Eurofish Magazine 2 2009

ISSN 1020-9956 April 2 / 2009 C 44346

FISH INFOnetwork

Inching towards compliance with EU regulations

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The Netherlands: Challenging times for marine fisheries

Krill: Small crustaceans with big potential

Technology: Caviar farmed in Latvia with Russian expertise

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Crustaceans

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packaging

Salmon slicers

Smoked salmon

Styropor® ( polystyrene ) compressors

Wire ropes

TransportSALMCO Technik GmbHReinskamp 1D-22117 HamburgTel.: +49-40-713 14 72Fax : +49-40-712 98 70Internet: www.salmco.deE-Mail: [email protected]

SALMON SLICER... worldwideR. MAASS + PARTNER GMBH

Röntgenstrasse 12D-21493 SchwarzenbekTel.: +49 41 51 / 866 955Fax: +49 41 51 / 867 188www.maass-slicers.de

D-27472 CUXHAVENGrodener Chaussee 61Telefon 0 47 21 / 208-0

Telefax 0 47 21 /208-100

FRANKFURT / MAIN-AIRPORTGebäude 456 A, Raum Nr. 3435

Telefon 0 69 / 69 76 76-30Telefax 0 69 / 69 76 76-50

Can opening machines

Insulated Containers

Frozen seafood specialties

Hamburger Feinfrost GmbH - Frozen Quality ProductsGr. Elbstrasse 158 - 22767 Hamburg

Tel.: +49 (40) 39 92 92-0, Fax: +49 (40) 39 92 92 39E-Mail: [email protected] - www.hafro.de

The fastest way to advertise in Eurofish Magazine

ISSN 1020-9956

April 2 / 2009 C 44346

FISH INFOnetwork

Inching towards compliance

with EU regulations

Croatia

The Netherlands: Challenging times for marine fi sheries

Krill: Small crustaceans with big potentialTechnology: Caviar farmed in Latvia with Russian expertise

Eckhard PreußMarderstieg 7, D-21717 Fredenbeck, Germany

Phone +49 (0) 41 49 / 80 20, Fax +49 (0) 41 49 / 72 92

E-Mail: [email protected]

Aleksandra Petersen, Eurofish MagazineH.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46, DK-1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark

Phone +45 333 777 63, Fax +45 333 777 56


Ristic AGAm Espen 15, D-90559 OberferriedenTel.: 0 91 83 / 40 90, Fax: 0 91 83 / 4 09 49Web: www.ristic.com, E-Mail: [email protected]

Visit us at the European Seafood Exposition

Hall 5 / Booth 639

28. – 30. April 2009, Brussels

Eurofish Magazine2/2009 �

North Atlantic Seafood Forum – The North Atlantic Seafood Forum opened on 4 March amidst the resounding shocks of the financial crisis. This forum provided one of the first opportunities to take the pulse of the north Atlantic fishing industry since the collapse of the financial markets and the onset of the recession. With 470 delegates from 20 countries and every link in the cold-water seafood production chain represented, from production to processing, marketing, retail, and finance the event has clearly established itself as the pre-mium event for the sector. Director Jorgen Lund said, “we’re delighted with such a big attendance at a difficult time, proving the usefulness of this unique event – and we have some great ideas for making NASF 2010 even better.” The date of the next Forum is 3-4 March 2010.

Page 16

Croatia – Croatia’s natural beauty is staggering. The country’s mountainous interior, extended coastline, and pleasant weather together with its charming town centres and fishing villages have made it a magnet for tourists from all over the world. The Croatian mainland has a coast almost 1,800 km long, but this amounts to just 30% of the total coastline; a further 4,000 km of coastline comes from the roughly 1,200 Croatian islands in the Adriatic, of which 47 are inhabited. According to the 2001 census the biggest, Krk, has about 18,000 in-habitants while the smallest, Sveti Andrija, has just 1! Croatia is also richly en-dowed with freshwater with 3,650 km of rivers and a further 100 square km of lakes.

Page 28

The Netherlands – The production sector is made up of four main sectors in the Netherlands: marine fisheries, the mussel sector, aquaculture and inland fisheries. Marine fisheries are composed of two very different fleet segments. The first fleet, called high sea fisheries, mostly targets small pelagic fish all over the Atlantic (from Norway to West Africa) and is made up of a few (between 10 and 15) very large fishing units. Catches, as is often the case in the small pelag-ics industry, fluctuate steeply from year to year, and dominate the share of the total Dutch production in volume though not in value.

