Conxemar, 4-6 October 2022, Vigo

Greater attendee numbers than ever before

The twenty-third edition of the Conxemar International Frozen Seafood Fair in Vigo, Spain was an unqualifi ed success. During the three days of the show over 26,000 people from more than 100 countries attended the exhibition. Th e fair is an important event for the seafood sector involving wholesalers, importers, exporters, manufacturers, and many others who present and promote their latest products and services.

Innovative products from the sector

During the three days of the fair visitors had the opportunities to try numerous delicacies such as the jamon del mar or sea ham, a product made with almadraba tuna. Almadraba is a traditional way of catching bluefi n tuna using a complex arrangement of nets off the coast of Andalucia. Th e innovative idea of the sea ham is to share the texture and shape of an Iberian ham. Th e ham was presented by the company Almadraba by Petaca Chico from Cadiz in the south of Spain. Th e company is planning to market the product very soon.

From the Basque Country the company Kofradia attended the fair promoting a high-quality fi sh soup, fi sh pudding, and fi sh burgers made from Albacore tuna. Th e advantage of these products is that they can be prepared in less than two minutes. Th e group is working closely with small-scale fi shers from the Basque Country to bring consumers closer to the sector, and to value products made from species like conger and albacore tuna and encourage their consumption.

Th e Spanish group Nueva Pescanova promoted the sustainability of their fi shing and aquaculture activities and off ered high quality and healthy products. Innovative products such as the three

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Conxemar is the place to be to follow trends in product development particularly in southern Europe.

varieties of la pasta del mar with salmon, cod and hake with cuttlefish ink have been introduced on markets in Spain and the US. The pasta represent an innovative way of selling fish and promoting the consumption of healthier protein.

Producer associations report on their sectors

Associations of producers from different countries were present at the fair and informed visitors about the current status of the sectors they represented. The National Association of Manufacturers of Cod and Salted Fish (ANFABASA) from Spain spoke about the importance of cod consumption in the country. The association is currently working on innovative ways to promote the regular consumption of cod in Spanish families rather than just on the main holidays. To encourage this the association offered visitors a free cookbook with recipes for cod cooked in various ways.

Propeixe is a Portuguese organisation of fishing producers specifically for sardine seine fishing established in the port of Matosinhos. The representatives of the group shared the challenges that they were facing due to the ban on sardine fishing of the last years. However, they said the situation is slowly getting better, and they hoped it would improve even further in the near future enabling them to catch larger volumes of sardine.

Generally, the problems faced by many of the companies present at the fair were related to the increasing transportation costs as well the prices of raw material and the price of the dollar. An example was provided by the company Manet from Barcelona which specialises in trading frozen and fresh seafood products. They are currently experiencing difficulties with cephalopods due to the impacts generated by the Russian-Ukraine war. In fact, due to the increase in prices, they are importing more cephalopods from India and are paying higher prices compared to those for Moroccan product which is also becoming more and more expensive.

Seventeen international pavilions, among them Peru, Portugal and Ecuador, attended the fair providing important platforms for their associations of producers to exhibit and promote their products. The Ministero delle Politeche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali from Italy, attended the exhibition for the first time and made a series of presentations including a talk about the trade in frozen seafood products in Italy with focus on octopus and tuna. Attendees also had the opportunity to try a delicious tuna carbonara from an Italian chef among other delicacies prepared during the three days of the exhibition.

The international Conxemar-FAO congress

On Monday, 3 October, the day before the opening of the fair, Conxemar and FAO organised the tenth congress on seafood. The congress focused on the current and future challenges facing seafood processing and trading. During the day, roundtables, and presentations focused on economics, transport, logistics and on the production of important species. The discussion also focused on the future challenges for the fishing industry after a global pandemic and on the current complicated context of inflation, and high costs for the industry.

Francesca Barazzetta, Eurofish, francesca.barazzetta@eurofish.dk