls when entering and leaving port are to prevent human trafficking and smuggling. In addition, Thailand seeks closer cooperation with coastal states in the region to enable inspection of vessels on the high seas. In the long term, however, the DoF aims at installing more technology on board in order to greatly reduce the number of seamen, says Dr. Waraporn. In mid-2014 a newly designed purse seiner went into operation in Samutsakhon already with a reduced crew, and this vessel is to act as a model to show what technical options are available in this area. In addition, Thailand plans to set up a task force to monitor and confirm the implementation of GLP rules. The task force will be made up of representatives of the Ministry of Labour, DoF and ILO, industry associations, trade unions and seafood importers from several countries, (about two to three per continent). However, the most important provision in the package of measures against human trafficking and forced labour is the registration of all illegal immigrants by state Labour Coordination Centers (LCC). This measure was indeed already decided by the Cabinet Resolution of August 6, 2013, but got off to a slow start. Since Thailand’s army took over power in the country on 22 May, however, the decision is www.eurofishmagazine.com

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being implemented rigorously and consistently. This will give hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants the chance to work legally in the country. They will be covered by health insurance and enjoy exactly the same rights as their Thai colleagues. Thailand’s economy welcomes this move fully because it can solve the country’s labour problem and put an end to criminal activities. Thailand has been trying to resolve the problems of illegal immigration and human trafficking, forced labour and child labour for already over two and a half years. So the “Guardian” did not “expose” these

problems, but it brought them to the notice of the public, thereby increasing the pressure to act, and accelerating the process of finding a solution. The bundle

of measures recently introduced should ensure that Thailand solves the core problems of its labour market already in a few weeks. MK

The mood in the registration centres is good despite the long wait. Tight organization ensures that the entire process can be completed in just one day.

More than 65,000 illegal immigrants registered every day Collection of personal data, health check and drug screening In coordination with its neighbouring countries, Thailand’s military government, the “National Council for Peace and Order” (NCPO), has ordered the registration of all illegal immigrants. To implement the measure 82 stations were set up nationwide. They register 800 people in a “one stop service” every day and collect all data in a central database. The registration process began in mid-July and is expected to end in mid-August. This time span should suffice to capture the data of nearly two million people but, if necessary, it can be extended. Employers who already employ “illegal immigrants” or have need of labour have to register, too. The number seeking registration is huge because in future no one can be employed without a valid work card and because registration is very inexpensive at about 3,080 baht (around 77 euros). It previously cost three to four times as much. The process of registration is monitored by the military and strictly organized. When registering, all personal data and the intended area of work is recorded and the applicant is given a number that accompanies him throughout the process. Applicants are questioned individually (in the language of the country of origin, if necessary) and all information is fed into a database. After that, a drug screening is carried out, and for women additionally a pregnancy test because pregnant women are not allowed to perform all jobs. At the next station, all applicants are treated preventively against elephantiasis and other worm diseases that have been eradicated in Thailand. Then passport photos are taken, fingerprints done and health checks performed (blood pressure, x-ray, blood count). In between, additional personal interviews are conducted if necessary. Since a lot of immigrants have no documents proving their age, in cases of doubt age determination based on bone structure is performed. During the registration process, all applicants complete a health insurance and are informed of their rights and obligations as workers in Thailand. Anyone who meets all the requirements obtains the coveted card on the spot after 5 to 6 hours. It entitles him to work legally in the declared area in Thailand initially for only eight months but as from 2015 the term is to be extended to one year. Loss of the card must be reported immediately to the police. Rejection rate during registration is about 5%. With this registration Thailand is draining the swamp of human trafficking and forced labour. “Anyone who is registered and recorded in the system can also be protected,” said M.L. Puntrik Smiti, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour. The social systems are also open to immigrants, giving them health protection and pension benefits. The Thai authorities will for the first time be able to get an overview of how many people are in the country, how they are distributed over the provinces, and what jobs they perform.