Page 50

Krill – There were once great hopes for krill, the tiny shrimp-like marine crus-taceans. Their biomass in the world’s oceans was estimated at over one billion tonnes. That would have enabled commercial utilisation on a large scale. To-day, we know that these estimates were exaggerated. And krill will have to be used carefully because the tiny crustaceans play a key role in the ecosystems of the Antarctic. Even if there isn’t a billion tonnes, krill biomass in the Antarc-tic Ocean is still immense. Recent estimates reckon that there are between 60 and 155 million tonnes of krill in the icy waters of the South Polar Sea. Large swarms can extend over an area of 450 square kilometres (equal to the area of the Pyrenean state Andorra) and have a biomass of two million tonnes.

Page 78

North Atlantic Seafood ForumBusiness as usual ?

In this Issue

Contents Eurofish around the world Contents

Croatia

28 CroatianfisheriesandaquacultureInching towards compliance with EU regulations

34 RibnjacarstvoPoljanaPlans to add value to carp and eel-products

37 KaliTunaOne of the earliest tuna farms in the Mediterranean

40 CenmarjoinsupwithfourothercompaniesGoing for growth through mergers

44 AdriaOctopusTrading in fresh fish not for the faint-hearted

46 Ostrea’snew7,500sq.mprocessingfacilityAll production activities to shift under one roof

48 LustramanufacturesforthelocalmarketKeeping Croatian traditions alive

News 6 International News

Events 16 NorthAtlanticSeafoodForum

Business as usual for the north east Atlantic industry ?

24 SeafoodandHealthConference,LondonNew evidence proves that seafood consumption guarantees good health

Lobster 74 Part6–LobsterfromCanada

Markets, marketing and consumption

Fisheries 78 Antarctickrill

Small crustaceans with big potential

Processing/Technology 80 Mottra

Caviar farmed in Latvia with Russian expertise

81 BastraGish smoking technology for small trade and industry

82 Sunwell’sDeepchilliceisinusearoundtheworldLiquid ice cools rapidly, evenly and effectively

Contents Eurofish around the world Contents

TheNetherlands

50 SeafoodconsumptionintheNetherlandsincreasingChallenging times for Dutch marine fisheries

56 AnovaFoodlaunchesanewfarmedfishcalledclaresseRange of sustainable products

60 DayseadayoptsforairtransportandfrozenfishDay-fresh from the auction–non-drip onto the plane

64 EcoFuturagrowstomatoeswithtilapiaHorticulture linked with aquaculture

66 ThreecompaniesmergetocreateFishPartnersKennemervis Group changes its structure

68 SeafishwholesalerKarelHoevecelebratessilverjubileeFresh fish from all over the world

70 RodéVisstartsworkinnewsmokehouseSalmon specialist increases product and packaging variety

72 VariaVismainlyservestheexportmarketFresh hand cut plaice fillets

83 MultivacNew generation of traysealers emphasise sanitary design

84 HandtmannCreative fish products for sustained success

84 KromaNew filleting machine

Trade+Markets 85 GlutlowerspricesinDecember

Tuna prices slowly recovering 87 Hugeincreaseinexports

toRussiaandUkraineVietnamese pangasius still growing strongly

FishInfonetworkNews 88 Member Country News 88 Projects

Service 91 Diary Dates 92 Imprint 92 List of Advertisers 93 Supply Sources

� Eurofish Magazine2/2009

[ intErnational nEws ]

The first two months of 2009 have seen substantial increases in the value of Norwegian exports of salmon, trout, herring and mack-erel while exports of cod have de-clined. Export values of salmon reached NOK3bn (EUR338m), an increase due to higher prices, while volumes remained stable. Increases were seen in exports to France, Poland and Sweden, while exports to Denmark and the UK fell. Over the same pe-riod exports of trout increased by NOK63m to reach NOK293m. Russia and Japan were the main importers of Norwegian trout. Herring exports jumped al-most 25% in value increasing by NOK238m to NOK1.2bn. Here too Russia was the main destination. Exports of cod declined however from NOK1.1bn to NOK900m with salt cod, whole frozen fish, and frozen fillets all decreasing. Salted cod fell both in volumes and in price, while frozen cod sank in price.

