Eurofish magazine 5 2013

www.eurofishmagazine.com

ISSN 1868-5943

October 5 / 2013 C 44346

Estonia Freshwater fishers seek higher returns from increased value addition Denmark: Responsibility back to the fishermen…

Lithuania’s Fisheries Service: Caretaker of the nation’s fish stocks The Whitefish Project: Studying capture fishing’s impact on the environment is a member of the FISH INFO network

e during th 8 0 2 A : tand po Visit our s ries & Seafood Ex he China Fis er, Dalian mb 5-7 Nove

In this issue

Domestic producers start to move up the value chain Estonia: The freshwater fishery in Estonia is among the biggest in the EU in terms of catches per capita.

It is also an industry that supports individual fishers, small and medium companies, and thereby the small communities along the shores of the two main lakes in Estonia. The catch is used on the domestic market, but is also exported to markets in Europe. Primary processing characterises these products, but the sector knows that greater value addition is the way forward. This has also been appreciated by the farming industry, which produces mainly trout, carp and eel. Locally farmed trout is being eclipsed by imports, particularly of salmon, so farmers, the administration, researchers, and other stakeholders are proposing greater value addition of fresh fish as part of a long term aquaculture strategy. Read more on page 19

Denmark: The reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is entering the last phase of negotiations before it is finalised. Some features of the reform will have little impact on the Danish fisheries sector, but others will, perhaps none more so, than the discard ban and its implementation. Danish fishers discarded some 26 in 2010. Once the new policy enters into force fishers will be obliged to land what they would previously have discarded. The idea is to create an incentive for fishers to ply their trade more selectively avoiding undersized and otherwise unwanted fish. Fishers are willing to cooperate with the authorities to make the ban a success, but they also want more freedom to practice their profession within the framework of the CFP. Read more from page 40

Aquaculture: The debate on inshore and offshore aquaculture continues. Aquaculture activities placed near the coast can pose challenges, they reduce the attractiveness of the coastline, are a source of pollution that can accumulate on the sea bed, and they can conflict with other uses of the coast. On the other hand offshore aquaculture presents technological and economic problems. Equipment placed offshore needs to be more robust to withstand rougher seas and stronger currents. Greater depths also call for stronger and heavier equipment which means higher costs. Being further out to sea means vessels to service the facilities have to be sturdier with more powerful engines that are more expensive to run. Solutions to these issues are being developed and refined, but are still some way from being deployed on a large scale. Read more on page 57

Securing fish stocks: A main objective of European Union (EU) countries is to manage it’s biological resources sustainably for the preservation of the natural environment for existing and future generations.

Humanity’s negative impact on biological variety can result in the deterioration of valuable species, which are then replaced by less valuable ones. Read what Lithuania is doing to securing the stocks on page 61

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

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Table of News 6 International News

Events 12 Alimentaria Barcelona, 31 March – 3 April 2014 International visitors expected to exceed 2013 total of 40,000 13 Fish international, Bremen, 9-11 February 2014 Triple premiere at the next fish international

Projects 15 Fish shops, promotion campaigns, institutions to create awareness of benefits of fish Workshop discusses improving fish consumption in Caspian Sea region 17 EU project to determine environmental footprint of whitefish products Analysing the sustainability of whitefish capture 18 AQFood Master Programme Improving collaboration between industry and academia

Estonia 19 Estonian fish farming to focus on niche products Farmers and fishers to focus on value addition 27 Peipsi Grupp Holding has one third of the Lake Peipsi quotas Freshwater fish fillets for markets in western Europe 30 Reyktal AS fleet represents more than half the Estonian distant water fleet Sustainability certification around the corner 33 Kallaste Kalur focuses on pike-perch Fishing for profit as well as for pleasure 35 Sandemer OĂœ is looking to build a processing facility Ambitious plans to process freshwater fish 38 Triton PR AS A recirculation system built from scratch Eel farmer experiments with new species

Front cover: Catches being hauled aboard a vessel.

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Contents Denmark 40 Danish fisheries and the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy Greatest impact in the areas of discards, market policy 42 Discard ban will only work if accepted by fishers Responsibility back to the fishermen…..

45 Broad-based consensus behind development of fish farming Removing the fetters from Danish aquaculture 49 Marel offers a complete range of fish processing solutions Combining strong customer focus with cutting edge technology 51 Ravnstrup Mølle supplies markets in several European countries Dominating the Danish production of fresh trout on ice 53 Kroma makes gutting and filleting machines Move to bigger factory reduces turnaround time 55 Hjarnø Havbrug is experimenting with mussels and seaweed Research and development to reduce environmental impact

Aquaculture 57 Onshore, inshore, offshore: where does aquaculture belong?

The further from the coast, the higher the cost

Fisheries 61 Lithuania’s Fisheries Service carries out a range of important activities Securing the future of fish stocks

Worldwide Fish News Belgium

pages

7, 10

Belize

page

6

China

page

11

Denmark

pages

6, 8, 10

Germany

pages

8, 10

Poland

pages

6, 7, 8, 10, 11

UK

page

8

USA

page

6

Guest Pages: Mr Helir-Valdor Seeder 64 Interview with Mr Helir-Valdor Seeder, Minister of Agriculture, Estonia The sustainability of our fishery activities will ensure a future for our fishers

Service 63 Diary Dates 66 Imprint, List of Advertisers

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Denmark: New fisheries minister after cabinet reshuffle

Denmark: New rules governing small pelagics from the Faroe Islands

In a cabinet reshuffle in August Karen Hækkerup was appointed Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries succeeding Mette Gjerskov. Ms Hækkerup comes to the position from the Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration, where she also served as minister. She is a member of the Social Democrats, the biggest party in Denmark’s ruling coalition. The broad thrust of the ministry’s focus areas in fisheries – sustainability, reduction in red tape, and flexibility with regard to commercial fisheries – will continue with the new appointment.

Denmark has been one of the strong backers of efforts by the European Commission to reform the Common Fisheries Policy

EU sanctions against the Faroese came into force on 28 August to protect stocks of mackerel and and Atlanto-Scandian herring.

The package of measure introduced by the European Commission include a ban on imports of herring and mackerel from the Atlanto-Scandian stocks that has been caught under the control of the Faroe Islands as well as fishery products containing or made of such fish. The measures also include restrictions on the use of EU ports by vessels fishing for herring and mackerel stocks under the control of the Faroe Islands.

This means that some Faroese vessels will not be allowed to dock in EU ports, except in cases

Karen Hækkerup, Denmark’s new Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.

making it more sustainable, banning discards, and decentralising management, and will continue to support these objectives under the new minister.

of emergency. Until 2013 the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock was managed by Norway, Iceland, Russia, the Faroe Islands, and the EU through a long term management plan and pre-existing shares of the Total Allowable Catch. In 2013 the Faroe Islands opted out of the agreement and unilaterally raised their quota more than three times. Several attempts to achieve a negotiated settlement failed leading to the EU decision to impose sanctions on the Faroe Islands. A similar dispute is ongoing with Iceland regarding the North-East Atlantic mackerel stock and the EU is contemplating sanctions against that country as well.

USA: Mobile system for tracking seafood products Dynamic System Ltd offers a portable food traceability system designed for harsh working environments including in processing plants, at docksides, or in the field, where fresh produce such as bivalves are harvested. The system, Simba Mobile, is a complete seafood processing solution that

helps businesses meet case, pallet and lot traceability requirements. Products can be tracked from sea to van with the help of the scan-equipped mobile computer and mobile bluetooth bar code printer. Information about the product, its weight, size, colour, grade, etc. is collected

on the terminal and a label capturing the data is printed and attached to the product. Details on the label are stored in the system for inventory management, traceability and shipping. The software tracks each item on to a specific truck and automatically produces a bill of lading,

thereby preventing disputes with the customer about what was actually shipped. Faster production, accurate reports, full traceability, and professional labels are among the benefits offered by the system, which is tailored to meet the requirements of the individual customer.

Belize: White shrimp manufacturer achieves three star BAP certification

Poland: Experts produce a roadmap for carp production in 2020

Belize Aquaculture, a producer of white shrimp, was recently certified to the Best Aquaculture Practise (BAP) standard of the Global Aquaculture Alliance. The certification applies to the company’s farming operations, hatchery, and processing plant. Founded in 1996 the company produced 2,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2012, a volume that is set to more than double to 4,500 tonnes by 2014. The shrimp are farmed in 68 four-acre ponds and processed into fresh, frozen and cooked shrimp products that

A group of nine experts after discussions with carp breeders have developed a Carp Strategy 2020. The strategy analyses the situation of carp management in Poland and identifies the direction of its development up to 2020. According to the document the main objectives for carp culture in Poland are: maintaining carp production potential at of 60,000 ha with a production of 17,000 tonnes, increasing the profitability (by up to 10 net) of fish farms and increasing the

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

are exported to retail and food service customers in the US, Europe, Asia, and Central America. BAP is an internationally recognised standard that covers the entire aquaculture supply chain, farms, feed mills, hatcheries and processing plants, to ensure healthful products that are environmentally and socially responsibly produced. Belize Aquaculture is only the second producer in Central America to receive the three star certification, i.e. for hatchery, farm, and processing plant.

environmental and social functions of carp management. In Poland the production of carp equals about 16,800 tonnes per year on the whole for the internal market. Over 80 of carp volume is consumed once a year at Christmas Eve. Carp breeders are today facing a difficult market situation in which they feel the competition from other species of fish.

Source: Fish Industry Magazine, mprfish.com www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Belgium: Proposals for fishing opportunities in the Baltic

Poland: Peeled shrimp processor certified to MSC standard

The European Commission’s proposals for fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea are something of a mixed bag. This is the annual proposal for the amount of fish which can be caught by EU fishermen from the main commercial fish stocks in the Baltic Sea next year. The proposal for herring (Western, Central, Bothnian, Gulf of Riga) will increase the TAC by 33 to 336,636 tonnes, while the sprat proposal will reduce the TAC 11 to 222,102 tonnes. The proposal for cod (Western and Eastern) increases the TAC by 1.6 to 82,971 tonnes. The number of salmon in the proposal is a 6.6 decrease to 115,677 due to a halving in the number of Gulf of Finland salmon that may be

In July 2013 Resko Ltd. has been positively audited by MSC. As a result it will be the first company in the world with MSC certificate for the hand peeled shrimps processing plant. It should be recalled that Resko has also been certified for two years in the row with IFS

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certificate (version 6) as the only subject active in this field in the world. The firm will soon activate a European information campaign promoting those unique achievements in the certification field.

Source: Fish Industry Magazine, mprfish.com T. Kulikowski

caught. The proposals are based on advice from ICES, the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STEFC). It shows that more stocks are managed at sustainable levels – the number of stocks in the Baltic Sea that can be fished at MSY has increased from three to five. The cuts in Total Allowable Catches (TACs) adopted in previous years have proved to be an efficient measure to support sustainability in the Baltic fishery. The Commissions proposals will be discussed by fisheries ministers at the October Fisheries Council, where the TACs will be decided. They will be valid from 1 January 2014.

Hand peeled brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) and coldwater shrimps (Pandalus borealis ).

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[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Denmark: Race for the Baltic to petition ministers at Helcom meeting

Germany: Investment in Australia to add to Baader’s capabilities

Ministers of the Environment from the nine Baltic coastal states and the EU Commissioner will meet in Copenhagen in October to discuss the status and future of the Baltic Sea. The discussions will revolve around the still unsatisfactory condition of the the Baltic, and ways to better coordinate policies and their implementation to improve its status. The meeting will take stock of the Baltic Sea Action Plan, a 2007 programme to restore the ecological health of the Baltic Sea by 2021, and evaluate whether the schedule

The Baader Group has taken over the activities and certain assets of Seafood Innovations and Seafood Innovations International Group, Australian manufacturers and suppliers of welfare-friendly solutions for the efficient stunning and bleeding of fish. Baader, a German company, offers complete processing solutions to the industry – from gutting, heading, filleting, skinning, trimming, final inspection to sizing and grading.

A new subsidiary of the Baader Group in Australia, Baader SI, will be responsible for the business activities of the acquisition. Petra

is on track. A campaign, Race for the Baltic, that organised a 3,500 km cycle trip around the Baltic Sea to create awareness of the problems and the need for action will present a petition to the ministers assembled at the Helcom meeting. The petition, signed by over 20,000 people, has also drawn the support of some prominent politicians. It specifically calls for the responsible management of Baltic fish stocks; reduced eutrophication for a healthier sea; and the protection of sensitive areas to secure biodiversity.

Baader, CEO of the Baader Group sees significant synergies arising from the takeover. The two businesses compliment each other with regard to the global presence in the market, the process technology, the developing experience and the customer support so we are delighted to have both under the same roof now, she said. Seafood Innovation’s harvest system will allow control of the entire chain to start even before the fish are slaughtered, which will benefit each successive processing stage, contributing to the quality of the final product.

Poland: Higher sprat catches lead to skinny cod

UK: Humidifying system saves canner significant raw material weight loss

In July the Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural development imposed a complete ban on sprat catches as this year Polish fishermen have caught the full limit of 73,3 thousand tonnes of sprats. This is 11 more than in the year 2012.

Half the quota is for human consumption (intended for canned and smoked fish). The rest is so called fodder catches. Big sprat catches in the Baltic Sea worry fishermen who catch cod – Baltic

A canning company has installed a humidifying system to reduce the weight loss of the raw material and thereby increase yields.

The humidifying system from JS Humidifiers maintains high humidity around the fish after it is steamed and has reduced the weight loss due to evaporation from approximately 5 to about 0.67, reports the company.

The saving translates into about USD1m per year. The humidifying

cod in Polish waters is becoming smaller and is underfed because of the decrease in pelagic fish like sprat on which it preys. This is a big problem for Polish fish processing plants, where it is an important resource. Nowadays more and more processing plants concentrate on filleting cod and salmon imported from Scandinavia.

Hubert Bierndgarski

Source: Fish Industry Magazine, mprfish.com

system works by combining compressed air and water in precision engineered nozzles to produce a very fine spray that is rapidly absorbed by the air. This makes it ideal for use in cold stores where the ambient humidity is often high and humidification less readily absorbed by the atmosphere. The nozzles have a self-cleaning mechanism, which consists of a pin that pushes through the nozzle orifice whenever the spray stops.

Fish processors are importing cod from Scandinavia as they feel the Polish fish is undernourished.

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

Yields at a canning factory increased substantially with the installation of a humidifying system. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] Germany: Automated label monitoring system Multivac Marking and Inspection, a division of the Multivac Group, has launched an automated print monitoring system, which monitors the correct position of the print, and the print itself on the labels, directly at the dispenser. In operations with high throughput the packs are filled, sealed and labelled in several pack rows and tracks on a thermoforming packaging machine. Monitoring that the label has been printed properly can call for two or three or even more visual monitoring systems such as scanners or cameras. With

the automated print monitoring system on the other hand, the label and its print are monitored for correctness before the labels are distributed. In addition, an optional system comprising a luminescence sensor and a camera can then check that the label is properly attached to the pack. The monitoring systems ensure that packs with faulty labels are automatically removed from the line by a handling mechanism. The automated print monitoring system is available as an option for all MR600 series cross web labellers.

The automated print monitoring system from Multivac can be used with all MR600 series cross web labellers.

Brussels: Using former fishermen’s expertise to solve marine litter problem Marine litter is a wide-reaching problem that endangers marine life, is a human health hazard, contaminates beaches and harbours, and smothers the seabed among other negative impacts.

In a blog entry Maria Damanaki, Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, points out that an estimated 80 of the litter in the sea is non biodegradeable

plastic, which ends up in the stomachs of seabirds and fish, and by extension, on consumers’ plates as well. To combat this, different initiatives are being supported by the Commission that aim to clean up some of this litter. Marelitt, for example, is a two year pilot project supported by the European Commission that will assess existing marine litter

removal projects in the Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean Seas, and the North East Atlantic with a view to defining good practices.

Additionally, a call for proposals on the preparatory action “Guardians of the Sea”, has just been launched. The overall objective is to improve the balance between fish stocks and fishing capacity and at the same time preserve

jobs in coastal communities.

Fishers and fishing vessel owners who have left the fisheries sector have knowledge and expertise that could be used, for example, in the fight against marine litter.

Proposals that would help former fishermen to develop technical solutions for the collection of marine litter would be eligible for co-financing.

Denmark: ICES advice for 2014 now available for laymen ICES, the International International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, provides advice to national governments and competent authorities including the European Commission (EC), the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), and the North East

Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), on environmental issues and the status of fish and invertebrate stocks in Northeast Atlantic waters. The authorities use this information to establish fisheries catch allowances and other conservation and

management measures. While the official advice is intended for use by specialists, ICES has also begun to publish a version of the advice for lay people.

The easy-to-read edition of the advice is available for 104 stocks in European waters, including

stocks in the Baltic Sea, the Bay of Biscay and Iberian waters, the Celtic Sea, and the North Sea and can be found under Our Publications on the Publications menu on the organisation’s website, www.ices.dk.

Poland: Restructuring of Marine Harvest will not affect Morpol Marine Harvest has announced a restructuring which will include a reduction of plants and employment in France, Belgium and Poland. The number of salmon processing plants will decrease from 13 to 8 and about 450 people will lose 10

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

their jobs from the 2,400 who are now employed. According to Piotr Kapinos, CFO Morpol, this reduction will not affect Morpol plants in Dunin (North Poland) which will be a part of G.K. Marine Harvest if the antitrust authorities accept

the fusion. Morpol is the biggest processor of Atlantic salmon in the world and the global leader of cold smoked salmon. Marine Harvest, which has acquired Morpol, also has a daughter company - Marine Harvest Poland Ltd, which deals

with packaging of fresh salmon.

Marine Harvest’s salmon processing operations in Poland are expected to be concentrated in Marpol processing plants.

Source: Fish Industry Magazine, mprfish.com www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ NEWS INTERNATIONAL ] China: Fisheries & Seafood Expo addresses nation’s growing demand for seafood China has long been the world’s largest seafood market with its population of 1.35 billion people (July 2013 estimate) but it is also one of the fastest growing markets in the business. A huge and growing middle class means Chinese, on average, can afford to spend more on food, which in turn drives consumption of fish and seafood. China’s consumption of seafood products, at 16.5

million metric tonnes (MT) in 2011 (compared to 7.56 million MT in 2000), and at a growth rate of 5.7 percent per annum is growing significantly faster than overall production of seafood, which only averages 3.8 percent a year.

A plan to increase production is in the making, but imported fish for consumption is also on the rise. Imported seafood is widely viewed as safer and of higher

quality than domestic seafood, which opens the door for international producers to meet with domestic companies. One such meeting place is the China Fisheries & Seafood Expo. This year it will be held in Dalian from November 5-7 and will attract leading seafood importing, exporting, and processing companies. The show is Asia’s largest seafood event with over 900 registered

exhibitors from 44 nations, more than 20 national pavilions, and an expected twenty thousand visitors from around the globe. The 2013 China Fisheries & Seafood Expo will therefore provide the perfect opportunity to showcase products that could be a help to satisfy the growing demand for fish and seafood in China. More information can be found at www.chinaseafoodexpo.com

Poland: Salmonid consumption increases According to data from the Institute of Agriculture and Food Economy in Warsaw, fish consumption in Poland amounted to 11.8 kg in 2012 in live weight equivalent, decreasing by 4 compared to 2011. The consumption decrease is mostly connected with

a decline in consumer interest for frozen pollock and pangasius fillets. At the same time a significant increase in salmonid consumption has been observed, salmon imported from Norway as well as trout farmed in the country.

According to Kristin Pettersen, the

Director of Polish Market in Norwegian Seafood Council, home consumption of fresh and smoked salmon increased by 152 in 2012, reaching approx. 14,000 tonnes.

Key drivers for the increase are: availability (sale of fresh salmon has started in over 2,700 discount

supermarkets all over the country), as well as increased promotions and visibility. In 2013 salmon consumption has decreased due to high prices.

Source: Fish Industry Magazine, mprfish.com

Superior salmon filleting Performance taken to a new level The advanced filleting machine MS 2730 offers: r r r r r

More capacity Easy operation Better quality Increased yield Small footprint

and much more!

Contact your local Marel office for more information. www.marel.com/superiorfilleting · salmondivision@marel.com

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[ EVENTS ] Alimentaria Barcelona, 31 March – 3 April 2014

International visitors expected to exceed 2013 total of 40,000 Alimentaria Exhibitions, a Fira de Barcelona company specialised in food and drink industry events, has already embarked on its journey around the world to identify and open up new foreign markets for exhibitors at the next edition of Alimentaria Barcelona.

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limentaria Exhibitions is focusing its international promotion activities on markets in Latin America, North America and Asia, which have a great deal of growth potential for agri-food exports. To date, Alimentaria’s organisers have held meetings with distributors, importers and associations in Japan, the U.S.A., Dubai and Mexico. The search for buyers will soon continue on to China, Brazil and France, as Europe continues to be a favoured destination.

Number of international buyers set to increase The managing director of Alimentaria Exhibitions, J. Antonio Valls, notes that at this edition, Alimentaria is committed to internationalisation in order to strengthen the sector’s focus on international expansion and help participating companies gain access to new markets. Valls states that the main aim of the show is to “present the scale and potential of agri-food market exports to international agents.” At Alimentaria 2014, it is anticipated that the number of international buyers will increase and more than 8,000 business meetings will be scheduled between exhibitors and professionals from visiting delegations from 60 countries.

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Alimentaria's Barcelona event is expecting greater numbers of exhibitors and vistors from Asia.

At its previous edition, the number of foreign visitors to Alimentaria rose 11, attracting close to 40,000 professionals from 143 countries, primarily in Europe, Latin America and Asia. However, the show’s international presence is also measured by the country of origin of its exhibitor companies. At the next event roughly 33 of the almost 4,000 companies expected to participate will be from abroad.

Promotion at international trade shows Its promotional activities have led Alimentaria to participate in leading international trade shows such as Gulf Food (Dubai), Prowein (Germany), Alimentaria & Horexpo Lisboa (Portugal), Alimentaria México and the upcoming Summer Fancy Food in New York, where it will share a stand with Culinary Collective, the

leader in gourmet product distribution.