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[ TECHNOLOGY ] New tool accurately identifies fish species in seconds

Technology to mitigate fraud in complex supply chains The horsemeat scandal branded ‘horsegate’, saw millions of beef burgers, ready meals and packs of mince withdrawn from supermarket shelves in 2013 when it was revealed they contained undeclared horsemeat. According to experts and many peer reviewed publications, the seafood industry could be even more susceptible to this kind of fraud than other sectors. New technology could hold a solution.

T

he mislabelling of fish is estimated to be as high as 60 within the industry food service sector in some parts of Europe, and is an issue with worrying consequences. Barry McCrea, Business Development Manager at AB Sustain, a consultancy specialising in sustainable supply chain solutions, has a solution against fraud in the seafood industry.

Defra reviews integrity of food supply networks The issue has come to a head with the commissioning of an official UK report investigating integrity and assurance of food supply networks, which includes fish, as well as meat products. The report resulting from ‘horsegate’ in the UK was released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural

The Think.Fish scan head rapidly tests fish fillets for species and proximate analysis. 60

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Affairs (Defra) in September 2014, and recommends inter alia that industry conducts sampling, testing and supervision of food supplies at all stages of the food supply chain. “There are significant implications for seafood processors, who are likely to have to become more accountable,” comments Barry Mcrea. Young’s Seafood Ltd is the leading seafood processor in the UK. They

use more than thirty species, sourced from five continents and prepare over 300 million seafood meals for the UK consumer each year. Young’s have contributed to the Defra report, citing seven types of food fraud occurring in the seafood industry. Mike Mitchell, Young’s Technical Director, explains that species substitution, species adulteration and ‘extension of product’ through additives and water retention, have

A fish block will remain intact while the scanner analyses the contents. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ TECHNOLOGY ] been identified as the most common types of fraud. “Cod and haddock are prime value commercial species and both are expensive when compared with other species such as whiting, coley, or pangasius. It is tempting for suppliers to mislabel less popular and lower priced fish in order to pass them off as more expensive and desirable ones,” elaborates Mike Mitchell. Recognising the importance of supressing the risk in its supply chain, Young’s have adopted new technology in order to further protect the consumer, building on its previous testing regime. “It’s important to recognise that ‘horsegate’ occurred, even though food production operations were being heavily audited,” he says. “Technology which provides proof of integrity is imperative, because relying on paper based traceability systems has clearly failed the industry in the past.”

Seafood more susceptible to fraud than meat Mike Mitchell outlines that the company’s investment in AB Sustain’s

‘Think.Fish’, a species and proximate analysis tool, which uses Near Infrared Reflectance to accurately identify content of incoming raw materials is their response to the mislabelling issue. In a multiple species sector, Young’s are clear that there are greater opportunities for deliberate species substitution fraud in the seafood industry than in any other type of protein based food manufacturer. “Once you remove the visual indicators such as the head and the skin, even experts are unable to tell the difference between some fish species such as Atlantic cod Gadus morhua and Pacific cod Gadus macrocephalus for instance,” says Mike Mitchell. He adds that white fish species are often organoleptically and morphologically similar, making substitution easy. There are only so many things you can substitute for red meat, in the fish industry there is more scope for adulteration. Whilst it may not be considered to be a risk to health, the consumer has a right to integrity. For Young's Seafood this is an absolute prior-

ity. “It’s a fundamental principal of a responsible supply chain that the product being packed and supplied to the consumer is faithful to the description on the pack,” says Mike Mitchell. “NIR technology has been in use at Young’s for 20 years, it’s a rapid method and enables testing at the point of analysis when the fish arrives. Think.Fish uses this technology and has applied a species identifier aspect to it.” Barry McCrea explains that the Think.Fish technology gives an extremely quick indication that the fish being supplied is what it says it is. “Think. fish can test 100 of raw material supplies and can be used on the factory floor, it is non-destructive and produces results within seconds, without having to select random samples and wait for as long as a month for lab testing data.”