Norway: Seafood exports up in the first two months of the year

The Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands in the north Atlantic are home to about 50.000 inhab-itants. Their closest neighbours are in the Shetland islands some 300 km away, and to reach Denmark, within which the Faroe Islands are a self governing community, is a 1,500 km journey. Such a remote location does however have its advantages, in par-ticular, if you are a supplier of bunkering services. O.W. Icebunker Ltd., owned by O.W. Bunker & Trad-ing Co. one of the worlds largest suppliers and trad-ers of marine fuels, has in coorporation with P/F Faroe Bunkers, established a new purpose-built tank storage facility in Fuglefjord on the Faroe Is-lands . The new facility which went on stream in August last year can be approached from both north and south, and, according to O.W. Icebunker, is the only point north of 60 deg N, where low sul-phur heavy fuel oil can be loaded. It is also the last

stop before entering the North Sea Emission Control Area (ECA), where the sulphur content of fuels oils on board ships is limited to 1.5% by mass unless the vessel has an exhaust gas cleaning system or some other mechanism in place to limit sulphur ox-ide emissions. The facility seeks to serve east-west liner trades, north-south traffic along the Norwegian coast and the North Atlantic fishing fleet and can offer products ranging from LS and HS IFO 380 cst to marine gas oil. Also available are precisely customized products as the company has the latest in blending equipment and can deliver to any speci-fications. Fuglefjord´s natural harbour also makes it the finest bunkering port within the Faroes. Shel-tered from the open sea, the port is free from rocks and with just a short distance to the berth, it makes for safe bunkering 24/7 all year round. OWI offers service ex-pipe but can also deliver physical sup-plies offshore by barge. In addition, the port of Fuglefjord offers all services related to the shipping and fishing industry, which makes it an attractive “One Stop Shop” in the middle of the North Atlantic.

The new terminal can currently accept vessels of 200 meters loa and with a draft of upto 12 meters. All inquiries should be directed to OW Icebunker´s 24-hour inquiry line +45 7020 4049 or write to [email protected]

Denmark: Purpose-built bunkering facility offers a wide range of services

O.W. Icebunker’s tanker Otilia discharging at the company’s new terminal in Fuglefjord, Faroe Islands.

SC_adv_Eurofish_LC.indd 1 23-03-2009 10:34:54

� Eurofish Magazine2/2009


Some of the major negative environmental and economic impacts of shrimp fisheries such as bycatch, seabed destruction, and overfishing can be mitigated by reducing fishing capacity, states a new FAO report on shrimp fisheries. The report is based on studies of shrimp fish-eries in ten countries Australia, Cambodia, In-donesia, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States. Global production of capture and farmed shrimp amounts to some six million tonnes of which 60% enters the international

market. Over 100 countries export shrimp in particular to the biggest markets in the US, EU and Japan. Shrimp fishing is an important source of income to poor families around the world, but it is also responsible for the capture of juveniles of vulnerable, ecologically impor-tant, or commercially valuable species, as well as for coastal habitat destruction. Promoting sustainable fishery regimes, reducing capacity and addressing the issue of open access will go a considerable way towards improving the long term prospects of shrimp fisheries.

Italy: FAO report calls for better management of shrimp fisheries

Aqua Bounty Technologies headquar-tered in Waltham, Massachussetts, USA, a biotechnology company focused on the aquaculture industry, is developing geneti-cally modified salmon that grow faster than conventional fish. This development will be of major interest to salmon farmers as it reduces the period that it takes to grow a market sized fish. The fish, according to the company, are bred sterile so that they cannot interbreed with conventional fish. In the United States the Food and Drug Administration which is responsible for regulating the safety of food on the mar-ket issued its final guidelines on regulating genetically-engineered animals in January. The Guidelines call for manufactures to demonstrate that the modification does not compromise the health of the animal nor the health of the consumer if the animal is intended as food. With the release of the Guidelines genetically engineered animals can soon be marketed to consumers in the United States and news reports say that Aqua Bounty Technologies which sought approval for its salmon many years ago may soon get the nod from the FDA.

USA: Genetically modified salmon approaching market ?

The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), an international non-profit association, is dedi-cated to the promotion of responsible aqua-culture by developing standards that cover food safety, traceability, animal welfare, community and social welfare, and environ-mental sustainability. The organisation’s Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) certifica-tion standards have so far been developed for shrimp farms and hatcheries, tilapia farms, and channel catfish farms and processing facilities, and are now being extended to the salmon farming sector. The GAA is cur-rently inviting nominations to serve on the BAP salmon farm technical committee. The

committee will represent a balance of varied stakeholders from regional industry associa-tions, conservation or social justice non-gov-ernmental organizations, and academic or regulatory groups and nominees should have with technical expertise in salmon aquacul-ture and/or experience with current environ-mental and social issues that relate to salmon farming around the world. The committee will draft standards for salmon farms which will be reviewed by the Standards Oversight Committee before being released for pub-lic comment. Nominations can be emailed to BAP committee chairman John Forster, [email protected].