A larger Japanese presence

In Mexico, a delegation from Alimentaria has met with purchasing and import managers at major supermarket chains and gourmet retailers, including Palacio de Hierro, Liverpool, City MarketComercial Mexicana, Cheldraui, Walmart, Sam’s Club, La Europea and La Divina. Contact has also been made with the National Wholesale Grocers’ Association (ANAM in its Spanish acronym), National Association of Importers & Exporters of the Republic of Mexico (ANIERM in its Spanish acronym) and Proméxico to arrange visits from trade missions to the next edition of the Barcelona trade show. Brazil, Colombia and Peru are also target countries for promotional activities and meetings with industry associations, importers and supermarkets.

Japan is a major importer of Spanish food and beverages, primarily oil, meat, wine and gourmet products. Taking advantage of the Spain-Japan Dual Year celebrations – beginning this June and commemorating 400 years of exchange between the two countries – Alimentaria is working on various projects to increase the Japanese presence at the show.

Japan’s supermarket association will be organising a visit by a delegation of buyers, who will take part in Alimentaria’s Hosted Buyers Programme and present a seminar on the retail sector in their country.

Added focus on Asian countries The United Arab Emirates is another key market for attracting www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ EVENTS ] visitors and exhibitors to Alimentaria, particularly because of its purchasing power for the food service sector. Distributors, importers and local retailers such as Choithrams, Aramtec, Federal Foods, Truebell, Lulu group International, Greenhouse and Emirates Gourmet took part in an event organised by FIAB (Spanish acronym for the Spanish Food and Drink Industry Federation) and Alimentaria last February in Dubai.

Alimentaria 2014 is also being promoted in Singapore, China, Hong

Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines by means of an agreement between Alimentaria Exhibitions and Acc1ó (Government of Catalonia agency for the promotion of Catalan companies abroad), with a direct presence in each of these countries. For its part, the show has received a delegation of buyers from India and continues its promotional activities in the EU. European Union countries are widely represented at Alimentaria, as they continue to be one of the main destinations for Spanish agri-food exports.

Maximum international exposure

competitiveness for the agri-food industry.

Alimentaria has made its international strategy a priority for many years. At the 1998 edition, Alimentaria worked with just four international agents, while today it has more than 30 trade agents around the world. The result has been a spectacular increase in foreign visitors over this period, going from 6,000 professionals to close to 40,000. In the current environment, international expansion is one of the most effective routes to

Barcelona is one of the ten most visited cities in the world with a significant historic and cultural heritage.

The city offers a modern hotel infrastructure and first-rate commercial, leisure, cultural and tourist options.

For more information contact Susana Santamaria, +34 93 4521800, ssantamaria@alimentaria.com or Maria Dolores Herranz, +34 93 2332541, mdherranz@firabarcelona.com

Fish international, Bremen, 9-11 February 2014

Triple premiere at the next fish international A new competition, an aquaculture workshop that will be the first of its kind in the EU, and a completely new gastro event – the well-established “fish international” will again have something new to offer in Halls 4, 5 and 6 of the Bremen Exhibition Centre when it opens its gates for the 14th time from Sunday 9 to Tuesday 11 February 2014.

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longside these new features visitors to Germany’s only fish trade fair will also be able to enjoy the well-tried mix of product presentations, discussion of current topics, and opportunities for nurturing existing contacts and building up new ones – for example during the popular “Trawl Party” on the Sunday of the fair.

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For nearly 30 years now, visitors from the food and fish retail sector, restaurants and catering, fish import and export, and fish processing have been meeting at two-yearly intervals at fish international. The Bremen fair

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Tel.: +49/451/53020 | Fax: +49/451/5302-492 | e-mail: baader@baader.com | www.baader.com

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[ EVENTS ]

Fish international in Bremen will offer visitors and exhibitors a variety of new events including an aquaculture workshop, and Gastro Ivent for the restaurant and catering sector.

gives them a reliable overview of what the fish industry currently has to offer: fresh fish and processed products, technical solutions from filleting machines to smoking systems, or point of sale equipment. In 2012 about 8,200 visitors took advantage of the chance to look around the stands of 260 exhibitors from 23 different countries.

At fish international 2014 visitors will for the first time be able to take part in selecting the “Best Seafood Product” at the fair. Competitors for the new prize can enter both already established products and new creations and these will be presented in their own exhibition section as well as in a brochure. An expert jury will taste and evaluate the product entries, but visitors can submit their votes, too, which will also give them the chance to win one of a number of attractive prizes for their participation.

“With this contest we are opening up a new path for our exhibitors to advertise their products”, said Sabine Wedell, fish international’s Project Manager.

Fair visitors were mainly looking for interesting fish products, but also for equipment for their everyday business, she said, 14

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reporting on the results of the visitor survey. In addition to a wide range of fresh and smoked products, frozen products, delicatessen and marinades, fish international is also well-known for the new sales concepts which are presented at the fair. “This time we are expecting counter concepts that combine sales and catering”, Ms Wedell announced.

In addition, with the “Traceability Hotspot” the organisers are picking up an urgent challenge: exhibitors who are working to achieve full traceability and uniform labelling of fish will be able to present their solutions here.

Internationally renowned aquaculture workshop comes to fish international When asked to name other areas of interest, visitors frequently mention aquaculture. That is why in 2014 there will be more equipment and technology for fish farming on display. There will also be a workshop on recirculation systems – the first of its kind in the EU – which in the USA attracts participants from all over the world. Professor Dr Michael Timmons and Dr James Ebeling normally offer this

workshop at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

New event for restaurant and catering sector “With our Gastro Ivent we are responding to visitor expectations for even more offers for the restaurant and catering sectors”, said Sabine Wedell. This fair will offer the industry creative ideas and solutions. It will present highquality foods, particularly from regional production, beverages, furnishings and technology. The chance to actually try the different products brings them closer to the public, and lectures will examine topics such as “Social Media in Catering”. The exhibition cinema system will show videos on the production and preparation methods involved.

Among the exhibitors who have already registered for fish international is Transgourmet Seafood. “As a supplier to restaurants and hotels, company canteens and communal/institutional caterers, wholesalers, cash & carry stores as well as food retailers and fishmongers the Bremen fish fair is of special significance to us”, said Manager Ralf Forner.

“We meet our customers here, we can give them our full attention in Bremen!” The exhibition successes of 2010 and 2012 were encouraging and so the company is now further expanding its exhibition area by a third. “The Gastro Ivent will be an additional strong driving force – it is a useful and logical supplement to this fair. With the new double event our customers will find attractive presentations of the complete range in Bremen”, of this Forner is convinced. He will be bringing with him to Bremen a large number of partners, among them Royal Greenland, Frosta, Sterk, Christian Goedeken jr., Edna, Aviko, Kühlmann and the Alaska Marketing Institute (ASMI).

Fish international and Gastro Ivent are open on Sunday and Monday from 10:00 to 18:00 and on Tuesday from 10:00 to 17:00. Day tickets – which allow access to both events – can be bought online in advance for 24 EUR, or for 38 EUR at the fair. To find out more please visit www.fishinternational.de and www.gastro-ivent.de.

For more information contact Sabine Wedell, +49 421 350 52 64, wedell@messe-bremen.de www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ PROJECTS ] Fish shops, promotion campaigns, institutions to create awareness of benefits of fish

Workshop discusses improving fish consumption in Caspian Sea region On 17-19 June 2013, the FAO and Eurofish held a three-day regional workshop “Improving post-harvest fisheries practices and fish consumption in the countries around the Caspian Sea” in Tbilisi, Georgia. The workshop was organized in a close cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia. Totally, over 30 delegates from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan attended the workshop representing the administration and the industry.

C

haracteristics of fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the countries of the Caspian Sea region are very diverse depending on geographical and historical features of the countries. It is very interesting to observe that, for example, Azerbaijan with the lowest reserves of freshwater in the Caucasus region, has important production and processing of sturgeon species. The country was one of the leading caviar producers and exporters, but at present a 5-year moratorium on the export of caviar is in place since 2010. Armenia with its population of 2.9 million people has greatly succeeded in expanding its production of farmed fish like various trout and sturgeon species to nearly 9 000 tonnes in 2012, with the following increasing exports to 1 800 tonnes.

Regional aquaculture production set to increase The Georgian fisheries sector, comprising marine, inland and aquaculture industries, has an abundant resource of high quality anchovy which has a big potential for sustainable development and assuring more economical value for the Georgian fisheries sector and the country on overall.

Kazakhstan is aiming to increase www.eurofishmagazine.com

Participants at a regional workshop on improving post-harvest fisheries practices and fish consumption in the countries around the Caspian Sea.

its farmed fish production to 15 000 tonnes by 2015 and rebuild its fish processing industry under the national “Agro-Business Programme 2013-2020”. Russia, which currently produces about 160,000 tonnes of farmed fish, has finally approved the “Law on aquaculture”, that had been awaited by the industry for many years, which will expectedly facilitate the progress of the aquaculture sector in the country. Uzbekistan, with a population of 30 million people and fish consumption of 0.8 kg per capita,

I3057 t at stand e e m s t’ e L a Barcelon Seafood 3 1 0 2 r e b to 22-24 Oc

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

15

[ PROJECTS ] currently suffers a deficit of fish products. It is planning to raise its farmed fish production to 35 300 tonnes in 2013 by increasing the number of fish farms in the country. In the first half of 2013, there were 1 375 fish farming companies (including 296 companies working in the inland waters and 1 079 companies working in the artificial water bodies). It is estimated that 448 more new fish farms will be constructed during 2013.

Countries surrounding the Caspian Sea like Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and neighbouring countries such as Georgia, Armenia and Uzbekistan, have important fish resources; however a common feature is that their postharvest fisheries practices and capacity for processing fish products are underutilised.

The national fish processing sectors in these countries are trying to put more focus on exports of fish products, and some countries are eligible for export to the European market, while others are trying to comply with the requirements that will enable them to export.

Improvements in legislation, capacity building, better market access, removal of trade obstacles, and promotion campaigns for fish are some of the measures that would boost production, consumption, and trade in the region.

Nevertheless, there is a need to invest into processing and packaging technology, value addition to the fish products and to strengthen implementation of international food safety standards and increase access to market information and arrangements with trade partners and organization of export and promotion activities. Fish consumption in that region is very low with the consequent impact on the nutrition security and health of people.

fish processing industry were among the topics on necessary safety and quality requirements and standards in the international fish trade. The topics on by-products for improved fish utilisation and market diversification and value added products in the EU market provided an overview of value addition to available fish resources.

Answering the needs of the coun-

The variety of fish species pro-

Domestic markets absorb most of the production

Processing sector needs tries in the Caspian Sea region, duced by those countries is very investments to capitalise the topics of the workshop wide from freshwater species like on its advantages addressed capacity building of rainbow trout, carps, sturgeons, The characteristics of the fish processing sectors in the Caspian Sea region countries are very diverse depending on the countries’ historical fishing traditions and general economic situation, availability of fish resources, capacity to modernise their fish processing sectors and unification of distribution chains. In general, the main strengths of the fisheries sectors in these countries are production capacity, high quality local fish products, availability of qualified employees and relatively low labour costs, which can create advantages for development of exports of the local fish products.

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

the countries to improve postharvest practices, value addition for available fish resources, improvement of market access and improvement of domestic fish consumption. Developments in the regional and international fish trade, EU regulations for international fish trade and market access requirements were among topics in the session on international trade. Codex standards, guidelines and codes of practices; causes of detentions and rejections in international fish trade; hazards, risk assessment and fishery product standard development, and HACCP principles and application in the

pike-perch, common bream, asp and catfish to marine species like small pelagics. Some countries have created their “trade marks” in terms of fish products like sturgeon and production of caviar from Azerbaijan and Russia, pikeperch products from Kazakhstan, rainbow trout and sturgeons from Armenia and several others. The majority of fish products from these countries are known predominantly on the CIS markets, with the exception of sturgeon and caviar products.

Most fish products from inland waters and aquaculture farms are distributed on the national market

through traditional distribution channels. Fish is sold mostly live or freshly slaughtered, while some processing activities like smoking, salting and drying of fish have been implemented. Many producers are trying to comply with international food safety standards in order to be eligible for exports to the European market, while some of the countries have made good progress in this direction like, for example, Armenia with exports of crayfish to the European market and Kazakhstan with exports of pike-perch.

Ways to reduce obstacles to trade suggested In addition to the extensive programme, the workshop provided a good forum for the exchange of information among the participants and promoted networking between the fish industry and the regulatory bodies in the countries of the region. Representatives from each country presented the latest overview of developments in their fisheries sectors including catching, aquaculture, production, trade, governmental policies and outlook for the developments. The main obstacles for increasing fish trade and the regional fish consumption were thoroughly discussed and www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ PROJECTS ] presented during the working session in the groups, and valuable outputs in terms of concrete suggestions for overcoming obstacles were presented by each group on the final day of the workshop.

The potential for fish processing sectors in these countries is

presently underexploited. The most important steps for its improvement will be the adoption of measures by national governments to support fish producers, improvement of legislation, capacity building with the aim to improve post-harvest fisheries practices, compliance with inter-

national food standards, increase value addition for the available fish resources, improving market access for producers as the necessary steps in the sustainable development of the post-harvest sectors in the region. Increasing domestic fish consumption needs a revival of the culture for eating fish with the

help of social and media channels, creation of specialized fish shops and markets/exhibition, introduction of fish meals in schools and kindergartens and supporting low-income population groups.

Katia Tribilustova katia.tribilustova@eurofish.dk

EU project to determine environmental footprint of whitefish products

Analysing the sustainability of whitefish capture In the course of the next three years researchers from three countries will analyse variables related to sustainability of wild caught fish. Everything from fuel consumption and economic considerations to the impact on local communities will be calculated, as will the welfare of both the fish and employees.

M

ore than 15 scientist together with industry organisations from around Europe are participating in a three-year EU-funded project. Coordinated by Petter Olsen from NOFIMA, Norway, the project will develop a tool that enables individual companies and fishing boat owners to carry out a simplified life-cycle assessment (sustainability impact) of their products, including environmental, economic and social impacts focusing on cod and haddock fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic.

Fuel consumption to be analysed first The initial phase of the project will concentrate on accessible data, for example fuel consumption. Fuel consumption is one of the most important factors from an economic perspective with regard to sustainability and the www.eurofishmagazine.com

environment. This will be based on case studies. This data can vary from year to year or trip to trip depending on the accessibility, depth and density etc. of the fish.

“In the next phase of the project we will systematise a series of data in order to achieve the broadest possible picture of the enterprise’s sustainability impact. We will use life-cycle assessment (LCA), which encompasses cradle to grave thinking for products and the instruments used in creating them, from production of the boat through to production and sale,” says Donnelly. The tool under development will be suited to strengthening the image and reputation of the seafood companies and, as such, should contribute to increased sales and price in the market. “The tool will be broadly applicable. It will enable the company to carry out an internal assessment of sustainability and identify where it

may be improved with respect to the environment, welfare and economics. Naturally, the documentation of an improved sustainability profile provides the basis for attaining advantages from a marketing perspective,” says Donnelly.

Tool to be made freely available Senior Scientist Petter Olsen says that the tool to be developed in 2014 will be free and available to all in the industry wanting to document environmental impact and sustainability.

The scientific work in the project is being carried out by Nofima (Norway), Matis (Iceland), SIK (Sweden) and Wageningen University (Netherlands).

For more information of the WhiteFish project, see www.whitefishproject.org or contact whitefish@nofima.no Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

17

[ PROJECTS ] AQFood Master Programme

Improving collaboration between industry and academia The Nordic Master in “Aquatic Food Production – Safety and Quality” AQFood targets Nordic and other students with a background in chemistry, biology, natural sciences, environment, health and production, or biotechnology who are interested in specialising in aquatic food production at the post graduate level. Participants may come from a background in aquaculture production, industrial food production, or natural resource management. The focus in AQFood is to address the entire value chain and to consider important aspects of economy, production management as well as environmental challenges making it a unique master degree.

A

quaculture Europe 2013 in Trondheim Norway was the venue for a special session about the new AQ Food master programme. The session featured seven presentations, some including videos, where the importance of various tools and methods needed for successful interactions between the aquatic food industries, academia and the students were discussed. This session was hosted

by the Nordic funded project InTerAct – Industry-Academia Interaction in the Marine Sector at the Higher Education Level.

Briding by students working on industry projects Three other projects that support the aims of the education were also presented at the meeting. After a lively question and

Leading Nordic universities participate in programme The Nordic Masters in Aquatic Food Production is offered by a consortium of five universities: Technical University of Denmark (DTU), National Food Institute, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Biotechnology, Trondheim, Norway; Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB), Department

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, Aas, Norway; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental studies, Umeå, Sweden; University of Iceland HI (UoI), School of Engineering & Natural Sciences, Reykjavik, Iceland.

For more information: www.aqfood.org

answer session the main conclusions from the meeting were summarised as follows: There is a need for bridge building between the industry and academia. Graduate students working on industry relevant projects could be a core building block for bridging. However, concerns were evident about how industry-based research projects could be matched to the most suitable students. Further work is needed to draw industry into closer collaboration with academia, as industry most often needs a relatively rapid response to current problems, but students’ projects often need to be based on a timeline linked to the training program.

Regular open dialogue would bring positive changes Consensus was reached that the positive changes will be reached faster through regular, open bilateral communication and interaction between industry and academia. It is important for academia to understand industries’ need for a particular expertise,

and to work with the sector in the development of cutting-edge solutions useful for businesses.

This know-how is required for industry to stay competitive and sustainable in the aquatic food value chain. Academia can support this by delivering well educated young people with the required skill sets and training.

This requires a continuous dialogue between academia and all the actors in the diverse aquatic food supply chains.

The whole value chain perspective needs to be promoted with all stakeholders Participants from the InTerAct project also attended the first part of the Aqua Nor 2013 exhibition. Discussions with the industry were held, interviews recorded, and promotional videos filmed, which will be used to promote the AQFood master programme. The material will be ready for the final InTerAct event which is planned for the end of 2013. For more news and information about the final event sign up for the IntTerAct mailing list by writing to Sigurdur Bogason from Iceland University at sigboga@hi.is. www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Freshwater fisheries are an important economic activity in Estonia among lakeside communities. Here, catches being hauled aboard a vessel on Lake Peipsi.

Estonian fish farming to focus on niche products

Farmers and fishers to focus on value addition Aquaculture production within the European Union has stagnated for several years. In 2005 production amounted to 1.3m tonnes, while in 2010 it was 1.26m tonnes. Within the European Commission, Maria Damanaki, Commissioner for Maritime Affaires and Fisheries, is determined to boost the development of European aquacultur.

T

he European aquaculture sector today has many strengths, but is also beset by problems. Among them are Present as visitors at

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slow licensing procedures and other administrative inefficiencies. “Today, obtaining a licence for a new farm can take up to

three years, which obviously deters investors” says Maria Damanaki. “I want to work with Member States to cut red

tape and help the competitiveness of this sector building upon the high level of consumer and environmental protection we

Set up in a move-in ready seafood processing unit !

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

19

ESTONIA

Prof. Erik Terk, director, and Jüri Sakkeus, project manager at the Institute of Future Studies, Tallinn University, are coordinating the development of Estonia’s aquaculture strategy.

currently have”. While red tape is one of the issues identified by the Commission that is holding back the European aquaculture sector, others include, the need to facilitate access to space and water; to increase competitiveness in the sector; and to improve the level playing field by exploiting the competitive edge of “made-in-the-EU” fish products.

The strategic guidelines issued by the Commission in April this year address these issues and form the basis for the multiannual national strategic aquaculture plans being drawn up by the Member States which will cover the seven-year period 2014 to 2020.

Estonia’s ambitious aquaculture strategy gets final touches In Estonia the development of the strategic plan is coordinated by the Institute of Future Studies, 20

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

an independent institute under Tallinn University, where Prof.

Erik Terk, the director, and Jüri Sakkeus, the project manager are responsible for developing the strategy in cooperation with the Estonian University of Life Sciences. Since the start of 2013 they have held a series of workshops with stakeholders, including, representatives from the aquaculture sector, from the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, from financial institutions, and from universities. The workshops have focused on analysing the sector, identifying the options available, outlining a vision, and then discussing the strategic direction that can achieve the vision. According to Jüri Sakkeus, the process has created an understanding among the participants of the individual perspectives of each stakeholder, which provides a good foundation for a strategy that can be supported by all, which is crucial for its successful implementation.

Estonia has a fish farming sector producing small volumes of several different species. Trout dominates production accounting for up to 80, followed by carp, eel and crayfish. However, as in much of the European Union farmed production in Estonia has also stagnated for the last several years and the strategy being developed seeks to identify ways of changing this. Possibly the major issue facing the Estonian aquaculture sector is, however, one that needs no analysis to identify.

It is, how can products from freshwater aquaculture compete with marine farmed fish?

Over the last decade in Estonia, like elsewhere in the Baltic Sea Region, marine farmed fish has been seizing market share from freshwater aquaculture.

Other challenges that freshwater farming faces is the need to deliver large volumes, consistent quality, and offer competitive prices.

Model with four scenarios discussed In Estonia the sector is fragmented in terms of size, species, as well as the technical systems used for production.

The discussions led to the creation of a two dimensional graph where the end point of one axis represented the complete domination by locally farmed rainbow trout. The justification for this is that already 80 of the aquaculture production is trout, and several investments have been made in trout farming systems during the last planning period. The other end point stood for a multispecies sector with a focus on niche products or on species that would thrive under Estonian conditions and for which demand existed in export markets. The perpendicular axis shows the types of production.

End point represents large scale production units owned www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Table 1 Sale of aquaculture products in 2008-2012 (tonnes) Species

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012*

Rainbow trout

334

549

488

334

245

Carp

52

45

39

38

38

Eel

46

30

20

2

..

CrayďŹ sh

0.7

2

0.4

0.6

0.1

Others

51

29

51

19

88

Total

484

655

599

393

371

* Statistical board does not collect data of aquaculture production since 2012, there is only data of sale information in aquaculture products

by companies that focus purely on aquaculture production, while at the other end point are companies where fish farming is one of several activities that could include tourism, agriculture, electricity generation, etc.

Within these two axes the strategy group identified four scenarios:

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Estonian Statistics

The first one is to really focus on rainbow trout and continue investments in those facilities to start to compete with Norwegian salmon on, for example, the St Petersburg markets and to aim for a 10-fold increase in capacity by 2020.

The other is specialising in niche products or to find Estonian

fish that are well-known in the world, e.g. eel, crayfish, catfish.