Huge improvement in testing efficiency Mike Mitchell is clear that Young’s Seafood’s investment in Think.

Fish also saves the company time and money in the long run. “We tested around 1,500 samples a year to determine authenticity before launching Think.Fish. Now Young’s are accurately and promptly testing a thousand samples a month. “It will save us money, because we are using less laboratory time, yet it’s possible to do ten times the testing,” says Mike Mitchell. The publication of Defra’s food integrity report is likely to influence the industry vastly, with traceability and transparency being core aspects. Barry McCrea concludes that safeguarding the supply chain from fraud is vital to protect the industry’s reputation. “Technology within the supply chain plays an important role and where more fish materials can be tested at a cheaper overall cost this will provide not only robust assurance, but will also act as a key deterrent for those tempted to commit fraud in the first place.” For more information visit; www.absustain.com

Rotogal – insulated plastic containers for the meat and fish industry

Individualised customer service fuels steady growth The development of plastics some fifty years ago heralded the end of the use of wood as the preferred material for storing and transporting fish and seafood. Plastics were durable, mouldable, hygienic, lightweight, with good insulating properties, and easily customised. These properties make them the most widespread material for storage and transport in the fishing and aquaculture production and processing sector.

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otogal, a Spanish manufacturer of plastic tubs and bins for the food industry is based in Boiro near Vigo in the province of Galicia in the northwest. Vigo is home to Spain’s, and Europe’s, biggest fishing port and Galicia has the biggest concentration of industry related to fishing www.eurofishmagazine.com

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and fish processing of all the Spanish provinces.

Made-to-measure solutions for industry Rotogal was established in 2004 to serve the fisheries industry i.e., fishing vessels, and fish

processing plants. But over the last 4-5 years the contribution from the meat industry to turnover has increased more rapidly than that from the fish sector. The range of containers that the company produces extends from 50 l to 1,400 l, and if necessary, even larger volume

containers can be supplied. In addition, says Jorge Fajardo, the marketing director, we also execute custom orders for companies that need something different from our standard products. There are thus two main business lines, container manufacturing for the meat and

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[ TECHNOLOGY ]

Rotogal produces containers that vary in size from 50 l to 1,400 l. Tubs with higher capacities can also be produced on demand.

fish industry and the supply of custom-built containers for specific purposes. For the latter, Rotogal has a turnkey approach, whereby the company will analyse the need, conceptualise, design, create models, and conduct trials, before finally manufacturing the product. The containers are essentially of two different construction types, an insulating container which has a layer of insulation within a shell of polyethylene (PE), and a heavy-duty container which has a core of polyethylene foam. Both varieties have a three-layered construction consisting of inner and outer walls of polyethylene and a core which could be polyurethane (PU) for insulation, or PE foam for strength and durability. The latter are also easier to repair, and are fully recycleable, but PE foam has one third the insulating ability of PU. Containers can also be made fully 62

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traceable as Rotogal has developed the ability to embed RFID tags in its products. Demand for this feature at the moment is modest as only huge companies need this system, says Mr Fajardo, because it allows the location of individual containers in a large stock to be closely monitored. Other accessories that can also be purchased with the containers, include lids, which protect and prevent contamination of the contents, and gaskets, which can hermetically seal the container.

Markets on five continents Rotogal exports to 33 countries on five continents, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Its customer base varies from large companies to owners of a single vessel, who may require only two or three containers. A network of partners in the

different countries is responsible for servicing and repairing the containers in case they are damaged. With double digit growth each year since it was established, Rotogal has created a name for itself on the market for its product quality and above all its flexible customer service. We are willing to personalise even individual containers, says

Mr Fajardo, and that is clearly what makes us stand out. Sales have grown because customers, when they expand their business, come back to Rotogal for their container needs. This ability to combine a high quality product with options to customise it is sure to secure the company’s growth in the future too.