USA: GAA to develop standards for salmon farming

Refuel in the Faroes,sheltered from the open sea

There’s a convenient new refueling station at the crossroads of the NorthAtlantic. OW Faroe Islands is open for business and our supply facility inFuglefjord lies sheltered from the open sea. It’s your last port of call forheavy fuel before entering the Norwegian Sea—and the last stop for low-sulphur fuel before entering the North Sea SECA. OW Icebunker has thedifferent grades and quantities of marine fuels you need, all backed by ourtraditional guarantee of quality.

New–Physical supply in Fuglefjord

Physical Supply · Global Trading · Risk Management

www.ow icebunke r.com

10 Eurofish Magazine2/2009


Please visit us:

SPE Brussels

28. - 30. April 2009

Hall 4 · Booth 6063

Around 145 visitors from 20 dif-ferent countries attended the event together with participants from Marel Food Systems depart-ments from all over the world. It

was a unique opportunity to see five different salmon processing lines at work. In total 50 stand-ard machines were on display. An interesting machine was the

updated version of the Intelli-gent Trimming Machine (ITM). It has been on the market for the last five years and has been con-tinuously improved. The newest

version can be equipped with an extra camera that enables 3D pictures of the single fillet. As a consequence, there are unique trimming possibilities to calculat-

Denmark: Five different salmon processing lines displayed at the Marel Salmon Show 2009

Eurofish Magazine2/2009 11


ing the most economic cut con-figuration based on parameters such as weight, shape, and colour grade. The current machine has a processing capacity of 40 fillets per minute, equivalent to 6 con-ventional trimmers. A complete trimming with an ITM machine needs 5 operators to function: one at the de-heading machine, two at the pre-checking station and two at the post-trimming station. The biggest advantage of this machine is the steady and uniform quality it delivers.

With a spare set of knives for the ITM the daily downtime for main-tenance is reduced to two minutes when the knives have to be re-placed. The ITM machine needs a general service check around twice a year and software prob-lems, if any, can be solved remote-ly by Marel from Iceland. Most of the ITM- machines are at currently sold in Norway and Chile. Another novelty product was the Innova – intelligent production control systems software which replaces Marel´s MPS, Scanvaegt´s Multi-flex and AEW Delfords´s Mercury production software. The software is able to read, monitor and control online all equipment from Marel Food Systems. Furthermore, it en-ables the management to monitor and optimise all activities from the reception of supplies to dispatch

and delivery of information to an external enterprise resource plan-ning (ERP) system. The software is modular starting with a basic

package that is expandable with modules according to demand. In-nova handles traceability through out the production and quality as-surance inspections can be imple-mented and related to the tracea-ble batches. If Marel Food Systems could provide Innova modules that also could monitor process-ing equipment from other vendors

it would be an even stronger soft-ware package. The Marel Salmon Show gave the participants oppor-tunities to see live demonstrations of the newest salmon processing equipment, but also to meet and exchange experiences and views with colleagues from the salmon processing industry from all over the world.

Organizer: The Nor-Fishing FoundationKlostergata 90, NO-7030 Trondheim, Tel +47 73 56 86 40, Fax +47 73 56 86 41, [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL AQUACULTURE

BIOSECURITY CONFERENCE17-18 AUGUST 2009

www.iabconference.org

CONFERENSE AND ANNUAL MEETING OF THEEUROPEAN ACUACULTURE SOCIETY14-17 AUGUST 2009www.easonline.org

1 9 7 9 - 2 0 0 9

30 YEARSfor aquaculture industry

AQUA NOR - The important international venue for the aquaculture industry through a period of 30 years.

At Aqua Nor 2009 a large number of exhibitors will introduce novelties in the fields of research, technology, fish feed, fish health, training, funding, environmental protection etc.

In connection with Aqua Nor, international conferences will discuss progress and challenges in research and aquaculture.

Welcome to Aqua Nor 2009as exhibitor, visitor or as conference participant.

more at: www.nor-fishing.no

AQUA NORInternational Exhibition18 - 21 August 2009 Trondheim Nor way

2009

The Marel Salmon Show gave opportunities to meet and exchange experiences and views with colleagues from all over the world.