The focus would be to identify one or more species for export to foreign markets as the domestic market is limited. These species would not compete with marine farmed products.

Estonian aquaculture will be relegated to a lifestyle business that creates synergies with tourism.

The third scenario was to focus on the Estonian market and build up a leading position there by concentrating on more value-added fresh products and not trying to compete with traditionally imported products. At the same time the sector would look for opportunities to develop and export niche products.

After presenting the four options the consensus in the strategy group was very strongly for the third scenario, says Mr Sakkeus, in which the focus would be the domestic market. Here the Producer Organisation would have to play a leading role. There is currently one aquaculture PO, which has two recognised species of fish, trout and eel.

The PO, which represents about 50 of the trout farmers, has recently started building its own processing facilities. The idea is

The fourth option is to assume that Estonia has no advantages and cannot compete with marine farmed fish and

Greater value addition and focus on domestic market

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

21

ESTONIA

that those farmers who produce up to 200 tonnes a year will sell their fish to the PO for it to be processed. This way the PO will be able combine the farmers’ output to supply the volumes and the uniform quality that is desired by the retail chains in a way that the small fish farmers cannot. This will also give the PO greater bargaining power when negotiating with buyers. Among trout farmers the ones joining the PO are usually the ones who have invested in recirculation systems in the last 3-5 years.

Older farmers producing in traditional ponds or flow through raceways have been in business far longer and have established themselves and their markets, so they see less need to join a PO. Many of the newer farms have made use of funding from the EFF, but are still struggling with the new technology, the economic crisis, the high costs, and so are motivated to cooperate.

The size of the market for aquaculture products has been calculated at 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes. Trout farmers, says Mr Sakkeus, are going to have to utilise at least 80 of the capacity that they have invested in, but success will also depend on what products importers are placing on the market. Norwegian salmon is a significant threat and now Russia too is investing heavily in aquaculture capacity and will be looking at neighbouring markets when that capacity goes on stream.

Producers should form partnerships and pool resources Now that the production targets and the export targets for the niche species have been set the question is how to achieve them.

Discussions within the group 22

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

resulted in a seven main strategic directions: These include the fairly obvious such as high quality, and competitive pricing in relation to imports, and high productivity. Another, exploiting the domestic market advantage, calls for marketing and labelling products so that they are recognised as locally sourced, fresh, and healthy. Greater value addition, including filleted, smoked, marinated, dried, organic, will increase the number of product forms. Above all producers have to get better at cooperating, forming strategic partnerships, and pooling resources. In addition, new species that may be better suited to Estonian conditions should be identified and experiments, for example, with catfish and pike-perch should be encouraged. Finally the business environment including services such as veterinary specialists, aquaculture consulting, and business planning, as well as the regulatory environment including legislation and taxes, need to be developed and harmonised to encourage the sector to achieve its goals.

Mr Sakkeus is well aware that these directions are interlinked and that they call for a common understanding of the issues among producers, as well as between producers and the other actors. Much groundwork has to be done before the strategic directions can become relevant.

For example, the domestic market advantage can be properly exploited only after more work is done on labelling and marketing domestically produced aquaculture products. Greater value addition often faces the chicken and egg problem – companies are too small to invest in adding more value, yet without it they will not grow. Finding new species that will reproduce the success of salmon, seabass or seabream,

Kristi Ilves, Ministry of Agriculture, says that freshwater fishers too are starting to work together to reduce costs, and in the future, with the right incentives, may even join together to form Producer Organisations.

is something into which millions of euro have been invested on a European-wide scale with very little to show for it. From defining the strategy to implementing it will therefore be a long process that needs to be actively managed in order to maintain momentum. Mr Sakkeus feels that the stakeholders should meet regularly to take stock of the actions that have been initiated and to monitor the progress made. In the meanwhile, the strategy will be published as a document, but it will be made clear that the document is merely a snapshot of the strategy at that particular point in time.

Freshwater fishery faces similar issues Some of the elements of the aquaculture strategy apply equally to the freshwater fishery.

Freshwater fishers are also looking at adding greater value to their production to increase the profitability of their business.

They too are starting to work together to reduce costs, and in the future, with the right incentives, may even join together to form Producer Organisations, says Kristi Ilves from the Ministry of Agriculture. For its size Estonia has a significant freshwater fishery. In 2010, the last www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Priit Bernotas, Centre for Limnology, Estonian University of Life Sciences.

Among other tasks the centre assesses the status of fish stocks in Estonian freshwater bodies.

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year for which data is available, Estonia produced 2.14 kg per capita of freshwater fish, the largest per capita production in the EU after Finland, where it was 5.48 kg. Freshwater fish are caught essentially from two sites, Lake Võrtsjärv, and the Lakes Peipsi and Lämmijärv, which are linked.

At Lake Võrtsjärv the most important species in terms of volume are bream, pike and pike-perch which accounted for 82 of the total catch in 2012. Total catches reached a seven-year peak in 2008, but since then have been declining. The number of fishing

permits has been increasing over the years from 30 in 2000 to 50 in 2012. Eel is the most valuable species, but made up only 6 of the total catch and the average of the last 10 years is 30 tonnes so the catch has been declining.

The drop in eel catches can be attributed at least partly to the reduced restocking of the lake with eel. Priit Bernotas, from the Centre for Limnology at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, estimates that in 2012 about 900,000 eels were restocked, 780,000 glass eels and 80,000 elvers. This is a reduction of more than

three times compared to the 3 million eels that used to be introduced in the 80s, says Mr Bernotas. Restocking of eels is the major activity, but the institute is also involved in restocking pike and pikeperch in the smaller lakes.

One of the major tasks of the institute is assessing the resources in the lake, but smaller research projects such as studying the diet of pike, or the migratory patterns of pikeperch are also carried out.

Today the only trawling on Lake Võrtsjärv is done by the scientists to carry out stock

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

23

ESTONIA

Hannes Ulmas, Ministry of Agriculture. Fishing licenses for the lakes are issued on an annual basis depending on the quota decided by the scientists. But each fisher’s share of the licenses depends on his three-year acquired fishing right.

assessments. Fishers used trawls in the 80s but they were scooping up all the fish without discrimination so the practise was stopped to preserve the fishery.

The stock status here is not too bad, says Mr Bernotas, catches seem to have stabilised at some 250 tonnes a year after declining for the last few years. There could be different reasons for the drop in catches; the water levels in the lake are higher which makes it more difficult for the fishers, also small fish are returned to the lake. Fishing is mainly using fixed gear, that is, fyke nets and gill nets, the latter are used in the fall and winter while fyke nets are used in the spring and summer.

Pike, pike-perch, bream and eel are the main species caught by the approximately 40 fishers, who are allowed to process a limited amount themselves, mainly bream and eel, while pike and pike-perch are usually sold fresh. Increasing sales of processed eel compensate for the decline in eel catches. Some fishers sell their catch to bigger processing companies, but the returns are less attractive.

Table 2 Catches from Lake Võrtsjärv (tonnes) 2008-2012 Year

Eel

Pike-perch

Pike

Bream

Burbot

Perch

Other

Total

2008

20.5

48.3

31.6

158.2

7.8

10.8

1.7

507.9

2009

13.6

74.1

33.0

81.5

2.9

9.0

1.6

347.6

2010

10.3

29.1

34.3

56.9

2.3

13.7

0.8

266.6

2011

11.2

40.7

32.2

77.9

2.3

16.9

1.2

182.4

2012

12.2

37.8

46.6

87.2

3.8

13.4

2.2

208.7

Status of coldwater species in Lake Peipsi causes concern In Lakes Peipsi and Lämmijärv stocks of pike-perch, perch, pike, bream, and roach are in satisfactory condition, but those of the coldwater species, smelt, vendace, burbot, and whitefish are still a cause for concern. Total catches amounted to 2,649 tonnes in 2012, a six-year peak, of which pike-perch, perch, pike, bream, and roach accounted for 98. The fishing is highly seasonal with catches and gear changing from season to season. The gear used are both passive gear in the form of fyke nets used from spring to summer, and gill nets in winter, and active gear, Danish seines, are also used in the summer months. Fishing on Lake Peipsi is competitive with 68 companies and almost 383 fishermen fishing on the lake in 2012. The number of companies fell between 2006 and 2009, but stabilised thereafter, while the number of fishers has been increasing since 2008. Fishing licenses are issued on an annual basis depending on the quota decided by the scientists. But each fisher’s share of the licenses depends on the fishing right he acquired in the 90s, which was based on a three-year catch average, says Hannes Ulmas from the Ministry of Agriculture. The smaller companies and the individual fishers will often catch the fish and sell it to processors who are licensed to export.

Ministry of Agriculture

Table 3 Production sale at domestic market and export 2008-2012 2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Export %

74.1

74.2

75.2

74.7

75.5

Domestic market %

25.9

25.8

24.8

25.3

24.5 Ministry of Agriculture

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

Distant water fishers seek first MSC certification for an Estonian fishery Estonia’s distant water fishery refers to the fishing rights that Estonia has in the Northwest Atlantic www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Table 4 Catches and quotas from lakes of Peipsi and Lämmi 2008-2012 (tonnes) Species

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Catches

Quotas

Catches

Quotas

Catches

Quotas

Catches

Quotas

Catches

Quotas

Pike-perch

622

1,000

654

600

508

546

672

672

643

714

European perch

746

820

808

850

1,205

1,200

757

900

1,058

1,400

Northern pike

55

95

66

85

46

70

100

110

151

160

Freshwater bream

370

700

537

570

435

460

578

600

564

614

Roach

204

475

189

330

198

330

225

305

204

300

European whitefish

1

7

3

5

1

7

0

5

0

3

Vendace

1

1

1

1

0

1

1

10

2

15

Burbot

25

50

27

50

26

50

30

50

20

50

Other

65

355

76

355

41

355

9

355

7

355

Total

2,089

3,503

2,360

2,846

2,461

3,019

2,371

3,007

2,649

3,611 Ministry of Agriculture

(NAFO), the Northeast Atlantic (NEAFC), and Svalbard. The fleet targets a variety of species of which the most important in terms of the allocated quotas are northern prawn (Pandalus borealis),

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Atlantic redfishes (Sebastes spp), skates, and Greenland halibut.

Quotas are allocated in the form of tonnes or fishing days depending on the area, though in NAFO both are used. Today there are

six vessels in the fleet owned by three companies. Catches in 2012 at 11,990 tonnes fell to their second lowest level since 2005. Only in 2009 (10,881 t) were they lower.

Northern prawns, Argentine hake,

and Atlantic redfishes accounted for 85 of the catches in 2011. The Estonian Long Distance Fishing Association has applied for the Barents Sea northern prawn fishery to be certified to the Marine

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

25

Priit Bernotas

ESTONIA

Eel restocking in Lake Võrtsjärv. In 2012 about 900,000 eels were restocked in Estonia compared to 3 millions eels that used to be introduced in the 80s. The high price of glass eels reduced the restocking effort.

Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for a sustainable fishery.

If successful this will be the first Estonian fishery to achieve MSC certification.

Processing sector exploring markets in Asia The decision to apply for certification was in acknowledgement of the fact that the MSC logo is widely recognised on Estonia’s most important markets for northern prawn – in Scandinavia, the UK, and northern continental Europe.

Other markets for the product include China, Japan, and Russia. The latter is not just a market for northern prawn but also a very important customer for a wide range of Estonian seafood, including block frozen Baltic sprats and herring, canned products, as well as processed salmon. Exports by processing companies amounted to 75 of total sales in 2011 and Russia is the main destination in terms of tonnage. Any disruption to this market will hit the Estonian 26

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

processing industry hard, says Valdur Noormagi, managing director of the Estonian Association of Fishery. At the moment, he says, all salmon exports to Russia from Estonia have been interrupted as the Russian authorities want to inspect Estonian factories.

Compounding the problem is Russia’s customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, which are also markets for Estonian seafood. Factories that fail to get approval to export to Russia will not be able to export to the other two countries either. The Association of Fishery is hedging its bets however and actively promoting its products in other markets. This year it brought its members to attend the Japan Seafood Show in August and will also visit another event in Dubai.

It is also interested in switching from the export of frozen blocks of pelagic fish to developing value added products from Baltic sprat and herring so that they can be used for human consumption rather than fish meal and command a better price.

Valdur Noormagi, managing director of the Estonian Association of Fishery. The association is actively promoting its products in Asia. www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Peipsi Grupp Holding has one third of the Lake Peipsi quotas

Freshwater fish fillets for markets in Western Europe The freshwater fishery in Estonia is primarily based on catches from the lakes Peipsi, Lämmijärv, and Võrtsjärv. Peipsi and Lämmijärv are linked and are shared by Estonia and Russia. The border between the two countries runs through the lakes.

C

atches in Peipsi and Lämmijärv are governed by quotas for the different species. The quotas are set based on advice from research institutes that study the lake and make recommendations.

The lakes host a number of commercially valuable populations that are classified into cold water and warm/moderate water species. The latter include pike-perch, pike, perch, bream, roach and stocks of these have generally been stable over the four years up to 2012. The cold water species include whitefish, vendace, smelt, and burbot and stocks of these species remain in poor shape.

A daring investment pays off The lakes are fished by a number of companies as well as individual fishers either working on their own or under contract to a company. The number of fishers has been generally stable since 2009 at about 350, while the number of companies has remained more or less constant at 68. One of the largest companies fishing in Lake Peipsi and Lämmijärv is the Peipsi Grupp Holding. Paul Kärberg, the owner and managing director of the company, took over some of the licenses to fish www.eurofishmagazine.com

in Lake Peipsi at a time when the old collectives were dissolving at the end of the 80s and the early 90s. While the licenses were given away the land and building had to be bought. At the time he was mocked for investing in processing fish for which people were sure there would be no market, but his intuition proved right and today the Peipsi Grupp Holding is exporting all its production and holds one third of the total Peipsi lake quotas. The main species targeted are pike-perch, and perch, as well as smaller quantities of pike, bream or roach. The fish is landed at four harbours that the company owns around the lake, one in Lohusuu, one to the south, and two in Alajõe on the northern edge of the lake.

about to be filled. This is a problem for us of course, but it is an even greater problem for individual fishers who are forced to stay at home and cannot earn a living even though there is fish in the lake. In general the fishing is good in spring, autumn,

and winter, with lower catches in summer. For the Peipsi Group the biggest issue is ensuring a yearround supply of raw material so that it can keep its filleting units operational and the employees active, otherwise they start to drift to other companies.

Perch and pike-perch are the two species with the biggest quotas in Peipsi. In 2012 the total quota for perch was 1,400 tonnes of which the company had about 400 tonnes while the quota for pike-perch was 714 tonnes and the company had about 200 tonnes of this. Usually the company manages to catch all its quota, but occasionally in autumn a situation arises where although there is plenty of time left to catch the full quota the fishery is stopped because the quota for another species is Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

27

ESTONIA

Competition in fillet production increases Getting the raw material from other sources is also difficult.

Adding value to the fish by filleting it is increasingly popular and many if not most of the companies that get the raw material from Lake Peipsi and Lämnijärv have also moved into filleting.

The size of the filleting operation may vary from a full processing line employing several filleters to a small family owned company with just a couple of filleters.

Other companies concentrate on catching the fish which they are then contractually committed to sell to processing companies. On the Russian side the situation is similar. We used to be able to get fish from the Russian fishermen, says Mr Kärberg, but importing from Russia is now more complicated and in addition the Russians too want to add value to the fish before they sell it rather than selling just the raw material. The tendency is the same everywhere – add value to the fish and then sell it, because to make money selling the raw material the volumes have to be very big. Perhaps the only species where the volume of catches is substantial is perch. The quota for perch has risen from 396 tonnes in 2006 to 1,400 tonnes in 2012 and now the ministry is toying with the idea of removing quotas on perch altogether as it is a fast growing fish and the stock is stable.

The fishery in the lake uses different gear depending on the season.

Fike nets are used in spring and summer, trawls in the autumn and in the winter gill nets are placed under the ice. Some of the fish are only in demand in certain seasons.

Roach, for example, is released if it is caught. In spring however the fish is in demand because of its roe which is salted and dried to make a 28

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

local delicacy. Peipsi Grupp Holding does supply the local market with limited volumes, but says Mr Kärberg, the volumes we produce are too large for the domestic market to absorb, so we export most of our production. The company has two processing factories, one in Lohusuu and the other in Kallaste.

At the factory in Lohusuu the fish is filleted, packaged, and frozen, while the Kallaste plant can freeze and store whole fish. Smoked and dried products are also produced in Kallaste. This is useful during peak seasons when the volume of fish is too large to process it all. The fish is then frozen in blocks and stored which allows the factory to produce fillets around the year. The processed fish is sent to markets in Switzerland, Scandinavia, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In Scandinavia a competitive price is critical, says Jelena Aganits, the sales manager, so we can only sell there during the peak season in autumn and winter when prices are lowest. The Swiss pay the best prices and demand for freshwater fish there is strong, particularly before Easter. This is unfortunate because during just that period it

Paul Kärberg, managing director and founder of Peipsi Grupp Holding, Marina Grudkina, administrative assistant (second from left), Jelena Aganits, sales manager (with bouquet) and colleagues.

does not have much fish to offer.

The ice on the lake at that time is unstable and we cannot go out and catch the fish. Mrs Aganits has tried at some expense to obtain supplies from southern Finland to offer the Swiss customers, because as she says, sometimes it is more important to keep the customer happy than to earn a lot.

Most of the production goes to supermarkets, but in summer sales to restaurants climb, particularly to terrace restaurants in France. Most sales are directly from the company, but it also

uses a couple of Estonian distributors who have a range of clients in Switzerland and EU countries.

We are a bit careful about whom we sell through, says Mrs Aganits, because we do not want our products reaching our clients through unknown intermediaries. Most of the production is not branded, though occasionally we will put the client’s brand on the product.

The Peipsi Grupp Holding name does not usually feature on the packaging, but the company’s factory number is always mentioned and clients associate it with good and reliable quality.

Demand for fillets is strong in Switzerland, particularly just before Easter, a period when the company does not have much fish to offer, as the ice on the lake is unstable. www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Experiments with different products The company is constantly looking for new opportunities to improve its processes and products. The imposition of quotas on the raw material is a constraint, says Mr Kärberg, so we have to constantly innovate. One new product the company is working on is based on fillets of bream. This is a small bony fish, but the company in collaboration with a cannery is testing the production of canned fillets of bream. Other products being considered are dried and smoked fish using salmon. We are trying several

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different products, says Jelena Aganits, not in large volumes, but to find alternatives as we never know which way the quotas will move.

Last autumn the perch harvest was very good and had enough fish to see the company through the winter, the spring and part of the summer, but two years ago it did not have enough fish and our employees were twiddling their thumbs.

The freshwater fish business is affected by factors such as the state of stocks over which Peipsi Grupp Holding has little control, in addition competition from other processors is fierce, but the company has

Peipsi Grupp Holding Company Fact File Peipsi Grupp Holding Jarve tee 41 42001 Lohusuu Ida-Virumaa, Estonia Tel.: +372 3321462 Fax: +372 3321464 Mob: +372 56359272 grupppeipsi@hot.ee Managing director: Paul Kärberg Sales manager: Jelena Aganits

several assets including the large share of quotas, two EU-approved plants, a dedicated team of

Activities: Fishing, processing Species: Freshwater fish from Lake Peipsi – pike-perch, pike, perch, bream, roach Products: Fresh fish, fillets, frozen fillets Processing plants: Two, both with EU approval numbers Quotas: About one third of total Lake Peipsi quotas. In 2012 total quotas on Lake Peipsi were 3,611 tonnes

employees, and a culture of experimenting and risk-taking that will stand it in good stead in the future.

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

29

ESTONIA

Reyktal AS fleet represents more than half the Estonian distant water fleet

Sustainability certification around the corner Estonia may be a small country (population. 1.3m in 2013), but it has had a distant water fleet inherited from the time it was part of the Soviet Union. Estonian distant water vessels have fishing rights in three fishing grounds, the Northwest Atlantic, the Northeast Atlantic and Svalbard and the main species targeted is the northern prawn, Pandalus borealis. Since 2006 the number of vessels in the fleet has fallen each year before stabilising in 2009 at six vessels with a gross tonnage of 12,923 tonnes.

Six vessels in the Estonian long distance fleet Today the Estonian Long Distance Fishing Association comprises three companies that are active in the fishery. These are Reyktal which owns three vessels, Reval Seafood, a Reyktal affiliate, with one vessel, and MFV Lootus with two vessels, says Mati Sarevet, managing director of Reyktal.

Fishing in the Northwest Atlantic is governed by NAFO, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation, which manages 19 stocks covering 11 species. One of these is northern prawn (Pandalus borealis), the most important species for Reyktal. The NAFO convention area covers the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean between Greenland and the eastern seaboards of Canada and the United States, an area of some 6.5 m sq. km. The area is further split up into Subareas, and Divisions.

NAFO manages shrimp stocks in Divisions 3L, 3M, 3N, and 3O allocating shrimp quotas in tonnes in 3L, 3N, and 3O and as fishing days in 3M. From at least 2005 a ban on shrimp fishing has been in force in 3N and 3O, while in 3L Estonian shrimp quotas have fallen from 334 tonnes in 2010 to 96 tonnes in 2013. In 3M the fishing position is equally serious as the number of 30

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

fishing days declined from one year to the next by 50, from 1,667 in 2009 to 834 in 2010 and then fell to nil in 2011, as a moratorium was introduced following a recommendation from the Scientific Council as the stock size was below the permissible limit.

The moratorium has remained in force to the present. The closure of Division 3M has had an impact as traditionally this is where Estonia fishes for most of its shrimp.

In addition to the NAFO Divisions the fleet is active in Svalbard, where the number of days for shrimp fishing has remained unchanged at 377 since 2005.

The Estonian fleet also fishes for northern prawn in the Barents Sea and the Estonian Long Distance Fishing Association has applied for the fishery to be certified to the Marine Stewardship Council standard, the first Estonian fishery to seek this certification. If successful this fishery will be one of a small group of prawn fisheries globally that has earned MSC certification. The fishery takes place in ICES Subareas I and II in the Barents Sea and runs from March to December. ICES advice for 2013 states that catches of 60,000 tonnes in 2013 will maintain the stock at the current high biomass.

Total catches in 2010-2012 averaged less than 25,000 tonnes.