Rotogal S.L. Poligono Industrial Espineira Parcela 36 B E 15930 Boiro, A CoruĂąa Spain Tel.: +34 981 849 901 Fax: +34 981 849 902 ventas@rotogal.es www.rotogal.com

Products: Insulated containers for the meat and ďŹ sh industry Services: Customised design and manufacture of containers; container rental Markets: 33 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia Employees: 23 Turnover: EUR4m

Marketing director: Mr Jorge Fajardo

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Croatian ďŹ sheries – one year after accession

Distinct beneďŹ ts to joining the EU Ante MiĹĄura, Assistant Minister for Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture, took over his position after having served in the Directorate of Fisheries for many years in different capacities. He was also involved in Croatia’s negotiations with the EU and is optimistic about what membership entails for the sector. With the reformed Common Fisheries Policy entering into force this year and funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund becoming available there is a lot of potential to create an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable sector. Here he talks to EuroďŹ sh Magazine about some of the impacts accession to the EU has on the ďŹ sheries sector in Croatia. Croatia had access to the EFF funds to implement some of the measures under the different priority axes, such as adaptation of the fishing fleet and investments in aquaculture. What was the objective of these measures and were they achieved? Regarding the programming period 2007-2013 and the European Fisheries Fund, as we had only a short period for the possible implementation of the operational programme we chose three measures – the investment in aquaculture, and the permanent and the temporary cessation of fishing activities in the fishing segment. The aim of the measure, investments in aquaculture, is the modernisation of existing farms with the aim of increasing production and strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of the aquaculture sector. As for the permanent cessation of fishing activities, the aim of this measure was to decrease the fishing capacity in the trawl and purse seine fishery which was recognised by the management plans for these types of fisheries. The aim is also to decrease the fishing fleet in order to increase the competitiveness of the vessels that will remain in these fisheries. While the measure targets the purse seine and trawl fisheries priority will most likely be www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Ante MiĹĄura, Assistant Minister in the Directorate of Fisheries, Croatian Ministry of Agriculture

given to those vessels fishing off the western coast of Istria which must now fish three miles off the coast as opposed to the previous limit of 1.5 miles. These vessels are less than 15 m and have difficulties going further off the coast making them ideal candidates for decommissioning. The temporary cessation of fishing activities will give compensation to fishers for interrupting their

fishing activities to protect the sardine stocks during the breeding season. In the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Croatia has an allocation of EUR252.6m for the period 20142020, one of the largest budgets among Member States. The fund has a strong focus on sustainability, improved data collection,

better market organisation and economic growth in fisheriesdependent communities. Given this, what are the Croatian priorities for which funding will be sought? Regarding the new fund and the new programming period for the year 2014 to 2020, Croatia was allocated a significant amount of financial resources from the Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014

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European Maritime and Fisheries Fund which is very important as Croatia needs to implement all the elements introduced by the reformed Common Fisheries Policy. For example, the new landing obligation needs significant financial support to be fully implemented here. Also the reform is based on the presumption that increase of fish production should be primarily through farming, so this is going to be one of the most important segments to be supported through this new fund. The fund will be used for scientific and research projects, which study the costeffectiveness of farming of the certain species, or which develop individual farming technologies. The fund will also be used to support measures that seek to diversify marine aquaculture through the introduction of new species, as well as that research the potential for farming common species such as sea bass and sea bream in land based recirculation systems. The fund is also going to be directed at other needs. One of the most important issues in Croatia is the problem of landing places which also require substantial improvements to implement this landing obligation. For example, the investment for equipping these landing places, the reconstruction and modernisation of the existing fishing ports and landing places as well as the construction of or establishing of the storage facilities are useful measures to be supported. Multi-species fisheries, different gears, and small fishing vessels are characteristic of the Mediterranean including the Adriatic. What are the main implications of the landing obligations and the discard ban on fisheries policy in the Mediterranean? How will they 64