Northern prawn cooked and packaged on board the Taurus, one of Reyktal’s trawlers. Products are sold to markets in Europe.

Certification to serve customers in essential markets Small-mesh trawls with a minimum mesh size of +42mm are typically used to catch northern prawns bycatch rates are very low due to the use of mandatory sorting grids and the temporary closure of areas where bycatch rates are high from time to time.

The fishery takes place at a depth of 250 to 500 m. The decision to go in for certification was taken because the MSC label is well known in our target markets of Scandinavia and the UK, as well as

other important markets for us in Western Europe, says Mati Sarevet. Our fishing is already sustainable, he adds, we are in a close cooperation with the administration in Estonia, which was one of the first in Europe to introduce electronic monitoring and logging systems (ERS) on board. We are confident that we will achieve this certification by October 2013. Our goal is to give our valued customers the possibility of MCS certified product as they are competing in highly competitive markets.

Reyktal focuses mainly on shrimp. It regularly therefore www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

A vessel catches 3,000-4,000 tonnes of northern prawn a year depending on the catch rate.

The Ontika was built in France and has a gross tonnage of 1,410 tonnes.

trades its quotas in non-northern prawn species with other companies for their prawn quotas. Large and medium prawns are either cooked on board (shell-on) or raw frozen for the Japanese market. Each vessel has a sophisticated processing plant on board, says Mati Sarevet, so that we can size grade, process, cook and

of Reyktal’s customers to apply for chain-of-custody (COC) certification, which will allow their products to carry the MSC label.

Until recently the Reyktal fleet comprised three vessels, but last year Reyktal together with its affiliate, Reval Seafood, invested in another vessel. We need to renew our fleet in coming years, says Mr

freeze the prawns shortly after they are caught, and then discharge a readymade product for both the catering or retail market.

The smaller prawns (industrial catch) are sold to peeling plants primarily in Iceland and northern Norway for further processing.

The fact that the fishery is being certified is also prompting some

Sarevet, as our fishing plan has changed due to quota reductions in prawns in some areas and a further distance to port. Today a lot of the prawn catch is caught in distant areas heavily covered by ice. To catch high quality prawns in an efficient manner, ice-strengthen and large size vessels with powerful engine power

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

31

ESTONIA

The eet catches northern prawns from NAFO Divisions and the Barents Sea (from March to December).

The prawns are cooked and frozen on board shortly after they are removed from the water.

are neeed. The latest acquisition of a vessel by Reval Seafood fulfils this criteria. In addition, although there currently is a moratorium in the NAFO area 3M, this will change at some time in the future and then we want to be able to utilize our historical fishing rights in the region.

that value quality over price. We have always maintained our fleet to meet highest standards for a fleet owner, managing the vessels to ensure they spend minimal time in port and maximum time out at sea catching the prawns is one of the key issues. Each vessel has to support two crews and also needs regular maintenance, so it gets very expensive if there is an unnecessary delay in port or at

Falling catch rates in Svalbard cause concern While the new vessel is a useful addition to the fleet, Mr Sarevet does not deny that the current trend in catches is a cause for concern. We have had some good years in the fishery, but at the moment we see that catch rates (Catch Per Unit of Effort) are going down. We can see that the climate is changing and also that the volume of ice has reduced in the traditional shrimp fishing

areas. The last three years have been positive for the company as consolidation in the industry pushed up prices and improved company results. In addition, the company was forced to become leaner and fitter when the prices for fuel went up in the early 2000s, and was in good shape when the economic crisis struck in 2008. Catches then were fairly stable at about 10,000 tonnes a year with three vessels. We are competing with companies in Canada and Greenland that catch our annual fleet rate with a single vessel. We have managed to be profitable despite of not having access to the most fruitful areas.

This is our strength. A great focus on efficiency and quality has given us a competitive advantage.

Even though we are not producing gigantic volumes, our product is known to all major customers

Reyktal AS Reyktal AS Veerenni 39 EE 0003 Tallinn Estonia Tel.: +372 627 6545 Fax: +372 627 6555 reyktal@reyktal.ee Managing Director: Mati Sarevet

sea. For Reyktal, the most important operational issues remain the same at this juncture. Always to focus on efficient operation and a high quality awareness of all staff, including the rooky sailor stepping on board for the first time. Reyktal, like Estonia in general, must continue to do more with less. In Reyktal’s case, the key is a high quality of the production.

Company Fact File Activity: Fishing, processing on board Fishing areas: NAFO, Barents Sea Product: Cooked shrimp, frozen whole shrimp Markets: Scandinavia, continental Europe, UK, China, Russia, Japan Vessels: trawlers (incl. 1 vessel owned by Reval Seafood OĂœ)

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ESTONIA

Kallaste Kalur focuses on pike-perch

Fishing for profit as well as for pleasure Fjodor Pleshankov, the owner of Kallaste Kalur, is a fifth generation fisherman. For Mr Pleshankov fishing is not just an occupation, it is also his hobby. Fishing was in his blood, so when in 1992 an opportunity presented itself to take over a fishing collective, he grabbed it. With the privatisation the activities that had been carried out by the collective were continued and Mr Pleshankov added marketing and sales as well.

T

oday Kallaste Kalur has 300 gill nets and 105 fyke nets in Lake Peipsi and the fish is unloaded at a processing facility at the quay. The facility was built with the help of SAPARD funding in 2000 originally as a place to unload the fish and store it under conditions that met the EU’s hygiene standards. A processing facility was built later and today the company has some twenty people employed to process the fish.

Deployment of gear is strictly regulated A fleet of vessels and teams of fishers are deployed to catch the fish.

Each team comprises five fishers, many of whom are under contract with the company to supply it with fish, but are not employed by the company. The vessels that are typically used are small plastic boats, but the company also has two bigger vessels. Fishing in Lake Peipsi is subject to regulations governing among other things the type of gear that can be used and the periods when it is permitted.

According to Mr Pleshankov gill nets can be used from 1 January to mid April, and are prohibited from 1 May to 1 September. Fike nets on the other hand can be deployed when the ice breaks up in spring from 1 May and up to 15 October. From 1 August Danish seines can be used though before

they are deployed the fyke nets are removed from the water. The Danish seine is a long net with two ropes at its ends which are used to herd and haul the fish. In summer the water is warmer and oxygen levels lower and the fish get quite passive. In addition the

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Mr Pleshankov, the owner of Kallaste Kalur, built this machine himself. It is basically a Ford Escort with a 1.8 l engine and equipped with huge tires that allow it to float in water, equipment to drill holes in the ice, and skis to negotiate snow. So far he has driven 2,000 km in it. Many of the fishers in Lake Peipsi have similar machines and in the third week of February all the trucks are paraded in the local town. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

33

ESTONIA

Fjodor Pleshankov, Kallaste Kalur, is the fifth generation of fisherman in his family. For him fishing is both an occupation as well as a recreational activity.

The sorting is done rapidly after the fish are brought on board. The boxes are then iced.

Kalur catches between 160 and 200 tonnes of fish a year, the bulk of which is pike-perch. There is also a scientific quota for vendace of 15 tonnes. This is a valuable fish (average price per kg in 2012 was EUR3.39) and until 2011 the quota was non-existent. Mr Pleshankov cooperates with the scientists and in return receives some of the quota to process and sell.

a location, a landing site and a filleting site. If, for example, in summer we have small quantities of fish that cannot be filleted we sell it to other processors who may dry or otherwise process it.

We ourselves do not plan to start alternate forms of processing.

another layer of complexity to the whole issue.

Catching and fillet processing are the only activities

The fishery on Lake Peipsi today is highly fragmented. In 1992 when Kallaste Kalur was established there were only 14 companies fishing in the lake. Since then however the number went up to almost hundred in 2006 but since 2009 has stabilised at about 70. Many of these are small companies with just a few fishing licenses and Mr Pleshankov would like to see far more consolidation in the industry with fewer, but bigger, companies. Some fishers do not use the licenses themselves, but rent it out to others. TACs and quotas also have to be discussed with Estonia’s Russian counterparts which adds

Each week in summer the fishers will go out to check the fyke nets. During each trip 5-6 nets are checked and emptied. If catches are good the nets are checked every second or third day. In spring however the nets are checked on a daily basis as catches can amount to a tonne of fish every second day. We specialise in catching fish and supplying fillets and fresh or frozen whole fish, says Mr Pleshankov and for each of those activities we have 34

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

Fragmentation of fishery is a challenge

Landing site fully equipped In winter when the lake is covered in ice the fishers drill holes in the ice and haul up the nets using winches. If the catch volumes are substantial then the fish is sent to the processing factory otherwise it can be packed and frozen at the landing site. There are also two ice machines at the landing site which supply ice for the boats and also if necessary for the processing factory when the volumes of fish are

Kallaste Kalur Kallaste Kalur Võidu 120, Kallaste 60104 Tartu County Estonia Tel.: +372 7 452 740 kallaste.kalur@mail.ee

particularly large. In addition, there is a washing machine for washing the fish, which is then boxed, weighed, iced and, if necessary, stored. The pike-perch and perch usually are made into fillets, while the other species (bream, roach, burbot etc.) are supplied whole. The pike-perch and perch are the most valuable and hence the most profitable to process, but the catching period is short. Perch is usually only caught in spring, while pike-perch is typically harvested in September.

If the spring catches are good the company will freeze the perch in order to supply double frozen perch fillets throughout the year.

Company Fact File Owner: Mr Fjodor Pleshankov Activity: Fishing, processing Species: Pike-perch, perch, bream, roach, burbot Products: Fillets of pike-perch, perch; whole fresh or frozen bream, roach, burbot Volumes: 150-200 tonnes per year

www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Sandemer OÜ is looking to build a processing facility

Ambitious plans to process freshwater fish The Estonian freshwater fishery in Lake Võrtsjärv has seen a 66% increase in the number of permits issued, from 30 to 50, between 2000 and 2012. Catch data from 2002 show that catches peaked in 2008 at 508 tonnes and have since fallen to 209 tonnes in 2012.

Bream, pike, and pike-perch are the most important commercial species in terms of catch volumes. An assessment of the state of the stocks forecasts a slight improvement from 2012 to 2013 which will be maintained up to 2015.

Û

lari Koni is the owner of a fi shing company that began its activities in 2006. At the time many of the older fi shers had been concerned about the future of the fi shery, but Mr Koni’s entry into the fi shery

coincided with the start of a new programming period (2007-2013) and a renewed interest in the freshwater fi shery from both fi shers and the administration. Mr Koni and his wife represent a new generation of fishers who are investing in the

business and trying to increase profitability by adding greater value to their production. Currently Mr Koni is fishing with two kinds of fixed gear, fyke nets and gill nets. He owns licenses for 10 gill nets and 8 fyke nets and rents a further 10 fyke net licenses. Both

types of nets have a 65 mm mesh which allows the smaller fish to escape. The gill nets are used in the autumn and winter months until the ice melts in spring while the fyke nets are used in summer.

The most valuable species is eel, which is targeted by the fyke nets,

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ESTONIA

Mr Ülari Koni, owner of the company Sandemer, hopes to start a fish processing factory.

and which get more active as the water warms up in summer.

Acquiring fishing licenses calls for a good network Eel catches are dependent to a large extent on restocking efforts, which peaked in the decade up to 1985 but have generally fallen since. In the 2000's the price of glass eels increased astronomically resulting in a sharp decline in the number of eels, both elvers and pre-grown eels, that were released in to the lake. The costs of restocking are recovered partly from a fee that the fishers have to pay. Mr Koni feels that the pregrown eels are more vulnerable to predation as they become used to feeding at the surface when in

captivity, which exposes them to birds around the lake. Acquiring licenses is not easy as there is no official exchange where licenses can be bought and sold. To get a license it is necessary to know a fisher who is willing to sell or rent his license. Many fishers even if they are ready to stop fishing are reluctant to sell their licenses as they are a valuable asset and they can be rented out. The number of nets a fisher has determines also the number of vessels he needs to manage them. In Mr Koni’s case he has three small boats which are used when the nets are emptied and another bigger vessel that is used to carry nets or gear or when the harvest is particularly bountiful. The nets can be fixed anywhere in the lake as long as the location is marked with flags and buoys. As traffic in the lake is limited to commercial and recreational fishers and some sailing vessels, the presence of the nets is not a threat.

Markets in Tallinn and Turku A fisher needs at least 10 licenses to make the activity worthwhile.

Fishers that have more licenses and who are catching large volumes of fish land and declare all the fish they catch, reckons Kristi Ilves from the Ministry of Agriculture, while those with just a couple of nets probably fish only part

The catch from the fyke net is a mixture of different species, which are sold fresh on the market in Tallinn and in Turku, Finland.

36

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

A fyke net being hauled up. These fixed gear are used in the summer months in Lake. Võrtsjärv to trap eel, bream, pike, and pike-perch.

time and supplement their fishing activities with other jobs. In this context rural development measures are helping fishers find additional sources of income through, for example, the formation of Fishery Local Action Groups. These bring together representatives of different interests in a community to develop projects that will improve the local economy. The fyke nets trap the fish, but keep them alive, so the nets need to be checked only every four or five days and emptied if necessary.

On landing Mr Koni’s catches are stored in a cold store and then taken to markets in Tallinn and Turku. On a small scale some of the fish is processed already. Eel is smoked at home, but only some 20 kg a day, and he uses other processing facilities to make fillets of some of the fish. He is well aware that sales of value added

products are more profitable than selling fresh fish and has initiated a project to build his own processing unit where the fish can be filleted. Bream in particular, says Mr Koni, does not command a very high price on the market yet at the same time it is a fatty fish that would lend itself to be preserved in some way, like smoking. Other species for which there is no market as food for human consumption are sold to meal factories.

Setting up a processing plant is expensive; however in this case the total outlay is some EUR1m of which 70 is for the building and some of the basic equipment, while the remainder would be for the rest of the equipment. Mr Koni divided his project into stages and was hoping to draw on European funding to assist with the last phase of the project, but his application was rejected as there was

The fish are sorted and iced immediately on being landed in the vessel. www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

not enough money to go around all the applicants. He now wants to apply again in the next period (2014-2020) and will start building if he gets the money. As a relatively new company it is difficult to get regular commercial loans and he is unwilling to start the project unless he knows he has the funding in place to complete it.

Mr Koni has several ideas about the production in the processing facility. Smoked products for example will not be industrially smoked on a large scale; instead the idea would be to produce smaller volumes smoked artisanally. Marinated fish, such as pike-perch, dried fish including dried eel, and fish preserves in jars are some of the products he is considering. We want to offer products that are unique, that are quite different from products

that are available on the market today, he says, to offer high value fish in small packages so that the average consumer can afford it.

The focus will be on the domestic market, because customers are familiar with and appreciate locally caught fish.

Diminished restocking efforts impact eel catches The most valuable species in the catch is eel. While Mr Koni’s total annual catches vary between 700 and 1,000 kg a year eel catches amount to about 20 of this. But eel catches have been decreasing, says Mr Koni, probably because the volume of eel restocking has diminished. He sometimes operates jointly with other fishers to reduce his costs.

Instead of sailing out alone with

a single large vessel, the two will use smaller vessels and sail out together. If the catches are poor for a period then it is a good way of managing, he says. The fishing port near Valma where Mr Koni lands his fish is privately owned like many of the small ports in Estonia, though this is the biggest port on Lake Võrtsjärv. In this case there are five companies who share ownership of which Mr Koni is one. This joint

Sandemer Kodu 15, Viljandi, 71015 Viljandi County Estonia Tel.: +372 53826762 sandemer@hot.ee

ownership also means joint decision making, which does not always work. For instance the owners had a plan to allow the local municipality to take over the port and make several improvements including providing ice machines and a fuelling station and then rent the port with the facilities back to the fishers. But the deal fell through because the owners could not agree amongst themselves.

Company Fact File Activity: Freshwater fishing in Lake Võrtsjärv Species: Eel, bream, pike, and pike-perch Products: Fresh fish, fillets, some smoked eel Markets: Tallinn; Turku, Finland

Owner: Mr Ülari Koni

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

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Triton PR AS A recirculation system built from scratch

Eel farmer experiments with new species Eel has long been considered a delicacy across broad swathes of Europe from the White Sea in the Russian north west to the Black Sea. However, the European eel Anguilla anguilla is today an endangered species placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

N

ot much is known about the life cycle of the eel, but it is widely accepted that it breeds in the Sargasso Sea off the coast of Florida, USA in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the only known breeding ground of the eel. The larvae are then carried by currents for about 300 days to the European coast becoming the juvenile stage known as glass eels due to the transparent nature of their bodies. Upon reaching freshwater they become elvers and then grow into yellow eels. After a period that can vary from 5-15 years they change to silver eels and begin their migration back to the Sargasso Sea to breed, and from which they do not return.

European eel populations in decline The decline in natural eel populations over the last decades prompted a European recovery plan for eel that was put in place in 2007. This requires that a substantial proportion of the glass eel catch (60 in 2013) be set aside for restocking programmes.

Member States also had to produce Eel Management Plans that committed them to enabling sexually mature (silver) eels to escape to the sea. In Estonia the Eel Management Plan divided the country’s water bodies into two management areas based on the 38

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

origin of the eel stock. The Narva River Basin District, where the eel population stems from restocking activities; and the West Estonian Basin District comprising coastal waters and West-Estonian inland water bodies, where the eel population is naturally occurring. In the Narva River Basin the restocking activities have increased the proportion of eels migrating to the sea, while in the West Estonian Basin District restrictions were placed on the fishery with small fyke nets. As a result in both management areas the target proportion of escapes to the sea has been achieved.

The eel restocking activities in Estonia is partly dependent on the activity of the local eel farmers, who provide the elvers for restocking. Eels do not reproduce in captivity so eel farming has depended on the capture and growing of glass eels. These are fished in the UK, France, Spain, and Portugal, and are sold to eel farmers across Europe as well as increasingly to countries in Asia.

The market for glass eels fluctuates significantly though prices have generally been going up.

Raivo Puurits, the owner of Triton PR AS, an eel farming company, purchases glass eels each year in spring from a supplier in the UK for fattening in tanks.

Mr Puurits says the availability and price of the glass eels is

unpredictable; most years he buys about 200 kg of glass eels, but last year he could only get 80 kg. The eels are grown for processors on the Dutch market and are delivered live. Production at Triton is expected to be 60 tonnes this year out of a capacity of 100 tonnes. Farming eel is a tough business, says Mr Puurits, the uncertainty regarding the glass eels is one aspect, but the price for the final product can also suddenly slump. One year, a campaign by environmental organisations pushed the price to the floor, yet at the same time the price for glass eels had gone through the ceiling. The economic crisis also affected the market, as loans and credits from banks dried up almost overnight.

Diversifying into other species Today things are a bit better. While banks are not offering finance the way they did in the boom period before the crisis, it is easier to get funding than it was a couple of years ago, says Raivo Puurits. The price for the market-sized fish has also increased from EUR5.5 per kg three years ago to EUR7.5 today, though ideally the price should be EUR8.5 to cover all costs and leave a margin. But in the long run Mr Puurits reckons it is necessary to diversify his product portfolio. Apart from the fluctuations in prices eel is such a sensitive fish that growing it is a question of constant close monitoring and feeding it with expensive extruded feeds.

Producing eel is a tough business and Mr Puurits is experimenting with other, more resilient species. www.eurofishmagazine.com

ESTONIA

Even the slightest disturbance can stop the eels from feeding, and this can be as little as something unusual in the vicinity of the tank, or a strange light, or sound. In addition, eels are susceptible to infections and to parasites. Therefore, at the beginning of July he imported 8,500 European catfish Silurus glanis larvae from Poland as a trial. At the time the average weight of an individual was 2.5 g, after two weeks this had increased to 50 g. The input in financial terms is 10 times less than it is for eel, says Mr Puurits, the larvae are much cheaper and the feed it uses, although still extruded pellets, is also much less expensive. Catfish also grow very fast reaching 1 to 1.5

kilos in the space of a few months.

On top of these advantages the pumps to circulate the water through the system need lower pressure which saves on electricity. The fish does not, however, command the same price as eel on the market.

The introduction of the catfish called for some changes to be made to the recirculation system that is used on the Triton Farm.

The system was more or less built

by Mr Puurits himself so he was quite capable of making the necessary adjustments. His familiarity with recirculation principles is in demand among other farmers who are contemplating

Raivo Puurits, the owner of AS Triton, a company currently producing eel for the market and for restocking efforts in Estonia.

Triton PR AS

Company Fact File

Triton PR AS Tel.: +372 5052028 triton@hot.ee Owner: Raivo Puurits www.eurofishmagazine.com

07_ESTONIA.indd 39

Activity: Eel farming Product: Live eel for Dutch market Volumes: 60 tonnes per year

chrysops. This was quite well received by the market and if he decides to switch from eel to one or two other species he may well return to the hybrid striped bass. One of the ideas he is contemplating is the production of smaller quantities of different species rather than large quantities of a single one and then focusing on supplying the regional market, that is, in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Supplying directly to local shops may be a viable business model, but by reducing or even stopping altogether his production of eel Mr Puurits will not be able to contribute to Estonian restocking efforts for this species.

converting to recirculation and Mr Puurits has been advising his colleagues in the business on the advantages and disadvantages of recirculation systems. Although he built the system running on his own farm, today, when off the shelf systems are available from companies in Denmark and the Netherlands, he would rather recommend these.

Smaller quantities of two or more species Another species that Mr Puurits has also tested is the hybrid striped bass, a cross between the striped bass Morone saxatilis and the white bass Morone

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    Raiffeisenstr. 8; D-24986 Satrup e-mail: info@cooltech-online.de Website: www.easyeis.de Telefon:+0049 (0) 4633 968 515 Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

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24/09/13 10:19 AM

DENMARK

Danish fisheries and the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy

Greatest impact in the areas of discards, market policy The reform of the European Fisheries Policy is expected to bring about significant changes in the way capture fisheries are managed in the EU. Among other objectives the reform aims at a ban on discards, the sustainable exploitation of stocks, decentralised management with simplified rules, and a new market policy. What are these policy initiatives going to mean for the Danish fisheries sector?

T

he European Commission estimates discarding at some 23 of total EU catches with a substantially higher proportion in some fisheries. A DTU Aqua report from 2012 estimates that in 2010 discards in Danish waters from commercial fleets amounted to 21,500 tonnes or 26 of total catches.

Landing obligation will prompt changes in fishing behaviour From a Danish perspective one of the most important elements of the reform of the CFP is the ban on discards and how it will be implemented. The ban on discards and the concomitant obligation to land all fish will lead to some fundamental changes both at sea and on land, feels Jakob Munkhøj Nielsen, Head of Section in the Danish AgriFish Agency. At sea, to get the most out of the possibilities offered by the reform, fishing techniques are going to have to evolve, more selective gear will need to be deployed, and fishers will need to consider which areas they fish in, so that they as far as possible catch only the targeted species and sizes. Under the landing obligation undersized fish will have to be landed, but may not be used for human consumption. To facilitate the landing of all fish the Commission envisages certain 40

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

instruments, among others, the possibility for Member States to swap quotas, or to bank or borrow a limited volume of quotas between years, and de minimis rules.

Administration too must adapt to changes On land the requirement to bring in all the fish is going to introduce changes in the way the fish is handled as now landings will include product that normally would be discarded. The ban on discards will be phased in between 2015 and 2019, a timescale that has been decried by environmentalists as lacking in ambition. But, says Jakob Munkhøj Nielsen, the changes introduced by the discard ban are fundamental and are not something we can do overnight.

The changes affect not only the fishers, but also the administration. Trials with fully documented fisheries have been ongoing for some years now, and we can see that scaling this up to cover whole fleets will introduce changes in the way we administer fisheries, says Mr Munkhøj Nielsen, which is also an argument for a gradual phasing-in of the changes. The best way to implement the reform will be decided by the administration together with the fishers. As before, the administration will be responsible for the legislation and

for policing it, but will also be able to offer incentives in the form of support from the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to achieve the outcomes it wants.

Among other effects the phasing out of discards is expected to lead to more reliable data on fisheries and ultimately better management policies.

Regionalisation already being practised In other senses the reform will perhaps not make a drastic difference on the ground in Denmark. Regionalisation, for example, another pillar of the reform, acknowledges that regions may have their own unique priorities not shared with other regions. A local artisanal fishing community may have different requirements from a similar community in another part of Europe. Under regionalisation Member States can design and, after Commission adoption, implement measures specifically suited to fisheries in their region as long as they meet the targets set by the EU management plan or other conservation measure. In certain Danish waters this is largely the case already, says Jakob Munkhøj Nielsen.

The Commission has presented a regulation for a discard ban in the Skagerrak based on a

ministers declaration agreed between Denmark, Sweden and non-EU Member State, Norway.

Similarly, discussions about the implementation of a ban on discards in the Baltic Sea are also ongoing among countries in the region within the Baltfish Forum. These discussions are already happening under the existing policy regime and this is not expected to change dramatically when the reform officially becomes policy. Personally, says Mr Munkhøj Nielsen, coming from a small Member State like Denmark, I find the Commission plays a useful role mediating between countries during negotiations, whether about fisheries or any other subject. And if Member States cannot come to an agreement the ball lands back in the Commission’s court in any case. So even under a more regionalised approach to the CFP I find it to be important that the Commission still plays an active mediating role in policy-making.

Intervention support will be missed The reform includes also a new Market Policy that is intended to support the aims of the CFP for greater transparency, a level playing field for all fisheries and aquaculture products marketed in the EU, and greater www.eurofishmagazine.com

DENMARK

Increased need for ecosystem management

case for considering factors other than fishing capacity to explain the status of stocks. The biological analysis of stocks that started in the 40s and 50s evolved into bioeconomic analyses, and these in turn now need to be replaced with ecosystem analyses that consider a wider range of human and natural factors that could influence stock health. This would be in line with Council Regulation No. 2371 from 2002 that specifies the progressive implementation of an ecoystem-based approach to fisheries management and should be feasible with the improved scientific knowledge that is foreseen in the reform of the CFP.

Mogens Schou/Ulrik J. Hansen

Political support for Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) among EU Member States is far from uniform, and they are unlikely to be introduced at an EU-wide level, however ITQs and individual vessel quota shares have been a part of the Danish fisheries landscape since 2003. The number of vessels in the Danish fleet has tumbled 47 since 1995 to 2,744 vessels in 2012. In addition, Danish fisheries have one of the highest proportions of Marine Stewardship Council certified fisheries. Despite the drop in capacity, catches of both industrial fish and fish for human consumption have shown Sources: a falling trend since 1978 accord- – Economic Situation of the Danish Fishery 2012, Department of ing to a report analysing the DanResource Economics, University of ish fisheries by the Department Copenhagen of Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen. In fact, – Danish Sampling of Commercial Fishery, Overview with special attenJakob Munkhøj Nielsen, Head of Section in the Danish AgriFish Agency. the data shows that the decline tion to discards 2010 data, DTU Aqua in capacity exceeds the decrease competitiveness of the industry. For Denmark the biggest change in catches. The authors make the Report No 250-2012 The oldest element in the Com- will be the abolition of intermon Fisheries Policy, the com- vention support under which mon organisation of the markets fishermen were compensated if (CMO) in fisheries and aquacul- fish prices failed to reach a preture products has existed since determined level. The interven1970. It was intended to ensure tion mechanism will be replaced price stability for producers and by a price-triggered storage guarantee the free movement mechanism for certain fisheries of goods, but has evolved over products, whereby the fish can time in response to changes in go into storage and be released markets both within the EU and at a later stage on to the market. abroad. Since 2000 CMO has Financial support for the storcomprised four key features: age mechanism is expected to producer organisations (POs), be phased out however after five common marketing standards years. The new market policy will for fresh produce; a price support also improve consumer informascheme setting minimum sales tion making it obligatory to proprices; and rules governing trade vide the Latin name of the fish, with third countries. The reform its origin (marine, freshwater, or of the CFP will also introduce a aquaculture), the FAO catching new market policy that aims to area (in case of capture fisherstrengthen the competitiveness ies), and whether it has been of the EU industry, improve the defrosted. In addition, the infortransparency of the markets, and mation should include the gear ensure a level playing field for all with which it was caught and the The introduction of a landing obligation is intended to nudge fishermen into using more selective gear. products marketed in the Union. best before date. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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DENMARK

Discard ban will only work if accepted by fishers

Responsibility back to the fishermen…..

Although the Danish fishing sector is well prepared for the challenges arising from the reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, there is a widespread concern in the sector about how the discard ban will be implemented in the coming years.

Discard ban implementation a major challenge With the reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy the major challenge for the fishing sector will be the introduction of the discard ban and full documentation. There will also be an everincreasing pressure to reduce the possible negative impacts of the fisheries on the eco-system.

It is hard not to be pessimistic about the future of the fishing sector.

That said, Danish fisheries have for a long time been mentally prepared for the coming discard ban, due, not least, to the fact that a large majority in the Danish 42

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

Mogens Schou

I

t is hard to be a fisher and it will only get harder in the coming years. That is the widespread belief in the Danish fishing sector. Fishing is under pressure from many sides - poor sales prices and financing conditions as a result of the financial crisis and the subsequent economic slowdown in Europe; lots of bureaucracy due not least to the EU regulations on control of fisheries; and more and more restrictions on fishing, partly because of growing competition for exploitation of the sea and partly because of environmental concerns, such as the establishment of Natura 2000 sites.

It is hard to be a fisher and it will only get harder in the coming years, is the widespread belief in the Danish fishing sector.

Parliament announced full support for it at an early stage. Therefore, from a Danish perspective, the major challenge in the coming years will be how the discard ban is introduced in each fishery - not just in respect of the fisheries, but also in respect of the ports and communities, where fishing is one of the backbones of the economy.

It is a precondition for dynamic, profitable and sustainable fisheries, that the discard ban is implemented gradually. From the viewpoint of the fishermen it is essential that the decision-making process is at least partly regionalised. Many rules - not least the detailed implementation rules - must be defined at a regional level and not in a burdensome decision-making process in the EU system. A discard ban will only work if the industry accepts

it – and gets responsibility for the fisheries policy – and that requires an adaptive, flexible and pragmatic approach to the implementation of the discard ban.

When implementing a discard ban fisheries regulations should be simple, conclusive and transparent. It must be easy for the fisherman to understand, for example, what part of the catches must be landed; how the catch should be stored and handled on board fishing vessels; and how unavoidable catches should be dealt with. The great danger with the introduction of a discard ban with full documentation is that new rules on control together with bureaucracy could easily destroy the economy of fishing, creating a situation where fishing gets stuck and fishermen disembark.

Skagerrak is a testing ground for the discard ban Alongside the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, the EU and Norway over the last few years have jointly been working on the introduction of a discard ban for commercial species in the Skagerrak. Skagerrak is an important fishing ground for Danish fishermen and the process has therefore been closely monitored by the fishing industry. Fishermen in Norway, Denmark and Sweden have been directly involved and consulted in this process and there has been a constructive collaboration between the authorities and the fisheries on the project. Originally, it was agreed that a discard ban for 15 commercial stocks should enter into force on 1 January 2013. This happened in the Norwegian waters www.eurofishmagazine.com

Kenn Skau Fischer

DENMARK

that is most advanced in terms of the introduction of an electronic system for traceability, to follow the fish from vessel to coolers (see box).

Danish fisheries are prepared to take responsibility for ensuring sustainable fisheries. This implies that fishermen should be given greater responsibility for practicing

their profession within the framework that is given by the Common Fisheries Policy. The fishermen are ready for such an approach as it will reduce bureaucracy and benefit fish stocks.

Kenn Skau Fischer, fisheries policy advisor, Danish Fishermen’s Association, ksf@dkfisk.dk

Danish fishermen feel strongly that a prerequisite for a successful discard ban is to give responsibility for fisheries policy back to the fishermen.

Introduction of transferable quotas and the Danish pool system

of the Skagerrak, but in the EU negotiations on the discards ban stalled and it is uncertain when they will be completed.

Starting with the introduction of ITQ in the pelagic fisheries in 2002, today the vast majority of Danish fisheries is regulated through transferable quotas. For important demersal stocks this type of regulation was introduced in autumn 2005. The regulation of the demersal fishery is based on vessel quotas (FKAs). Each vessel covered by the scheme has been allocated a share of the quota, i.e. an annual amount. The FKAs can be transferred between fishermen. However, if a FKA is transferred, then the vessel capacity must also be transferred. It is possible for two or more fishermen to pool FKAs. The intention behind the schemes of transferable quotas was that the concessions should be concentrated on fewer and more efficient vessels.

In this way the fisheries would become more profitable. As a consequence since 2007 there has been a massive reduction in the Danish fishing fleet.

Irrespective of whether there will be a discard ban unique to the Skagerrak or not, everyone that has participated in this process has gained valuable expertise on the challenges of the introduction of a discard ban under the Common Fisheries Policy. One important lesson is that one should not underestimate how complicated it is for the EU to move from fisheries management with a discard obligation to fisheries management with a discard ban (landing obligation) and how important it is to get as pragmatic a solution as possible. There are many things about fishing, which cannot be foreseen in Brussels, when the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament are adopting frameworks and common regulations.

Responsibility back to the fishermen….

Danish fishermen have in recent years increasingly focused on getting responsibility for fishing policy back to the fishermen. With the gradual introduction since 2002 of national regulation through individual transferable quotas (ITQs), Danish fleet capacity has been brought into balance with the www.eurofishmagazine.com

fishing opportunities. In connection with the introduction of ITQs the fishing sector on its own initiative has created a number of quota pools (see box) for exchange of fishing opportunities. This fishermen’s initiative has reduced discards in the Danish fishing significantly.

The quota pools will be a basic building block for Danish fisheries management under a discard ban.

Furthermore, Danish fishermen put a lot of effort in to the work of three of the Regional Advisory Councils – the North Sea RAC, the Baltic Sea RAC, and the Pelagic RAC. Regionalisation of fisheries policy will only happen if the main stakeholders at regional level assume responsibility and contribute actively to promote regional cooperation - and this is exactly what Danish fishermen are doing.

Danish fisheries are among the world’s most sustainable Also, in relation to the ever-increasing demands from consumers and the authorities concerning traceability and documentation of sustainability, Danish fishing on its own initiative has made a significant effort. Denmark is now one of the countries in the world with the highest proportion of catches of fish that is MSC certified (see box) and is also one of the EU countries

This reduction in the fleet has brought a reduction in discards.

But over and above the effect of the reduced fleet per se, it is evident, that the former system, with all vessels fishing on biweekly or monthly rations and then discarding after having caught the ration, will have caused a much higher discard, than the present

one, where fewer vessels fish on a yearly quota and consequently only needing to discard once their yearly ceiling has been reached. As part of the regulation fishermen are allowed to join pools within which they can acquire quota from each other in a fast and non-bureaucratic way.

Quota available in the pools is always on display and the system is therefore highly transparent.

The transparency in the pool system allows the fishermen to plan their fishery and acquire the necessary quotas before they start their fishing trip. This in itself reduces the need for discarding.

Secondly, if a fisherman catches fish for which he does not have sufficient quota, he is able to acquire quota from the pool the fish in the pool system are always available and the price does not go up in the particular situation. Thirdly, there is a system for transfers between pools, so even in the rare occasion where a pool has run out of quota for a particular species, more quotas can be acquired from another pool. An analysis performed by the Danish Fishermen’s Association in late 2009 demonstrated that the flexibility of the system is utilized to a very high degree.

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Traceability in the fisheries The fishing industry faces everincreasing demands from consumers on traceability and documentation of sustainability.

These requirements are reflected in the demands from retailers - from the fishmongers to international supermarkets and the food processing industry. Similar requirements follow from the EU regulation on control of fisheries, defining requirements for traceability and registration, which requires action by all parts of the fish industry. Thus, it is required that for all landings of fish details on the vessel that caught the fish, fishing area, fishing time and of course nature, size etc. must be registered. The requirements for documentation and traceability imply that there must be an increase in electronic data collection, and not least that existing data must be collected and maintained in order that the data can be used further along the value chain.

To address this challenge, the Danish fishing sector and processing industry jointly established SIF - a traceability system. SIF shall ensure that landings from Danish vessels can be followed to the fishmonger or supermarket coolers. To support this development schemes are set up to promote the acquisition of relevant software and weighing systems on fishing vessels, which are compatible with the traceability system.

SIF is an independent department located in the company Pack and Sea A/S. Pack and Sea was founded by fish box managers in ten of the major Danish ports - where most of the landings of fish from the North Sea, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat etc. take place.

Pack and Sea A/S was established as a response to the chal-

lenge the ports previously had managing the fish boxes that circulated between ports and their customers. More than 25 different box types were in circulation as there was no coordination between managers in the ports when the fish boxes were acquired. Therefore, no one had a comprehensive picture of where the fish boxes were; boxes seemed to be disappearing in the logistics chain.

The ports needed to be able to track the fish boxes easily; to reduce the manual handling and to tighten up the billing procedure. To achieve this, the company Pack and Sea A/S was established. Pack and Sea A/S introduced one unique system for fish boxes in Denmark. It operates now only with 2 types of fish boxes - a large conical box, and a square box.

The boxes are green and fitted

with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag, which makes it possible to give the boxes unique numbers. It facilitates the management of the boxes, and reduces the renter’s responsibility for the rented boxes when these are passed or returned to the washing machine.

At the same time the possibility to track the box content allows the fishing industry to meet regulatory and consumer requirements for documentation and registration. RFID tags enable information about the date of catch, catch location, species, and anything else of interest to be added into a database. This opens up opportunities in respect of registration for the auction, traceability, and not least within the fishing industry. More information on www.packandsea.dk and www.sif-eu.dk

MSC-certification of the Danish fisheries The first Danish fishery was MSC certified in 2009. Since then the development has progressed rapidly, and Denmark is now one of the countries in the world with the highest proportion of MSCcertified catches. A total of 12 major fisheries are certified, and three more are in the formal process towards certification. Several of the most important fish for human consumption are certified; more than three-quarters

of all Danish landings for human consumption (230,000 tonnes) in Denmark in 2012 were MSCcertified (representing just under half the total landings). In terms of value MSC landings amounted to approx. DKK1.3 billion, out of a total value of DKK2.9 billion.

MSC is becoming more widespread known among consumers and as a requirement in

the retail sector, especially in Northern European markets, which are the main export markets for Danish fisheries.

Therefore, the importance of MSC for the Danish fisheries is obvious. About 20 other fisheries in Denmark could potentially be candidates for MSC certification. However, they all require either improvement of knowledge, management, or stock conditions in order to

meet the certification requirements. Danish MSC efforts will concentrate mainly on these stocks in the coming years. It will typically be in the form of scientific work to improve stock assessments; and work involving international corporation between fisheries organizations, researchers and governments to improve or develop management plans or equivalent.

DANISH FISHERMEN’S ASSOCIATION Danish Fishermen’s Association is the organisation for about 50 local fishermen around 44

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

Denmark. The local fishing associations’ members are the owners of the fishing vessels and

the share of fishermen on board the vessels. Danish fishermen are engaged in fishing operations

in the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat, the Skagerrak, the North Sea and the North-East Atlantic. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Broad-based consensus behind development of fish farming

Removing the fetters from Danish aquaculture The overwhelming majority of the fish farmed in Denmark is rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), with eel coming a distant second.

Production in the Danish aquaculture sector has hovered around 40,000 tonnes for the last decade. This contrasts sharply with aquaculture production in other parts of the world: in Asia production increased 78% between 2002 and 2011, while over the same period Norwegian production more than doubled and production in Africa went up 2.7 times.

D

enmark follows a trend seen in general in the EU, where production actually fell 0.42 between 2002 and 2011. The aquaculture sector is important because of the increasing role fish farming plays in ensuring global food security.

An increasing global population as well as a disproportionately increasing middle class, higher incomes, and greater awareness of the health benefits of fish are factors that are expected to increase demand for fish and seafood for the foreseeable future. Production from global capture fisheries is unlikely to expand much beyond the current 93m tonnes per year as most stocks are fully exploited, so the increase in demand for fish will need to be met largely from the aquaculture sector.

European aquaculture lags behind The challenge seems to have been accepted by the industry. According to the FAO, global aquaculture production over the last decade has been growing steadily though not as rapidly as in the 80s and 90s. While global aquaculture production of fish and seafood (excluding aquatic plants) was 37m tonnes in 2002, this had increased to 63m tonnes by 2011.

Aquaculture has been the most www.eurofishmagazine.com

rapidly growing animal food production sector for half a century.

Compared with growth in production of farmed meat (3), eggs (3.4), or milk (1.5) farmed food fish production increased at an annual rate of 7.1 between 1980 and 2010. This growth, however, comes from most other parts of the world than Europe. One of the stated objectives of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is to boost aquaculture production in Europe. The main inhibitors that the reform seeks to address is the bureaucracy surrounding the issue of licenses, other problems that will be dealt with include the availability of space and water for cultivation, and the perception of farmed fish and seafood among consumers.

In Denmark, fish farming dates back to the mid 19th century, when fish were grown in simple ponds.

Today, farms use a wider range of systems to cultivate fish. Many have earthen ponds, others use concrete raceways which draw water from a spring or stream.

There are some Fully Recirculated Aquaculture Systems (FREAS) that are characterised by their low use of water, intensive production, technical sophistication, and high initial investment. In addition to the freshwater facilities, there are marine fish farms which

Karl-Iver Dahl Madsen, chairman of the Organisation of Danish Aquaculture.

are used to on-grow rainbow trout. The fish are usually produced in cages that are moored to the sea bed. Altogether there are just over 300 facilities (2011) of which 19 are marine. Freshwater production amounted to about 29,000 tonnes, and marine production to roughly 11,000 tonnes.

Production increased until the 90s but then fell significantly as producers left the market due to the constraints imposed by environmental legislation. Fish farms affect the environment in different ways. Waste water from fish farms can contain organic compounds, nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, particulate matter, and residues from the chemicals or drugs that are used to treat

the fish. If released untreated into a water course it can result in algal blooms and eutrophication.

Farms can also have an impact on the surroundings if they change the course of the stream or river that feeds the farm, or build dams or weirs. Wild fish may be hindered from migrating to spawning sites or down to the sea due to construction works on the water course.

Restrictive legislation gives some benefits In 1989 legislation was introduced that specified a number of rules for the farming sector.

These included that the feed conversion ratio (the weight of

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feed required to produce one kilo of fish) should not exceed 1; farmers were given a feed quota; and had to use settling ponds to remove particulate matter, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and organic material; water at the inlets and outlets had to be tested regularly to document how much particulate matter, nutrients, and organic matter was being released. Farms were also subject to maximum concentrations of nutrients, and organic and particulate matter that could be present in the outlet water, and minimum levels of oxygen.

With these regulations farmers could only expand production by increasing the feed conversion ratio. This resulted in the development of more efficient feeds and relatively lower residues of organic matter and nutrients. Environmental efficiency has increased by 4 a year, says Karl-Iver Dahl Madsen, chairman of the Organisation of Danish Aquaculture. The problem is that production of Danish aquaculture is stagnant while production of salmonids in the rest of the world is growing at 7. According to Mr Dahl Madsen Denmark has already missed out on a huge opportunity. In neighbouring Norway farmed fish exports were worth NOK32 billion in 2012.

This has brought employment,

investments in technology, and in research. It has also brought environmental challenges including sea lice and escapes, but these issues will ultimately be solved.

By supporting the industry and allowing it to expand and develop Norway has created not just a salmonid farming sector, but a whole ecosystem that covers production, research, logistics, services, technology, and trade related to salmon and trout, and that generates knowhow and experience that can also be monetised. Denmark too has done this to some extent despite the constraints it faces, but could have been in a much better position if production had been allowed to grow to 200,000 tonnes today rather than languish at 40,000 tonnes. As Mr Dahl Madsen points out, other countries step in to the space left by Denmark, and often their capabilities are not as developed as Denmark’s, so they pollute more. The pollution problem is not solved, it is just exported and Denmark loses out twice over – it gains neither the production and the benefits that go with it, nor is the environmental challenge solved.

Too many disadvantages with a stagnant industry Politicians have to accept that you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs. From the

Mikkel Stage, Head of Section, AgriFish Agency, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.

Commission down to national and local politicians the case has to be made for aquaculture, convincing those who oppose the industry that preventing its development is good neither for the environment nor the economy, feels Mr Dahl Madsen. There is no denying that it will increase the impact on the environment, but this could be ameliorated by counter measures in other areas. And the impact will plateau at some point when global consumption stabilises, perhaps in the next forty years.