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be implemented and how will it affect the fishing sector in Croatia? The landing obligation enters into force as of 1 January 2015 for some species, and for us the most important of these are small pelagic species. Croatia has, together with Italy and Slovenia, requested the EC to allow the de minimis exemption amounting to 5. The adoption of the discard plan is pending, but we are confident that the background document shall provide good basis for the EC act. The next obligation (for demersal species) enters into force as of 1 January 2017, by when we should, in cooperation with Italy and Slovenia, develop discard plans for the limited number of species contained in Annex III of the Mediterranean Regulation to which the landing obligation applies. For all other species from that Annex the landing obligation becomes obligatory as of 2019. Establishing a system for collection of the discards is going to be a very challenging task for Croatia taking into account the length of the coast line. There are also open issues regarding storage and handling of these catches. Additionally, it is questionable what share of the catches is actually being discarded in the sense foreseen by the Basic Regulation. The discarding problem originated under a different set of fishery related circumstances, where catch quotas actually corresponded to landing quotas, which is not the case in the Mediterranean. There is also a fear that this situation would contribute to creating a market for undersized fish, which surely is not the goal of fishery management. However, this is an issue for the entire Mediterranean. We hope that together with Italy and Slovenia we will find a way to implement this obligation.

Fishermen land their catches at a number of sites along the Croatian coast. Are there plans to reduce the number of sites and to improve the facilities for storage etc.? How can fishers be encouraged to only land their catch at certain ports and what will be the impact on production and the fishers themselves? There is currently a list of approximately 250 landing places which makes the control very difficult due to the large number. The list of the existing landing places is therefore going to be revised soon, and for those types of fishing for which we are obliged to draft management plans such as fishing with trawl nets, with the purse seines for small pelagics and for beach seines, for these types of fisheries landing places will have to be designated and there will be fewer, perhaps between 70 and 80 landing places for these types of fisheries. We need to have this many because Croatia has a long coastline and if we confined ourselves to 15-20 landing places, it would make it uneconomical for fishermen, who would have to sail 15 or 20 miles to come to a landing place. We believe that this organisation of landing and the decrease in the number of landing places will by itself draw fishermen to land in these designated ports, because they will have all the services there – they will have a short landing process without interference, they will be able to weigh their catches, and deliver the data they are legally obliged to. We also plan to construct storage facilities for the fish, not at all landing places but at some, and we believe that such an organised landing system will give better prices to the fishermen. Tuna fattening in Croatia is an important export activity. Are measures being discussed to

encourage an increase in production and will this have an impact on the sustainability of tuna stocks? Over the past few years production of farmed tuna has been stagnating due to the restrictions on catches imposed by ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Croatia’s annual production is around 2,000 tonnes. According to the available data it seems that the bluefin tuna stock has recovered and this represents a huge success of the recovery plan which was implemented over the past period. This was also a result of the huge sacrifices made by the Mediterranean countries, including Croatia. Croatia would now therefore support an increase in the tuna quota as the data clearly show that the stock has recovered. In addition, a study carried out by the Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries in Split proves that tuna is responsible for significant damage to small pelagic stocks, and this is a further reason for Croatia to support an increase in the tuna quota, given the importance of the small pelagic fishery for our fishers. What are the main objectives of the national strategic plan for aquaculture? How are issues like spatial planning, administrative procedures, and environmental impact being dealt with to sustainably develop the marine and freshwater farming sector? As a strategic document, the National Strategic Plan for Aquaculture Development 2014-2020 defines the objectives and priorities for aquaculture development. One of the main goals by the end of 2020 is an increase in the total production to approximately www.eurofishmagazine.com