Politicians and bureaucrats seem to be coming round to Mr Dahl Madsen’s point of view. At the Danish AgriFish Agency, an agency within the Ministry of

Danish farmed fish production (tonnes) 2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Rainbow trout

Year

35,287

40,454

37,065

34,912

39,080

38,526

36,906

36,518

37,531

Eel

2,011

1,822

1,670

1,729

1,636

1,729

1,699

1,532

1,154

Mussels

11

55

280

411

954

1,737

2,643

756

540

Brook trout

247

190

206

174

270

184

213

115

109

Others

206

398

328

426

498

461

425

385

492

Total

37,762

42,919

39,549

37,652

42,438

42,637

41,886

39,306

39,826

The Danish Agri-Fish Agency

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Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mikkel Stage is finalising Denmark’s aquaculture strategy for 2014 to 2020, a requirement laid down by the Common Fisheries Policy that all Member States have to fulfil. He heads a taskforce that includes people from his own ministry as well as from the ministry of environment, the body responsible for environmental assessments and licenses. The taskforce has had a workshop with other stakeholders including representatives from Danish Aquaculture, Danish Agriculture, and Danish industry, environmental NGOs, the aquaculture technology sector, and a trade union, to find out how and by how much Danish aquaculture should develop. In 2010 a Government Aquaculture Committee representing several stakeholders (the ministries of agriculture and the environment, national research institutions, nature and environmental NGOs, industry and recreational fisheries organizations) recommended a shift from the existing system of control based on feed quotas to one based on individual transferable quotas of nitrogen. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The committee concluded that this would allow the industry to expand, yet still meet the criteria laid down by EU and national legislation with regard to the environment. Changing the system of control from one based on input to one based on output introduces incentives for the farmer to invest in technology that will allow him to produce more while polluting less as he tries to maximise value with the lowest possible impact on the environment.

The shift meant that farms that were more efficient producers relative to the nitrogen they generated could expand production and as such favoured FREAS and what are known as Model 3 trout farms. The latter are characterised by concrete basins for the fish, high degree of recirculated water compared with a traditional flow through farm, and the presence of plant lagoons that are fed by the water from the fish production.

The nitrogen quotas given to each farm are based on the original feed quota.

The general tendency in the last decade has been a high degree of consolidation in the industry where smaller farms are merged and replaced with a modern unit that uses recirculation technology and can produce more than the farms that it replaced. The new control system was implemented last year but has yet to show its capability to make room for increased production within the environmental limits as farms are gradually converted to the new control system.

in October. Broadly, the draft strategy has four goals. It seeks to achieve by 2020 a 50 increase in production, 100 growth in value, a 25 reduction in pollution per kilo of produced fish, and a 200 rise in the export of technology, feed, and feed ingredients, estimated by the industry at some EUR400m in 2012. Mikkel Stage is aware that some of these goals may be considered unrealistic,

but at the same time feels that it is important to aim high, to set a target that is not too easy to reach.

Once the overall aims have been set the question is, of course, how to achieve them. One of the main questions concerns the emission of pollution if production is to be increased by the amount visualised. Today production in Denmark amounts to about 40,000 tonnes of which production on

land is roughly two thirds while the remainder is produced in the sea. Approximately half the fish produced on land comes from traditional farms while the rest is from recirculation systems. If traditional farmers switch to recirculation systems it would increase production by about 10,000 tonnes or half of that envisaged by the strategy. The other half is expected to come from marine

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Strategy aims high Based on these recommendations from the Aquaculture Committee and the ideas from the other stakeholders the taskforce produced a draft strategy that is due to go into a public hearing process www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

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production, both from grow-out systems for rainbow trout in cages in the sea and mussels, but also from growing salmon in saltwater tanks on land, a relatively new method of production in Denmark. The increased emissions from the marine grow-out of rainbow trout can be offset by the cultivation of mussels and seaweed, as recommended by the Aquaculture Committee. Mussels and seaweed can absorb nutrients from the water and, in addition, are being investigated for their potential to be made into valueadded products such as food and feed ingredients and as a source of energy.

The volumes of mussel and seaweed that need to be grown to compensate for emissions by current and future sea farming are considerable. The draft strategy envisages therefore identifying areas in the sea that can be used for the cultivation of fish, shellfish, and seaweed. These areas will be selected for their environmental suitability (strong currents, high depth, etc.), and because they do not have other users with conflicting purposes. By pre-identifying areas that can be used for marine aquaculture a fish farmer will save time when seeking permission from the authorities when he applies to establish a farm.

The draft strategy includes several other similar administrative measures that will assist achieving its goals. For example much of the legislation surrounding fish farming needs to be reviewed to see if it cannot be simplified, improved, or made redundant. This will hopefully lead to less red-tape and shorter processing times. The draft strategy also emphasises the importance of technology and will commit the government to continue allocating public funds for research and development, and supporting investments in new 48

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

technologies. So, if a fish farm comes up with a new idea to produce it could be eligible for support from the state to implement.

The draft strategy also includes a commitment to foster networking between the industry and universities and other research organisations. This is already happening to some extent says Mikkel Stage, but the government would like to promote it and perhaps formalise it, which could be done fairly easily without spending a lot of public money. Networking will also be encouraged between technology companies and other branches of industry with a view to encourage the formation of consortia that can bid on large international contracts that typically involve different specialisations. Enabling the export of turnkey projects like this is a priority for the government.

Promoting the development of organic farming The draft strategy will also cover education for the sector so that people who want to work on a farm or start their own farm will be

equipped with the necessary skills.

The education will be designed specifically for the aquaculture industry and will give students the ability and the confidence to run a farm, whether a traditional pond farm or one that uses a recirculation system. Currently such a programme is being tested in one of the trade schools in Denmark.

The final point of the strategy is also one of the most important as it covers product and market development. Danish farmed fish and seafood production is worth about EUR148m per year. Some is sold on the domestic market, but the bulk of it is exported. The government will encourage the development of niche products such as organically farmed fish by working to provide support to farmers who wish to convert from conventional to organic production. Organic fish enjoys a substantial premium over conventionally produced fish and demand for it is rising, making it in some ways an ideal product as it is grown sustainably and has a high value-added. Support for the culture of new species that show potential including mussels and seaweed, as well as for

generic marketing campaigns and other tools that promote the sale and consumption of fish is also included in the strategy.

The draft Danish aquaculture strategy will be discussed in public before it is finalised. While ambitious plans have been made in the past that never got off the ground, this time it may be different as there is a broader consensus about the path aquaculture should take, and perhaps greater awareness that if it does not, Denmark stands to lose out economically as well as environmentally, which would be the worst possible outcome.

Sources: –

The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012, FAO

–

Barriers to Sustainable Growth in the Aquaculture Sector: An Economic Analysis, Rasmus Nielsen, FOI PhD Thesis, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

–

Farming of Freshwater Rainbow Trout in Denmark, Alfred Jokumsen, Technical University of Denmark; Lars M. Svendsen, Aarhus University

Farmed fish production in Denmark has stagnated the last decade, but there are signs that things are stirring. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Marel offers a complete range of fish processing solutions

Combining strong customer focus with cutting edge technology The birth of salmon farming and its subsequent rapid growth led to the development of a vast range of products and service dedicated to each link in the production and value addition chains of salmon and large sea-raised trout. Equipment for the European salmon processing industry has evolved steadily as the number and type of products that are produced from salmon increase and change.

Several multinational companies produce equipment for the salmon processing industry, but few are as well known as Marel.

M

arel is headquartered in Iceland, but has over thirty locations on six continents and sales around the world making it a global company.

Around 50 of new equipment sales originate outside the established markets of North America and Western Europe, compared with 20 a few years ago. The company serves four core industries, poultry, fish, meat, and further processing and in terms of 2012 sales, while the poultry business segment was the undisputed leader with over 50, the fish division came in second at 18. Marel’s salmon division is based in Nørresundby in Denmark, where it employs some 95 staff. Altogether in Denmark Marel has four locations employing some 275 people generating about EUR100m in turnover.

Growth by acquisition The salmon division has grown both organically and by acquisition since 1997 when Carnitech, a Danish manufacturer of highend processing equipment, was taken over by Marel. At the time increasing volumes of salmon were being imported into Denmark to be processed. According to the FAO, total imports of salmon into Denmark went from 31,666 tonnes in 1991 to peak at 164,000 tonnes in 2003. Carnitech began manufacturing equipment for the www.eurofishmagazine.com

salmon processing industry in 1998. As it was a well-known and reputable brand products retained the Carnitech name although it was now a part of Marel. Two more acquisitions followed in quick succession a few years later. CP Food Machinery another Danish firm was acquired by Marel in 2002 and two years later the German slicing company Geba was also taken over. In 2006 the salmon division was established in Nørresundby comprising Carnitech’s salmon division, CP Food Machinery, and Geba and in 2010 the name was changed from Carnitech Salmon to Marel Salmon as part of a rebranding exercise within Marel.

Marel’s salmon processing equipment can broadly be divided into wet and dry machinery. The former comprises all the equipment that converts a raw fish into a fillet that is ready, for example, to be smoked, while the dry division covers slicing machines and packing lines. Each of these, the wet and the dry, is responsible for about 50 of the turnover at Marel Salmon. Machinery made at the division in Nørresundby is only for salmon processing, says Michael Hjortshøj, product marketing manager. Some equipment such as portioning and grading machines are also made elsewhere, but they are used for other products as well, such as meat or poultry,

while those that are made here are used purely to process salmon.

The range of wet equipment starts with de-icers, which remove the ice, and de-slimers, which wash the fish clean of slime and blood.

The fish at this stage are head on, gutted fish, which then move to be de-headed either manually or by machine. The de-headed fish then continue to the filleting machine, one of Marel’s areas of expertise.

The range of filleting machines consist of three main models, the oldest of which, the CT 2611 dates back to 1996. Since then however it has been regularly upgraded to ensure it meets all the requirements of a modern production line. While the CT 2611 uses only band knives, the next model up, the CT 2630, uses a combination of band and circular knives to give a better yield. At the top of the line is the MS 2730, a machine that was introduced in 2011 and is more automated than its predecessors giving higher yield, greater throughput, and easier operation.

Reliable machines reduce the need for monitoring After filleting and trimming the pinbones need to be removed, a process for which the company offers several different solutions from standalone machines to others that can be integrated into an

existing processing line. Irrespective of the machine used pinbones are removed efficiently yet gently with little or no impact on the fillet. The pinbone removers can have a single lane, double lane, or even four lanes depending on the client’s requirements. The most sophisticated of the pinbone removers uses suction cups and a vacuum to take away the pinbones and any surplus water from the surface of the fillet.

An extra set of heads to remove the most difficult pinbones is optional.

Usually after going through a pinbone machine it is necessary for the fillet to be manually checked so that any remaining bones can be removed. While 4-6 people are needed after the mechanical pinbone removers, only two people are necessary after the vacuum pinbone remover, says Michael Hjortshøj. Following the removal of the pinbones, the fillets continue through additional processes, such as skinning, washing, or salting before being packed and labelled.

Slicing machines are another Marel speciality and the range of machines includes D cut slicers, horizontal slicers, multi angle slicers, and the retail pack slicer. The D cut slicers, so called because the slice is shaped like the letter D, are designed to slice skinless hot or cold smoked, or marinated salmon fillets. They are controlled by a single operator who can

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Michael Hjortshøj, Product Marketing Manager at Marel Salmon Division.

adjust the settings using the touch screen. Fixed weight slicers, the most sophisticated of the slicing machines, electronically weigh and measure the fillet and then slice it accurately to the dimensions specified by the programme. The variety of D cut slicers includes machines that cut from 50-250 slices per minute, with a slice thickness of 2 mm and above. Depending on the machine the standard cutting angle can vary from 8 to 45 degrees or 10-20 degrees. Horizontal slicers cut long slices at a predefined thickness along the length of the fillet. The fillet with the skin on is clamped at the tail and the knife cuts the slices down to the skin.

Multi angle slicers, on the other hand, have a wide array of cutting angles that enable the manufacture of slices or portions for a wide range

Marel Salmon Division Bøgildsmindevej 3 9400 Nørresundby Denmark Tel.: +45 98921511 Fax: +45 98921101 www.marel.com Product Marketing Manager: Michael Hjortshøj (michael. hjortshoj@marel.com)

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of products. The most sophisticated of all the slicing machines is the retail pack slicer I-Slice 3300.

This automatically produces retail packs of smoked sliced salmon of a predetermined weight or number of slices. By weighing and scanning each fillet before the slicing process the machine can calculate precisely how to slice the fillet to optimise yield. The level of automation means that handling of the product is reduced to a minimum and the machine can handle both boards and trays accurately placing the slices where they are desired.

Innova software gives feedback on operational efficiency Marel Salmon’s core products are in filleting, pinboning and slicing

Company Fact File Activities: Machinery for salmon processing Products: Machinery for desliming and fillet washing, filleting and slicing equipment, graders, sorting machinery, weighing systems, equipment for thawing, packing and labelling, pinboning and deheading, robots, complete integrated solutions, Innova software among others Markets: Global

machinery, but the company also offers complete filleting lines and packing line solutions. An extensive range of equipment for the fish processing industry including graders, sorting machinery, weighing systems, thawing, packing and labelling, robots, and complete integrated solutions, is also produced by the company. One of the most important products is the Innova software that enables processors to control, monitor, and improve operations. The software collects data from the system allowing processors to monitor key parameters including throughput, yield quality, capacity, and labour efficiency in real time. The system is flexible and can be used to control a single piece of equipment or a whole system. It also provides the basis for ensuring traceability by tracking all pack and batch information so that nonconforming or damaged packs can be easily removed from a batch and replaced. Items, prices, and weights are likewise tracked and labels printed and registered.

Heavy investment in R & D maintains technical capabilities Marel is aware that the only way for a company in a highly competitive market to remain at the fore is through constant innovation. Accordingly it spends between 5 and 6 of its revenue on research and development (over EUR40m in 2012). But for the company innovation is not something that can be produced in isolation, it also places great emphasis on developing strong partnerships with the industry it serves. Some of the best results have come out of combining the customer’s knowledge of processing with Marel’s technical abilities. By shifting focus from the production of “machines” to the development of “processing technology” with an emphasis on research projects, Marel expects to be supplying processing equipment for salmon (and other products) well into the future.

Salmon Showhow Copenhagen to host event from 2014 Salmon today is a ubiquitous product that can be bought virtually anywhere in the world.

As Marel sell its equipment all around the globe each year it organises an event to which customers and partners are invited to see the latest developments in salmon processing. The event called Salmon Showhow has been held until now at the factory in Nørresundby, where part of the workshop is closed off and all the machinery is put on display with live demonstrations of the different processes. In contrast, exhibiting at tradeshows is useful, but there are several constraints, and it is impossible to show clients the whole range of equipment and provide live

demonstrations of all operations, says Michael Hjortshøj, product marketing manager. Salmon Showhow was first staged in 2001 and since then has become a regular feature of the fisheries events calendar attracting over 200 decision makers and key personnel from leading processing companies. Apart from seeing the equipment in action, visitors can hear international experts speak on topics relevant to the salmon industry. From 2014 Salmon Showhow moves to Copenhagen where it will be held on 5 February in a purposebuilt space close to the airport.

For more information contact Michael Hjortshøj, michael. hjortshoj@marel.com www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Ravnstrup Mølle supplies markets in several European countries

Dominating the Danish production of fresh trout on ice Tommy Brøgger the owner of Ravnstrup Mølle is particularly busy these days. At the beginning of this year he took over his competitor, Reinholdt, a company as big as his own, and is now working to integrate the two operations into a smoothly functioning unit.

T

he Danish trout farming industry has an international reputation for quality products and exported some 70 of its production in 2010. While some farmers export directly, others prefer to concentrate on the production while handing the sales to other companies.

Raw material collected from around the country One such company is Ravnstrup Mølle. Owned by Tommy Brøgger the company trades in trout, buying the fish from farms in Denmark and selling it mainly to customers in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. Live fish that range in size from 200 g to 1.5 kg are bought when they are ready to harvest, shipped by truck, and then stored in the tanks at Ravnstrup Mølle. Since he took over Ravnstrup Mølle four years ago, today Mr Brøgger has an accurate idea as to the volumes and sizes of the fish he can expect to sell on a daily basis. Fish are picked up each day from trout farms all over Jutland based on the expected demand, and are then stored, graded by size, in the concrete basins at Ravnstrup Mølle. Although getting the supplies has not been an issue, I find that we now have to drive further afield to collect the fish, says Mr Brøgger. This is partly because over the last four years he has managed to double www.eurofishmagazine.com

the turnover and now needs more fish, but also because trout farms have been closing down. The stringent environmental conditions make it difficult for small farmers to farm profitably and as they age the business cannot be sold and so it shuts down. In 2005 there were 300 freshwater pond facilities, a number which fell to 169 in 2011.

Changes in structure in Danish farming There have been other changes too in the structure of the Danish farming sector. Farms would often combine production and processing operations, buying fish from other farms if the in-house production was not big enough.

Ravnstrup Mølle too used to include a farm with a production of 200 tonnes, and a couple of decades ago there were 15 such places, says Tommy Brøgger. Today, however, there are only a few left and Mr Brøgger owns two of them. The activities have also changed from farming to exclusively buying the live fish, gutting, and packing on ice for sale to processors and food service. Mr Brøgger supplies the smaller-scale end of the market.

There are some big processors here in Denmark who need vast quantities of fish, he says, they process in a day what I could supply in a week. I do not sell to them as they buy their own live fish.

I want my customers to know they can rely on me to give them what

Ravnstrup Mølle supplies fresh trout on ice to restaurants, catering establishments, fish mongers, and smokehouses in Germany, the Netherlands, and France.

they need in terms of quality and quantity and do it on a regular basis. The regularity of supply is as important as the quality of the product. In 2009, for example, a problem with regular supply led to the matter being taken up at the annual meeting of the Organisation of Danish Aquaculture, the industry association for the aquaculture sector. The chairman of the select committee for exporters and processors pointed out that neglecting the issue of supply would only open the door even wider to the competition.

New gutting machine was paid off in months The fish, while stored at Ravnstrup, are not fed at all, but as the orders come in the fish are removed from the tanks, stunned using electricity and placed in the gutting machines. The gutted fish are placed on ice and shipped to

smokehouses in Germany and Holland as well as to restaurants and catering establishments. In Germany they have much more of a tradition for smoking fish, says Mr Brøgger. Smokehouses are generally smaller and will smoke limited volumes of a variety of products, some eel, some trout, some salmon, while in Denmark there are a couple of large smokehouses that concentrate on smoking trout in large quantities for the retail chains. Mr Brøgger has been associated with the fish farming business and specifically with Ravnstrup Mølle for many years.

He was an employee at Ravnstrup for a time before moving to New Zealand, where he worked on a farm cultivating chinook salmon.

Back in Denmark he again worked for a while at Ravnstrup Mølle managing the production, but left after some 18 months. He was therefore completely familiar with the business when an opportunity

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The new gutting machines from Kroma boosted efficiency so that volumes doubled in the space of four years with fewer staff.

Tommy Brøgger, the owner of Ravnstrup Mølle is now also the owner of Reinholdt, formerly his nearest competitor.

to take it over came up in 2009 and so he, together with two partners, grabbed it. Although it was a functioning business when the new owners took over, it had suffered from a lack of investment. One of the first things Mr Brøgger did was to invest in new machinery, specifically a gutting machine. As a result Ravnstrup Mølle became a lot more productive and has been growing steadily ever since.

product is much cheaper and the quality is getting better all the time.

Turkish fish is smoked both in Turkey, but is also exported frozen to Poland and smoked there for distribution to Europe. Less than a decade ago Denmark had about half the market for smoked trout in Germany – today it is a little over a quarter. Ravnstrup’s advantage is that fresh trout on ice is a product that has to be produced close to the customer to justify the word “fresh”. Ninety-five percent of the production goes from being live in the water to packed on ice within 30 minutes, and can be with the customer, say in Hamburg, within 11 hours. That kind of freshness is difficult to match for production

Two brands, one owner New ownership and some changes in staffing have brought fresh energy into the company.

A new salesperson with experience in international sales of whitefish from Danish auctions is now selling the trout. He knows every fishmonger in northern Europe, says Tommy Brøgger, and these small shops are important customers even though they only buy 5 kg at a time. Sales are about 15 tonnes a week to the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.

In the Netherlands there are essentially only two names in trout, Ravnstrup and Reinholdt, and they are both Danish. Competitors for many years, the two names now have the same owner since 52

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Mr Brøgger bought Reinholdt earlier this year. The competition between the two had prevented Ravnstrup from making any money, caused Reinholdt to lose money, and severely squeezed the suppliers as well. Now that the two companies are effectively one, everybody in the supply chain for ice-packed trout is better off. While there are still both domestic and international competitors on the market Mr Brøgger is confident that his companies will cope. Our local competitors are serving other markets and abroad we know that there are cheaper products available, but the quality is also inferior to ours. He admits that all the environmental regulations in Denmark are difficult to follow for trout farmers, but the quality of the feed and thus also the final product is much better as a result.

Preference for earth pond raised fish Fresh trout on ice is also a product that is not threatened by that other big trout exporter, Turkey. It will take several days for a shipment to reach the Netherlands while for Ravnstrup it is an overnight journey. For the smoked product however it is another story. The Turkish

sites located far away. The other aspect is the quality of the fish.

We generally buy from farmers who produce the old-fashioned way in earth ponds rather than concrete farms producing a 1,000 tonnes of intensively farmed fish a year, says Mr Brøgger. Our fish tend to look better and as we are selling whole fish as opposed to fillets, the looks are important.

Ravnstrup also sells organic trout, a product that is growing rapidly in popularity. Three to four years ago sales amounted to 10 kg a week, an amount so small Tommy Brøgger almost gave up selling it. Today he is pleased he persisted as demand is up to 50 tonnes a year – and now finding the fish is the problem.

Ravnstrup Mølle A/S

Company Fact File

Damvej 5, Ravnstrup DK 8800 Viborg Denmark

Products: Fresh trout on ice Markets: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland Customers: Restaurants, catering establishments, fish mongers, smokehouses Volumes: 30 tonnes per week (total for the two brands) Employees: 15 Brands: Ravnstrup Mølle, Reinholdt

Tel.: +45 86647144 Fax: +45 86647135 ravnstrup@ravnstrup.dk www.ravnstrup.dk Owner: Tommy Brøgger Activities: Gutting and packing fresh trout

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DENMARK

Kroma makes gutting and filleting machines

Move to bigger factory reduces turnaround time Kroma, a specialist manufacturer of processing machinery for the fish industry located in Skive, has just moved to newer and bigger premises. Business has picked up over the last years to the satisfaction of its owner, Ivan Kristensen, after a slow period. The new space will help reduce the turnaround time to build and ship machinery.