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44,500 tonnes, while adhering to the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability. General objectives also include improving the social as well as the business and political environment in aquaculture development, increasing the national consumption of aquaculture products, and increasing the employment in the aquaculture industry, while furthering the development of local communities. In accordance with the European Commission Strategic Guidelines for the Sustainable Development of EU Aquaculture, the NSPA also emphasises the following objectives: simplifying administrative procedures, ensuring sustainable development and growth through coordinated spatial planning and ensuring necessary farming locations, increasing competitiveness, especially by connecting the scientific community and the sector, and creating fair market competition. In order to reach the objectives related to administrative procedures, spatial planning and environmental impact issues, the NSPA sets additional priorities, such as ensuring the necessary farming locations, and the locations for the accompanying infrastructure, zoning of the river basins and maritime areas for the purposes of the aquatic organisms farming, ensuring the appropriate quantity and quality of freshwater used for farming, application of environmentally acceptable technologies and protection from and compensation for the damages done by predators. Which policy measures are foreseen for the freshwater aquaculture sector that will lead to an increase in production and consumption of locally farmed freshwater species? In the freshwater aquaculture sector the key priority is the simplification and facilitation www.eurofishmagazine.com

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of the legal framework and procedures necessary for obtaining permits. Since one of the most significant issues is the use of basic resources, agricultural land and water, there is a need for an appropriate legal framework. Special regulation on agricultural land enables the lease of fish ponds, as agricultural land owned by the state for a period of 50 years. This creates the prerequisites for long-term investment and further development of the activity, as well as for resolving long standing property rights issues. Providing the necessary spatial capacities, both for the farming locations with accompanying infrastructure, and to ensure the required quantities of freshwater are also among the important strategic elements of further development of freshwater aquaculture. To reach the foreseen increase in freshwater aquaculture production, the NSPA sets the main priorities including modernisation and reconstruction of the existing farms, hatcheries and nurseries, as well as establishment of new ones, improvement and introduction of new farming technologies, diversification of production, mostly through introduction of new species, adding new value through processing and diversification of activities on farms (rural tourism, educational activities, etc.). Since the freshwater (carp) farms represent areas of great natural value, and have, as such, been included in the EU Natura 2000 Network, ensuring production sustainability within protected areas is also among the main strategies. Consumer surveys and marketing campaigns to improve the perception and increase the consumption of freshwater farmed fish are among the strategic goals envisaged to develop the domestic market.

The EMFF will be used to support research into new species. Here, Cromaris’ experimental cages where the company is conducting trials with turbot among other species.

How are the elements of the new common organisation of markets (CMO) – producer organisations (POs) in fisheries and aquaculture, competition rules, marketing standards, consumer information, and market intelligence, being implemented in Croatia? What steps will POs take towards developing the market and increasing production? There are no recognised producer organisations in the fishery sector in Croatia at the moment. However, in 2009, Croatia recognised fishery cooperatives as one of the most important elements of the market organisation. Cooperatives are entitled to apply for co-financing of a number of different investments (buying of facilities, equipment, marketing activities, etc.) which contribute to their development and to improving the working conditions of their members. Marketing through cooperatives and their registration as first buyers has contributed to more complete and higher quality statistics on caught and sold quantities of fish as well as to better communication between the stakeholders and administration. The primary role of the producer organisations in Mediterranean countries is providing

support to their members. In Croatia, there is a legal basis for recognition of the producer organisations, however, the initiative for recognition must come from the sector itself. The Operational Programme for 2014-2020 will surely foresee measures intended for producer organisations and the Ministry will get actively involved in educating and informing the sector on the ever more important role of producer organisations. Croatia has implemented the provisions regarding the marketing standards for fishery and aquaculture products, and consumer information in its legal framework even before the accession to the EU so that in this segment national legislation is fully aligned with the acquis. While some market segments have been analysed, better data collection in the future will enable more comprehensive research. Moreover, Croatia participates in different EUROFISH projects, some of which will analyse the market for particular species and propose measures for further development. Croatia is also a member of the EUMOFA platform, a market intelligence tool on the European Union fisheries and aquaculture sector. Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014

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Cautious optimism after fifteen months of EU membership Aquaculture: Growing interest for fish farming in Ukraine Superchilling: Longer shelflife, better texture Trade: Impact of Russian ban on seafood imports is a member of the FISH INFO network

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Regional Conference Bari, Italy, 9-11 December 2014

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