K

roma is best known for its gutting and filleting machines, which have a reputation in the industry for their reliability and efficiency.

Our machines have been following the gradual trend in the industry to produce bigger fish, says Mr Kristensen. A decade ago most of the machines we were selling were for 200-300 g fish, while now we sell machines for 400-600 g fish and even bigger, because while it costs the same to process a fish whether it is 300 g or 600 g, the latter has more meat on it to pay for the investment.

Single machine for multiple species The range of gutting machines that Kroma has developed enables it to supply processors of a variety of fish species and sizes. Forty years ago when we started, we were producing mainly for the trout industry, says Mr Kristensen, but today Kroma’s machines are used to gut seabass and seabream, mackerel, catfish, tuna, salmon, hake, and soon, perhaps barramundi too.

For the last couple of years interest in Kroma’s machines has been on the rise. Before the crisis in 2008 almost a third of the company’s business had been subcontracts for sheet metal work for local manufacturers because it www.eurofishmagazine.com

One of the company’s most experience employees assembles a machine.

had the necessary machinery and expertise. During the crisis these contracts dried up as companies began doing the work themselves rather than outsourcing it. Now however, the company has managed to return to its pre-crisis turnover, but this time it is purely from the sale of fish processing machinery. Building more machines made it necessary to invest in more space as the demands on inventory grew. At 3,300 sq m the new factory has three times more space than the old place so there is ample space to have the parts that are needed to build a machine on hand. Of course, the idea is not to have a huge inventory, but to sell equipment, but a larger workshop allows us to fulfil orders more effectively, says Ivan Kristensen.

While the company does all the design, assembly, and testing in-house, many of the components in the machines are sourced from outside. Vacuum pumps, machine parts and other pieces are bought from suppliers mainly in Europe. We keep an eye on prices, but as we do not buy in bulk they tend to be similar wherever we buy the parts, says Mr Kristensen. More interesting for us is if a supplier can offer improved quality or faster delivery.

Machines adapted in close coordination with customer Adapting a machine to different species calls for close

coordination between the customer and the company. The customer has to define the shape of the fish that is being processed and measure different parameters such as the length, weight, and thickness and give the data to Kroma. Based on this information engineers calculate certain ratios and use this to adjust the different knives in the machine. The prototype is then tested using samples of fish from the customer and final adjustments are made. Crucial to our ability to customise a machine for a client is the experience we have built up over the last forty years, says Mr Kristensen. The current portfolio of gutting machines spans those that will gut 0.5 to 0.75 kg

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Ivan Kristensen, the owner of Kroma. The company has just moved to a new location with three times the space it had before.

fish at a rate of up to 40 fish a minute to those that will gut fish weighing between 1.5 kg and 8 kg at a rate of up to 30 fish a minute. Other machines can handle up to 65 fish a minute.

The machines do not have to be adjusted as they switch between different sizes of fish, meaning there is no production downtime. The bigger machine is equipped with a feeding system which allows it to automatically feed the fish on to hooks on the conveyor ensuring a uniform hooking of the fish. A head cutting unit is an optional accessory that can be attached, yet switched off when the product demanded is head-on gutted fish. The fish is treated very gently as it goes through the machine so that during the roe season the roe sacs can be removed intact after the cut has been made and then the fish can continue through the machine. Outside the roe season the machine can be adjusted to automatically suction out the guts. The machine is screened so that the entire gutting process takes place in an enclosed space reducing the noise levels as well as the operator’s exposure to harmful aerosols from the gutting process.

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Accessories designed to further optimise production The gutting machines come with a number of optional accessories.

The Clean in Place system (CIP) rinses the machine with water to keep it clean while in operation.

It also facilitates the final cleaning after a day’s work. The Visiomaster is a system of cameras and lights that photograph the fish after it has been cleaned. Clever software then analyses the image and decides whether the fish has been cleaned appropriately or if it needs to be sent to a manual gutting table. This eliminates the need for a person to manually check the fish after the gutting process.

Kroma also makes a high capacity filleting machine that can fillet up to 180 fish per minute into either single fillets or butterfly fillets by adding or removing a set of knives, a process that only takes a few minutes. The commonly filleted fish species are trout, seabream and seabass that weigh between 0.15 and 0.75 kg. Before the filleting the guts are removed and the cavity cleaned with a brush. The machine can be connected with Kroma’s heading machine or one produced by another manufacturer.

Design, assembly, and testing are done at the factory in Skive, while components are sourced from all over Europe.

Expertise in the “wet and bloody”

just a conveying or vacuum system, explains Mr Kristensen.

All our machines deal with primary fish processing or what I call the wet and bloody part, says Ivan Kristensen. The nice and dry work such as slicing is taken care of by others. Apart from heading, gutting, and filleting machines Kroma also produces washing machines for fillets or whole fish, conveying systems, descaling machines, and vacuum systems among others. But the main products are the gutting and filleting machines to which the company will then attach a conveying or vacuum system if the customer wishes. We do not usually sell

The company’s markets are all around Europe, but also in North America where it is used by catfish processors and in Asia for tuna. In general wherever trout is involved Kroma is interested as that is where the company started and where it has a lot of expertise. This is also why Ivan Kristensen is not considering expanding the range of machinery. Our experience is in primary processing and we will put this experience to good use developing machines that will handle a wider range of species, he says, rather than entering into a new area of processing.

Kroma AS

Company Fact File

Rævevej 22 DK 7800 Skive Denmark Tel.: +45 9752 2099 Fax: +45 9752 0572 kroma@kroma.dk www.kroma.dk Owner: Mr Ivan Kristensen Activity: Primary processing machinery for the fish industry

Products: Heading, gutting, filleting machines; also, washing machines, conveying systems, descaling machines, and vacuum systems Markets: Europe, Asia, North America Species: Seabass and seabream, mackerel, catfish, tuna, salmon, hake Employees: 17

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DENMARK

Hjarnø Havbrug is experimenting with mussels and seaweed

Research and development to reduce environmental impact The Danish aquaculture sector is seeing some potentially far-reaching changes in regulation that could result in a substantial increase in production. The sector will also develop niche products rather than trying to compete head-on with the major producers of salmon and trout.

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anish aquaculture is currently focused primarily on the production of trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) which is raised in different production systems – earthen ponds, concrete raceways, recirculation systems, and model farms. In addition, some fish are on-grown in sea cages, where they increase rapidly in size in a very short space of time. These sea-reared trout are often used for the production of roe, which is exported, in particular to Japan, where it is considered a delicacy.

Scientific selection of broodstock Hjarnø Havbrug was founded in 1952 by Alfred Pedersen and today is headed by his grandson Anders Pedersen, who took over the reins from his father Lars in 1986. The company produces seagrown trout which are cultivated for their roe. The fish are slaughtered at sea to ensure absolute freshness, the egg sacs removed intact, and the roe is then mixed with salt and stored for five days.

As this product is intended for the Japanese market the whole operation is closely supervised on site by Japanese sushi chefs, says Malene Mølgaard, the project leader at the company. Fulfilling the Japanese’ demanding www.eurofishmagazine.com

Anders Pedersen, the owner of Hjarnø Havbrug.

requirement has called for the adoption of a highly scientific approach to the production that goes back all the way to the broodstock. Special lines of broodstock are selected for the quality and quantity of roe that they produce and their eggs are used to breed the fish that in turn produce the roe. The broodstock are kept at a hatchery, where the eggs are hatched and the fry are grown to about 100 g. These fry are then moved to other sites more appropriate to their size, where they are allowed to grow

to a size of between 600 and 800 g in earthen ponds. All the company’s sites are located within a few hours drive of Juelsminde, near Horsens on Jutland. The company has its grow-out facilities in the Horsens Fjord. The fish are introduced into the sea at 600-800 g and at Hjarnø since the main product is the roe they naturally prefer females. All the fish are therefore closely monitored and the males eliminated early on in the life cycle. Once in the sea the fish grow very rapidly reaching 3-4 kg in six months.

Strong opposition to farming industry in some quarters The aquaculture industry in Denmark faces strict regulations regarding the protection of the environment. This applies both to inland as well as marine farms.

Most sea cages are located close to the coast, where the water is shallow and currents are weak and pollution from the cages in the form of uneaten feed and faecal matter tends to accumulate on the seabed. Sea cages are also

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DENMARK

After reaching 600-800 g in ponds on land, the fish grow to 3-4 kg within the space of 6 months in the sea.

associated with the environmental impacts of medicines, antifoulants, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Farms are therefore trying do reduce their impact on the enviroment by cultivating species such as mussels and seaweed that will remove some of these pollutants.

Despite these efforts it is an uphill battle says Ms Mølgaard to convince certain people that we are reducing the pollution, that today attitudes among producers are different from what they were a decade ago, and that farmers too are interested in a healthy environment for their fish. There is a very one-sided view of our industry prevalent in some circles, she feels, as they do not look at the jobs we create, or the exports that help our economy at a time when we are still feeling the effects of the economic crisis. The company employs some 25 people full time and almost twice that number for three months in the season. As a forward-looking company Hjarnø Havbrug has been looking at different ways of reducing its environmental impact, among them the use of mussels and seaweed.

Trials with these products have also triggered interest among agricultural farmers who are looking for ways to reduce their own environmental impact, says Malene 56

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Mølgaard. Some of the benefits of growing seaweed are already apparent, she adds, as the beds provide a breeding ground and a sanctuary for young fish, shrimps, and other small marine life forms.

The mussels filter the water and remove organic particulate matter from the water. Ms Mølgaard says that as a result of the mussels visibility in the water has increased by up to 20 cm.

Using mussels, seaweed to neutralise nutrients from fish culture The project to find ways of neutralising the environmental impact of growing fish in the sea includes the Organisation of Danish Aquaculture and researchers from the Technical University of Denmark, amongst others, and has received approximately EUR1.2m in funding from the Green Development and Demonstration Programme. It is essentially an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture project that seeks to answer several questions including how to optimise production with respect to both quanity and quality of the biomass produced; as well as how to establish the most efficient ways of growing and harvesting seaweed and mussels. Called Combination

Farming (Kombi Opdræt) one of the issues that will be addressed is the volume of mussels and seaweed that will need to be farmed to compensate for nitrogen released by fish farms. Apart from the challenge of growing all this seaweed, the project will also devote resources to finding out what could it be used for. Many of the nutritional components of the seaweed can be used in animal feed, and there is also growing interest in seaweed as a source of biofuels. In America, researchers have found that seaweed can be processed in integrated sequential biorefineries to separate pollutants from useful components that could be used, for example, by the cosmetics industry. The Danish project will examine these possibilities as well as look at ways of using seaweed for human consumption. Ultimately the idea is that the production of the mussels and seaweed should be economically self sufficient.

Plans to expand fish production in pipeline Hjarnø Havbrug is one of the four big Danish producers of searaised rainbow trout for markets in Russia, Germany, and France.

While Hjarnø concentrates on the production, the sales and marketing of the fish itself is done

by Musholm, another of the big

Hjarnø Havbrug

Danish producers, with whom Hjarnø has an agreement. In keeping with their stated objective of producing with no impact on the surrounding environment Hjarnø is now working towards getting organically certified, a process they expect to conclude this year for the production of the seaweed and the mussels, but will take two or three years longer for the fish. The extended timetable for the fish is due to the changes that need to be implemented in the production of the young rainbow trout on land. The company also has a project in the pipeline to expand its fish production in the sea with another 100 ha site.

This has called for a huge effort, says Ms Mølgaard, taking six years and with a project report that cost a few hundred thousand euros. If approved however the company’s existing mussels and seaweed cultivation should be enough to neutralise the nitrogen from this expanded fish production.

As a commercial enterprise Hjarnøe Havbrug is naturally interested in research and development that could lead to new products and new ways of doing business. But it is well aware that development cannot be at the cost of the environment, a philosophy that should serve it well both now and in the future.

Company Fact File

Snaptunvej 57 B 7130 Juelsminde Denmark Tel.: +45 75683801 hjarno@havbrug.dk www.havbrug.dk

Activity: Marine farming Products: Sea-reared rainbow trout, and trout roe Markets: Japan, Russia, Germany, France Facilities: Hatchery, nurseries, sea cages Employees: 25 fulltime

Owner: Anders Pedersen Poject leader: Malene Mølgaard

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[ AQUACULTURE ] Onshore, inshore, offshore: where does aquaculture belong?

The further from the coast, the higher the cost A lot of aquaculture experts argue that farms should be moved away from the coast and further out into the open sea. Open ocean aquaculture in offshore locations would solve a number of problems and user conflicts that are connected with production in shallow water. Unfortunately, however offshore aquaculture is also quite a lot more expensive; it is more complicated and entails more risks than inshore aquaculture, and farming technologies are still not technically mature.

F

arming high-value fish species in shallow coastal waters or in tanks on land is difficult, and nearly fifty years ago producers in Japan began for the first time to produce them in the open sea, i.e. offshore. These waters offered optimum living conditions to many marine species. The water is usually cleaner there, the wind and waves carry a regular supply of oxygen, and ensure largely constant temperatures.

Disease and parasites also occur less frequently than in locations directly off the coast. The idea to move aquaculture facilities into offshore regions became popular elsewhere, too, because the traditional farms along the coast were increasingly meeting with rejection. There are several different user groups who are interested in the strip of water directly off the coast with the result that conflicts regularly develop when aquaculture starts to expand. In disputes with fishermen and hobby anglers, harbours, shipping lines, companies from the tourist sector, or with the energy industry with its wind power plants aquaculture mostly stands only a poor chance of asserting itself.

The temptation is thus big to get around these disputes by moving www.eurofishmagazine.com

Moving farms offshore has advantages in terms of better conditions for the dispersion of pollution, but the costs of offshore farming are also higher.

aquaculture into the offshore region. And probably a lot more companies would already have moved their farms away from the coast if there were not also serious problems to be coped with there, too. The sea is considerably rougher further away from the coast; storms, heavy swell and metre-high waves take their toll on the net cages, and there are also logistical problems. A farm needs seaworthy vessels to maintain and control the farms, and to transport feed, fishes and farming materials. During storms the farms can be inaccessible for several days on end.

Electronic, automatic devices and techniques are necessary in order to still be able to monitor

the fishes and to enable recognition of any problems in good time. The equipment and apparatus required for this often has to be developed first, however.

Some issues have already been addressed and solved, others are still open. How difficult is it to handle the fishes in offshore farms? Routine jobs such as feeding, sorting and harvesting or maintenance work such as antifouling measures probably cost more time and perhaps demand other methods. Are the risks of offshore farming manageable and is it possible at all to insure such facilities? These points alone are enough to make clear that the costs of offshore farming will likely be disproportionately

higher than coastal aquaculture. That is probably why the European Commission said in 2002 that aquaculture should look more at research from other branches of industry to see how they coped with offshore problems: “Fish cages should be moved further from the coast, and more research and development of offshore cage technology must be promoted to this end. Experience from outside the aquaculture sector, e.g. with oil platforms, may well feed into the aquaculture equipment sector, allowing for savings in the development costs of technologies.” That sounds wise, but taking over individual solutions can do little to change the fact

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[ AQUACULTURE ] High cost pressure makes production of expensive fish species necessary

Because of the expense it entails offshore farming is more suitable to expensive species, such as tuna, here being fattened in these cages.

that the aquaculture industry has nowhere near the financial, technical or logistical possibilities that the oil industry or energy producers have.

Offshore region offers optimal preconditions for aquaculture Difficulties already begin for aquaculture with the simple question of where exactly the offshore zone begins and how far it stretches. There is no unambiguous definition of the term ‘offshore’. It is a relatively vague description of a region that begins beyond the shallow coastal waters and extends a random distance into the sea. Offshore can be understood as both “far from the coast” and “outside of coastal waters”. It is thus decisive that when using the term not only the distance of the farm from the coast be mentioned but also the benefits resulting from the shift in location. It can sometimes be enough to move a farm just a few hundred metres further out to sea to benefit from the advantages of offshore farming.

Stronger currents and greater 58

water depths can mean that feed remains and fish excreta are quickly removed from the farm area and distributed over a larger area and thereby “diluted”.

This reduces the strain on benthic ecosystems, prevents lack of oxygen on the sea bed, and contributes towards maintaining water quality within the location.

And that can increase the likelihood that an offshore farm will be accepted by local communities and the general public. But even offshore aquaculture cannot dispel all its opponents’ reservations. For example, it doesn’t solve the problem of escapes, i.e. of fish getting out of the cages and interacting with the wild stocks.

In the meantime numerous commercial farms have shown that it is technically possible to produce fishes, shellfish, crustaceans and algae in the offshore zone. The precondition for the economic success of such operations is the collaboration of all stakeholders, from engineering technology, through biology, feed and logistics, to product marketing. The USA have been

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particularly keen to push ahead development of techniques and technologies for offshore farming. Already in 1970 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) brought together a group of oceanographers, marine biologists, plant technicians and engineers to sound out the possibilities and limits of offshore aquaculture.

In their opinion offshore farms can be profitable provided attention is paid to some basic rules during the planning phase. One of the biggest challenges is the design and construction of net cages that are able to meet the requirements of the offshore zone. The sheer force of the open sea necessitates the construction of extremely robust and resilient net cages. These are, of course, considerably more expensive than conventional systems. At present the size of such cages is between 400 and 11,000 cubic metres. In the pipeline, however, are projects with up to 64,000 cubic metres. With stock densities of 30 kg of fishes per cubic metre, production could then amount to nearly 2,000 t of fish per farming cycle.

In offshore farming it is basically possible to use net cages like those that are normally used in coastal facilities. Prior to use, however, they have to be made “seaworthy” by undertaking certain constructional alterations that will render them resilient enough to cope with the often metre-high waves. In spite of their robust design the cages are still open to huge risks at the water surface which is why a lot of aquaculture companies in offshore zones prefer to use net cages that are closed on all sides and can thus be completely submerged below the water surface. Although this is a way of getting around the problems that confront net cages on the water surface, e.g. the impact of stormy seas or dangers resulting from shipping traffic in the region, the complexity of production, anchorage and operation of submersible facilities is disproportionately higher which makes these systems a costly alternative to conventional shallow water cages.

The fact that offshore aquaculture facilities cannot be compared with traditional systems becomes clear upon perusal of a cost account that Hauke Kite-Powell (Woods Hole, USA) presented. Nearly everything is more complicated and more expensive in offshore farming: the cages have to be more stable, the boats have to be bigger, and the distance from the ports to the farms is greater. In his calculations Kite-Powell names the costs for an offshore cage at 30 to 50 dollars per cubic metre plus nearly 100 dollars/ m3 for anchorage. Even a relatively small cage measuring 400 cubic www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ AQUACULTURE ] metres thus costs about 60,000 dollars. And then the necessary vessel costs have to be added, too, which on average add up to 200 to 300 dollars per hour.

The huge investment and operational costs make aquaculture in the offshore zone much more expensive than in conventional inshore facilities. And the further out to sea the offshore farms are the higher the costs rise. Because this is a clear competitive disadvantage compared to inshore aquaculture offshore faming can at the moment really only be profitable for very highpriced fishes, or species whose production in coastal regions presents problems. A further possibility is the production of bivalves and algae. Farming facilities for these two species groups become profitable much more quickly because they do not have to be fed. This leads to a major reduction in supervision and handling on the farms. On top of that, bivalve and algae farms have a cleaning effect because they take nutrients out of the water. This effect might even contribute towards improving the acceptance of offshore aquaculture among the public.

Aquaculture in the offshore zone demands new technologies Whilst conventional aqua farms that float on the water surface are mostly shaped like a cube or a cylinder the variety of shapes and forms of submersible net cages is much greater. These cages are often spherical, but cages are also designed in the shape of cylinders, discuses, hexahedrons or octahedrons. The frequently futuristic looking shapes are thought to reduce water resistance when the facility is submerged beneath the www.eurofishmagazine.com

Bivalves, such as the oysters in these cages, do not need to be fed and require less handling in general, which changes the economics of offshore farming.

water surface. For stocking and harvesting the fishes the cages are hauled to the water surface but otherwise they are kept at the desired water depth which can be changed as required or necessary. When submerged, the cages do not pose any obstacle to shipping and they are optimally protected against storms that rage at the water’s surface. Apart from that, they can be specifically positioned at water depths whose temperatures offer optimal conditions for the fishes. These advantages have their price, however, since the technical effort required to move the cages upwards or downwards is extremely high. A complicated system of ropes and anchors, floats, ballast tanks and special steering devices is necessary to move an installation and keep it at exactly the required depth.

In other aspects, too, offshore facilities require much more technical effort than inshore systems. It is not rare, for example, that offshore cages have double netting around them. Whilst the inner net holds the fish stock together the external net (which is made of metal or highly resilient polyethylene fibres) offers protection against predators. In the case of underwater cages, in particular, this double protection is important because if damages to the net mesh are not noticed

immediately this can quickly lead to the loss of the whole fish stock due to escapes or predators.

A lot of tasks that require hardly any effort to perform close to the coast are considerably more exerting in the offshore zone. This applies for example to the storage of feed, and to feeding itself, which demand a high degree of technology in the case of submersible facilities. Because the farms are often not accessible during unfavourable weather conditions appropriate feed supplies have to be available on site.

The feed can clump together, however, if humidity is high, and it spoils relatively quickly and so can only be stored for a short time. The size of the feed silos is thus a compromise between the frequency of visits by the service vessels, the necessary feed reserves, and the shelf-life of the feed. Apart from that, pipe systems and dispensing facilities are needed to transport the feed from the silos to the submerged cages.

In addition to these devices sensors and underwater cameras are needed to monitor the fishes’ appetites and avoid unnecessary feed loss.

Although many of the tasks that have to be carried out in inshore and offshore facilities are basically the same, the greater the distance from the coast the more

effort it costs and the higher the risk it entails. Like in shallow water, the net meshes of cages that are located further out to sea can become clogged and combating fouling is much more difficult under rough sea conditions in the offshore zone. Emptying the cages also requires special methods and techniques if, for example, the whole stock is to be harvested from a spherical farm cage. Net cages, anchorage, feeding systems and other technical equipment thus have to be checked and maintained regularly, and the health status of the fishes within the cages and important environmental parameters require constant control, too. If the farm staff are not themselves on site at the farm all the necessary data have to be transmitted electronically.

A workforce is thus indispensable at an offshore facility, too, even if a lot of the work processes are automatic. What it might be possible to save in manpower at sea is then required on land because it should not be forgotten that an offshore farm also needs onshore property: administration rooms, changing rooms for farm workers, storage space for feed and equipment, workshops for making any necessary repairs, berths for the boats, etc.

The above also contributes towards making offshore farming activities quite a lot more

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[ AQUACULTURE ] or bluefin tuna. Popular – and accordingly expensive – mollusc species such as abalones also play a certain role in these considerations.

Mussels filter the water removing nutrients and are therefore sometimes farmed in combination with fish.

Whether this will lead to greater acceptance of fish farming, inshore or offshore, remains to be seen.

expensive than inshore farms.

Added to this is the fact that offshore operations conceal more risks because small faults and errors that can mostly be corrected very quickly in inshore farms are much more difficult to deal with in the open sea.

Offshore farming thus demands the best material, sophisticated technologies and vital, absolutely healthy fishes. In spite of a lot of progress that has been made in this area it should not be forgotten that there is still quite a lot to learn – and possibly the hard way – which can sometimes prove to be very expensive.

Offshore farms often serve experimental purposes Based on cautious estimations there could be offshore aquaculture projects underway in about 30 different countries, most of them experimental but some of them already running on a commercial basis, particularly in

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Europe, but also on the American continent and in Asia. In the Mediterranean countries Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia and Malta there are, or were, offshore facilities already in operation. China, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and the Bahamas are also among the pioneers of this promising development in the aquaculture sector. It is particularly in the USA and Norway, however, that there has been intensive research and investments, and one of the central focuses of these efforts is the design of offshore net cages.

In Ireland the development of offshore-worthy technologies and aquaculture systems is even part of the National Development Plan that covers the period from 2007 to 2013. In the course of this project sensor systems for the feeding and control of biomass and the health status of the fishes are to be made ready for practical use in the aquaculture industry. Apart from that, offshore net cages are to be

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improved, new materials tested and the telemetric transmission of data made more reliable.

With the exception of a few countries, activities nearly always focus on carnivore species with a high market value.

A lot of these offshore facilities are still unprofitable and have to rely on financial support from research funds but at some point in time it is of course envisaged that they will be self-supporting.

High-value fish species that can easily be sold are naturally the best guarantee that investments will have been worthwhile in the long run. Occasionally species such as cod or haddock are also produced in offshore farms but this is mostly only for experimental purposes. For routine production, developers of offshore systems sooner choose species such as cobia and yellowtails, moi (threadfin), mutton snapper and red snapper, red drum, pompano species, summer flounders, halibut

Despite the fact that these relatively simple aquaculture facilities for offshore zones are still not technically mature some visionaries are already dreaming about the next stage of development: roaming cages – large mobile cages that move freely in the oceans – which are powered by marine currents and thrusters are imagined drifting between the continents. Such facilities could, for example, be stocked with young tuna in Mexico and then drift to Japan where they would arrive months later when the fishes have reached a marketable size. This admittedly fascinating idea was picked up greedily by various media and has since then been repeatedly “sold” to the public as the future of marine aquaculture. It is questionable, however, whether these freely drifting offshore systems can actually be realised. At present the technical effort and the necessary costs of freely drifting net cages by far exceed the limits of what is possible and what makes sense. This vision, as wonderful as it might be, just doesn’t add up; the risks are incalculable. Who would invest in an offshore project that is no longer directly accessible and can hardly be controlled so far away in the open sea? The offshore zone certainly offers optimum possibilities for extending marine aquaculture. And these possibilities have to be grasped, but it would be wrong to get lost in expensive utopia that are not realisable with today’s state of the art and would, on top of that, be completely unprofitable. mk

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[ FISHERIES ] Lithuania’s Fisheries Service carries out a range of important activities

Securing the future of fish stocks One of the main objectives of every European Union (EU) country is to manage biological resources sustainably to preserve the natural environment for present and future generations. The negative impact on biological variety caused by humanity can result in the deterioration of valuable natural resources, which are then replaced by less valuable species.

T

his issue is also important in the fisheries sector. The Fisheries Service under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania is the main institution looking after fishery resources in Lithuania. It implements Lithuanian fisheries policy, which is based on the EU Common Fisheries Policy, conserves and restores fish stocks, controls their usage in marine waters, and carries out applied research in the field of fisheries.

Fisheries monitoring and control One of the most important tasks of the Fisheries Service is to control fisheries in marine waters.

The activity is carried out on the fishing vessels, which are fishing in the Baltic Sea territory of the Republic of Lithuania; in the exclusive economic zone; in the littoral zone and also on those Lithuanian fishing vessels, which operate in the high seas. Fisheries Service officers inspect unloading and reloading operations, and the first sale of fisheries products in ports and at other venues. In addition, the Fisheries Service monitors the capacity of the Lithuanian fisheries fleet.

Last year the Fisheries Service dedicated a lot of attention to improve control of the fishing vessels by establishing information systems. Lithuania is among the first EU countries to implement an Internet-based system through which fisheries data are captured www.eurofishmagazine.com

Vytautas Grušauskas (centre), Director, and specialists from the Fisheries Service.

and transferred to the European Commission, member states, and other relevant institutions responsible for fisheries control. The rapid exchange of information enhances the effectiveness of control. Fishing effort, quota, catch information and other related reports are submitted through new, modern and safe exchange channels that ensure data integrity in every link of the control chain. Fishing vessels inspection reports are being transferred into electronic databases. The electronic fishing logbook system is successfully used and updated in accordance with the latest requirements, which allow fishing vessels to use the system and carry out fishing activities in EU and international waters.

The Fisheries Service has acquired new equipment to measure fishing vessel engine power, which enables the verification and control of fishing vessel capacity as well as risk analysis. A fish product

traceability system is being developed, to ensure fish product traceability “from net to plate”. With the implementation of the fisheries control programme, the Fisheries Service also has acquired new satellite transmitters to receive information about the fishing vessels’ position in the water as well as about fishing catch data from the fishing grounds.

Fish stocks restoration and enhancement It is evident that control of the fishermen alone is not enough preserve fish stocks. Unfavourable environmental factors can prevent the lasting recovery of valuable fish species. The essential task of the Fisheries Service is to research, preserve, restore and increase fish stocks in water bodies. Therefore the Fisheries Service participates in the preparation of programmes for protecting valuable fish, for

crayfish species recovery, for maintenance and enhancement, for fish restocking, and for the reintroduction of valuable aquatic organisms in to state water bodies.

The Fisheries Service has seven subdivisions which are located in the different regions of Lithuania.

These subdivisions breed valuable fish species and crayfish: sea trout, Atlantic salmon, river trout, grayling, peled, Plateliai whitefish, Vištytis whitefish, European catfish, sharp-nosed sturgeon, carp, tench, pike-perch, northern pike, burbot, noble crayfish (approximately 90 percent of all cultured fish juveniles are restocked in state water bodies by the subdivisions of the Fisheries Service).

The main aim of fish culture in Lithuania is to recover protected fish stocks. This sphere is especially regulated by EU and national legislation. Lithuania is proud to

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[ FISHERIES ] be one of the first in the EU to have started restocking sharp-nosed sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhinchus L.). This species is listed among the protected animals, plants and fungi species of Lithuania. In accordance with this status Lithuania has approved the programme for the restoration of sharp-nosed sturgeon stocks in 2012-2020 and subdivisions of the Fisheries Service have started to breed sharpnosed sturgeon. In 2011-2013 the institution stocked Lithuanian rivers with 12,411 of these fish juveniles (of which part were marked with special tags). Research into fish migration and reports from recreational fishermen about their catches have shown that this work has been successful.

Another significant programme is the “European Eel (Anguilla anguilla L) Management Plan in Lithuania” which is implemented by the Fisheries Service. Since 2011 1.6 million units of European eel juveniles at various stages of development have been released into Lithuanian state lakes.

Aquaculture and scientific activities It is not enough just to breed valuable fish to restock migratory fish resources. Migratory conditions too must be improved so that fish can travel to the spawning grounds and naturally replenish the species population. Consequently, the Fisheries Service organises, coordinates and carries out activities to improve migratory conditions for the fish. Moreover, the organisation monitors migratory fish to determine the efficiency of fish passes.

One of the most significant achievements in the aquaculture sector is the selection of the new carp line “Šilavotas carp” as a result of research carried out in the Šilavotas subdivision of 62

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

the Fisheries Service. This kind of fish grows well and is highly productive. Šilavotas fish farm has supplied different matured carp breeds to other aquaculture companies since 1977. Since 1990 thousands of matured carps have been sold every year. All carps in Šilavotas have certificates of origin and Lithuanian aquaculture companies are strongly advised to purchase carp for breeding from this division to avoid fish of unknown origin that could possibly suffer from malformation, inbreeding, vulnerability to diseases etc.

One of the Fisheries Service subdivisions also performs laboratory research such as parasitological and chemical tests of fish and other aquatic organisms, measurements and studies of biological and chemical pollutants in water bodies containing fish, and of pollutants emitted into the environment. This monitoring is carried out in the Fishery Service’s ponds. It also controls the epizootic condition of ponds, and carries out the treatment of fish and fish disease prevention measures. Furthermore, this subdivision carries out research required for the production, storage and incubation of fish and other aquatic organisms. This work is needed for the prevention of fish diseases and other types of biological hazards.

Project activities help preservation of stocks Although the Fisheries Service has sufficient human resources and great efforts are made to achieve all its strategic aims, implementing these activities successfully also calls for adequate financing.

Since the level of national funding does not fully cover this, the Fisheries Service prepares projects for EU support.

The Fishery Service prepared and now implements four projects, which are funded by the European Fisheries Fund and by the national budget. The first project “Implementation of European Eel Management Plan in Lithuania” contributes to the restoration of eel stocks in Lithuania and to securing the habitat of European eels.

The main activities of this project are replenishing state water bodies with European eels and to carry out monitoring and research in this area. Another project is to reconstruct and adapt the Fisheries Service building to accommodate a marine fisheries and aquaculture laboratory, while a third will invest in the subdivisions of the Fisheries Service. The implementation of these projects will contribute to more competitive fisheries sector and will promote better management and preservation of fisheries stocks, improve working conditions and also promote more productive partnership between scientists and the fisheries sector. The fourth project will build fish passes next to dams on the .

Kražante and Sausdravas Rivers and will reconstruct a fish pass on the Vilnia River. By contributing to the improvement of the water environment in these rivers this project will protect and develop the fauna and flora in inland waters.

State institutions need to adapt to the rapidly changing environment to become more competitive.

Specialists in government departments should be fully familiar with information flows and new technologies. This is the main reason for raising specialists’ qualification in all areas. The Fisheries Service is investing in training to improve the qualifications of its employees.

The objective of the project is to improve administrative employees’ abilities so as to better achieve the Fisheries Service’s strategic goals.

Domestic and international collaboration Partnership projects are promoted because they help to solve problems relevant, for example, to both fisheries and environmental protection.

Cooperation between partners with different competencies and experience contribute to achieving complex results with sustained benefits.

The Fisheries Service, together with Klaipeda University and other partners is carrying out the LIFE+ project “Inventory of Marine Habitats and Species for the Development of the NATURA 2000 Network in the Lithuanian Exclusive Economic Zone of the Baltic Sea”. The main goal is to evaluate marine habitats’ fish and sea bird diversity and distribution in the Lithuanian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Baltic Sea. The Fisheries Service will analyse data from the EEZ regarding fish distribution, as well as quantitative and biological parameters, in particular for Twaite shad and the whitefish population.

Fisheries connect many countries directly. If fish resources decrease in one country it can have an affect in others. Improving the fishery environment is necessary at the national, regional, and international level. Currently the Fisheries Service is preparing an application for a project to rehabilitate the Baltic Sea sturgeon which is supported by the financial instrument “Seed Money”. The aim of this project is to conduct a pilot study for the Baltic Sea sturgeon rehabilitation in six countries (Germany, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, and Kaliningrad Oblast). The study will be the first step in preparing an international Baltic Sea Sturgeon restocking programme.

Vytautas Grušauskas, Director, Vytautas.Grusauskas@zuv.lt and Indre Šidlauskiene, Head of International Affairs and Market Division, Indre.Sidlauskiene@zuv.lt www.eurofishmagazine.com

D ATE S DIARY DATES 1-3 October, 2013 Conxemar 2013 Vigo, Spain Tel.: +34 986 433351 Fax: +34 986 221174 conxemar@conxemar.com www.conxemar.com

5- 7 November, 2013 China Fisheries & Seafood Expo 2013 Dalian, China Tel.: +86 10 58672620 Fax: +86 10 58672600 info@seafarechina.com www.seafarechina.com

5-9 October, 2013 Anuga Cologne, Germany Tel.: +49 221 821-2240 Fax + 49 221 821-993410 anuga@koelnmesse.de www.anuga.com

7-9 November, 2013 EXPO PESCA & ACUIPERU

7-11 October, 2013 Agroprodmash Moscow, Russian Federation Tel.: +7 (499) 795 3799 Fax: +7 (495) 205 7210 centr@expocentr.ru www.agroprodmash-expo.ru/en

21-23 November, 2013

9-11 October, 2013 DanFish Aalborg, Denmark Tel.: +45 99 35 55 55 info@akkc.dk www.danfish.com 10-12 October, 2013 Shanghai International Fisheries & Seafood Expo 2013 Shanghai, China Tel.: +86 21 67759097 Fax: +86 21 64516467 lewis.liu@gehuaexpo.com www.sifse.com

22-24 October, 2013 Seafood Barcelona Barcelona, Spain Tel.: +1 207 842 5504 customerservice@divcom.com www.seafoodbarcelona.com

Lima, Peru Tel.: +511 201 7820 (202) Fax: +511 201 7820 (209) thais@amauta.rcp.net.pe www.thaiscorp.com

Busan Int. Seafood & Fisheries Expo Busan, Korea Tel.: +82 51 7407518 Fax: +82 51 7407360 bisfe@bexco.co.kr www.bisfe.com 10-13 December, 2013 Asian-Pacific Aquaculture Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tel.: +1 760 751 5005 worldaqua@aol.com www.was.org 9-11 February, 2014 Fish International Bremen, Germany Tel.: +49 421 3505 260 Fax: +49 421 3505 681 info@fishinternational.de www.fishinternational.de

16-18 March 2012 Boston Seafood Show Boston, USA Tel.: +1 207 842 5504 food@divcom.co www.bostonseafood.com 31 March – 3 April, 2014 Alimentaria 2014 Barcelona, Spain Tel.: +34 93 452 10 39 alimentaria-bcn@alimentaria.com www.alimentaria-bcn.com 9-11 April, 2014 Offshore Mariculture 2014 Napoli, Italy Tel.: +44 1329 825335 iroberts@mercatormedia.com www.offshoremariculture.com

5-7 May 2014 European Seafood Exposition Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +1 207 842 5504 food@divcom.com www.euroseafood.com 7-11 June, 2014 World Aquaculture 2014 Adelaide, Australia www.was.org 25-27 September 2014 Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition 2014 Smarin, Kopavogur, Iceland Tel.: +44 1329 825335 mrasmussen@mercatormedia.com www.icefish.is

5-7 March 2013 North Atlantic Seafood Forum Bergen, Norway www.nor-seafood.com

14-17 October, 2014 Aquaculture Europe 2014 San Sebastian, Spain www.was.org

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

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Interview with Mr Helir-Valdor Seeder, Minister of Agriculture, Estonia

The sustainability of our fishery activities will ensure a future for our fishers Parliamentary elections in March 2011 returned Mr Helir-Valdor Seeder’s party, Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, to power as part of the governing coalition, and Mr Seeder was appointed to his second term as Estonia’s Minister of Agriculture. Mr Seeder is highly satisfied with the emphasis on sustainability in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy as Estonia long ago recognised that without it there will be no fishery in the long run. The reformed Common Fisheries Policy and the new instrument, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, that will help countries implement the new policy are both due to be introduced in 2014.

Since the parliamentary elections in March 2011 you have continued as Minister of Agriculture.

What have been your priorities for fisheries and aquaculture and what changes have you introduced in your second term?

small scale fisheries, the discard ban, better framework for aquaculture, new marketing standards, etc.) do you feel are beneficial to the Estonian fisheries and aquaculture sector and why?

As national politicians our everyday life is influenced by the domestic electoral cycle, but for subjects where the broad policy goals are set at the EU level we take our directions from the EU. At the national elections in 2011 we deliberately did not set any new priorities, but focused on the period from 2007 to 2013, to make the best use of the opportunities offered, as well as to ensure that as we come to the end it is closed properly, and to focus on the guidelines for the new period. We have done the preparatory work for the new period and the keywords are sustainability of fish stocks as well as sustainability of other activities – fishing, processing, and aquaculture. They are all linked and should be managed coherently.

Estonia strongly supports the fact that sustainability lies at the heart of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Fish stocks need to be preserved, and fishing capacities need to be commensurate with the available resources.

The decision that fish stocks are to be exploited at the level of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by 2015 where possible, and at the latest by 2020 is very encouraging.

MSY has almost been reached in case of internationally regulated species in the Baltic Sea like herring, sprat, and cod, but needs to be enhanced for eel and salmon.

At the same time it is important to ensure the good status of coastal and freshwater species like perch and pike-perch. The recovery of stocks of migratory species, such as salmon and eel, is hindered because of the decrease in spawning areas due to blockages such as dams. It is critical to open up the migratory routes to spawning areas

The Common Fisheries Policy is in the final stages of the reform process. What aspects of the reformed CFP (measures for 64

Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2013

Mr Helir-Valdor Seeder, Minister of Agriculture, says Estonia strongly supports the fact the sustainability is at the core of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy.

in important rivers and to restore the spawning areas. Where necessary multi-annual plans for fishery management should be developed.

Estonia recognises the need to preserve biodiversity and implements a restocking programme, where juveniles of endangered and commercial species are farmed and then introduced into water bodies.

For Estonia it is also important that the reform package supports that the monitoring of stocks is based on scientific analysis and advice, while political and economic arguments are held at bay.

Another very important aspect of the fisheries reform is the prohibition of discards. This should www.eurofishmagazine.com

GUEST PAGES

lead to the development of selective catching methods and gears, and to ways of utilising unwanted catches. In addition, illegal fishing should be combated with effective supervision as well as the dissemination of information to the public about sustainable fishing.

The reform discussion unfortunately did not lead to widespread adoption of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs), a system that Estonia has used since 2001, and one which has helped very effectively to balance the fishing opportunities with capacity and increased the profitability of fishing companies. The proposal to abolish the vessel register ceiling in those segments that use the ITQ system was also shelved. This would have reduced the administrative effort involved in the vessel registry and fishing companies would have had the possibility to develop the fleet without public finance.

Of course aquaculture is important in Europe and in Estonia. But in Estonia, compared to capture fishing, aquaculture is quite small. We would like to see developments in the new period, but the developments would not be so much in amounts, but more in quality. New and existing fish farms should be encouraged to use innovative technologies that are sustainable and environmentally friendly, such as recirculation systems. We have a special aquaculture strategy that will probably be approved by the ministry this autumn, and that will set the main guidelines for the developments in this sector.

For Estonia it is important that the consumer gets clear and unambiguous information on seafood packaging so as to be able to make informed choices. Proper information in labels increases trust in seafood products and inform the www.eurofishmagazine.com

consumer, for example, whether the product has been defrosted. It was disappointing that the Commission’s proposal to add the date of catch was not approved in the European Parliament. Instead, information on the type of gear, which we think is irrelevant for most consumers, was proposed for the labelling, which in addition to being of dubious value adds to the administrative burden as it needs to be monitored.

What is the role of freshwater fishing in the Estonian fisheries economy and how would the government like to see it develop in the future. What measures are being implemented to achieve this goal?

The inland water fishery in Estonia is a small scale fishery that is generally managed sustainably.

Despite the scale, the fishery is very important as a source of income in some rural communities. It is quite rare in Europe to have this kind of commercial fishery in inland waters, so it really needs to be developed further. Because it is a small scale sustainable fishery it is most important that it has the same compensation rates for support that are used for fisheries in coastal waters. Additionally, Estonia can see several advantages in the fishermen not selling the fish directly from the boat, but making some added value products.

But of course to reach this goal, cooperation between the different fishermen is essential. It does not make sense for each fisher to own a processing unit. It would be more effective for them to process the fish in cooperation, generating larger volumes, increasing their bargaining power, and earning larger profits. There is no lack of technical and economical advice from the administration, nor are their legal hindrances to forming

The inland fishery may be on a small scale, but is an important source of income among some rural communitites. The ministry intends to encourage fishers to add more value to the fish rather than selling it directly.

Producer Organisations (POs), it is a question of cooperation amongst the fishers. In this period of the EFF there was no support for the formation of freshwater fishery POs, but in the next period it is going to change and we hope it will encourage the formation of freshwater fisheries POs. Estonia would also like to see possibilities to support investment in fisheries that do not use vessels directly, like the ice fishery.

What are your expectations of the successor to the European Fisheries Fund, the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund which will help implement the reformed Common Fisheries Policy.

For Estonia is very important that the Member States can continue with the policy of Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) using the same groups and the same areas even if there are changes in the FLAGs’ priorities. The present draft supports this, although we would like to see that more clearly formulated in the text. We do not support the rearrangement of the groups.

Another aspect important for Estonia is the simplification of administration of the EMFF. It should not involve a higher administrative burden for the fisheries sector or the administration. The timetable for the EMFF is unrealistic as it counts on Member States determining the support available in the beginning of 2014 when funding from the EMFF should be made available also for supervisory and data collecting activities.

The Producer Organisations have stabilised the sector by intervening in crisis situations, such as when markets cannot offer a fair price for the fish. Estonia supported the Commission’s draft on the Common Market Organisation and would like to see POs open membership to companies from other countries to facilitate international cooperation.

Estonia would also like to see storage aid continue in the next period (2014-2020) as this is the only measure that can be put into action immediately when a market failure occurs, but the present draft of the CMO stipulates that storage aid will be phased out by 2018.

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