Germany will propose that the spurdog or spiny dogfish (Squa-lus acanthias) and the porbeagle sharks (Lamna nasus) be in-cluded in Annex II of the CITES convention. The two species are highly prized for their meat and fins, and stocks, according to the NGO OCeana, have declined by over 95% for the spurdog and by over 80% for the porbeagle. An-nex II of the CITES convention governs species that are at risk of extinction if the trade in the spe-

cies is not strictly regulated. Using a mechanism of export permits trade is limited to levels that are deemed not to jeopardise the survival of the species. As both these sharks are widely traded in-ternationally inclusion on Annex II will have a significant impact. However, the Annex II listing to be proposed by Germany has to be approved by the European Commission before it is present-ed to the CITES Conference of the Parties in 2010.

Germany: Spurdog and porbeagle sharks proposed for CITES protection

The latest edition of the State of World Fisheries and Aquacul-ture (SOFIA) was released by the FAO at the Committee of Fisher-ies (COFI) meeting held in Rome on 2-6 March. The new edition highlights the need for authorities to do more to understand and prepare for the impact of climate change on fisheries production. Climate change is already causing changes in distribution patterns of both marine and freshwater species and is affecting the sea-sonality of biological processes and altering marine and fresh-water food webs with unpredict-able conequences for fisheries production. For authorities and administrators the good news is that the effects of global warming

can be substantially mitigated if existing guidelines on responsible fisheries, such as those issued by the FAO, were more widely im-plemented. The report also points out that capture fisheries produc-tion will probably increase no further and any future growth in production will come only from aquaculture, which has risen to 47% of all food fish.

The reports states that trade in fish and seafood is a global activity involving over 190 countries. The value of global exports in 2006 was USD89.6bn and available data suggest that this figure will rise to USD92bn in 2007. China is the world’s biggest exporter of fish and seafood by a significant

Italy: Good management practices to mitigate effects of climate change

margin, exporting for a value of USD9bn in 2006 and USD9.3bn in 2007. The main importers of fish and seafood are Japan, the US and the EU which in 2006 accounted

for 72% of the total import value of USD89.6bn.

The report is freely available from the FAO website www.fao.org.

WE HAVE THE PERFECT FISH SEASONING. ALL YOU NEED TO DO NOW IS TAKE A BITE. IT WON‘T BE LONG BEFORE YOU‘RE HOOKED.

ESE Brussels28. - 30.4.

Stand 4049 Hall 9

Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS) is considered one of the most serious threats to freshwater and marine fish. In 2005 and 2006 the virus indiscriminately infected thousands of individuals from tens of species in the North American Great Lakes killing the majority while sparing some. The virus was first identified in Europe in the 1930s and continues to affect Euro-pean trout farms. In Denmark the government has plans to eradicate the disease completely and has al-located EUR2.14m (DKK16m) for the purpose to the first phase of

the project. The programme will be co-financed by the European Fisheries Fund. Losses caused by the disease are considerable as the stock is reduced, production is stopped, the remaining fish is sold at lower prices and the farmer has additional expenses in combat-ing the disease. Eliminating the disease altogether will bring ben-efits to the trout farming industry as much of the production is ex-ported and importers have strict health and sanitary requirements that have to be fulfilled by the exporters.

Denmark: Multi-phase programme to eradicate VHS

The North Sea Regional Advi-sory Council (NSRAC) whose membership includes Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK has heavily criticised a new Control Regula-tion emerging from the European Commission (EC). The Regula-tion was described as a top down approach and was condemned for reducing the margin of toler-ance for weighing catches from 8% to less than 5%. The NSRAC has called the Regulation too prescriptive with complex rules

which are impossible to under-stand and are unenforceable. The NSRAC strongly emphasised achieving a “culture of compli-ance” and the need to involve fishers in designing an effective and equitable system of control at a Symposium on Control and Compliance organised by the NSRAC and the new Community Control Agency in Peterhead in 2008. The Demersal Working Group expressed its concern that these conclusions were not taken on board when formulating the new Regulation.

UK: NSRAC pushes for greater self-regulation

Domstein Longline Partners’ fishery has become the first Nor-wegian cod and haddock fishery and the third Norwegian fishery overall to be certified by the Ma-rine Stewardship Council. The fishery is a partnership between Domstein, located on Maloy, a small fishing village on the west coast of Norway, and Ervik Hav-

fiske, a longline fishing company in Norway that uses only hooks and lines to catch the cod thereby minimising bycatch. The fishery produces some 5,000 tonnes of cod and 5,000 tonnes of haddock and will be available as fillets and loins, fresh and frozen, in Norway, Sweden, UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany and the US.

Norway: Third fishery to be MSC certified



A new website (www.raisaquac-ulture.net) has been established by the Food and Agriculture Or-ganization (FAO) for the Regional Commission for Fisheries (RECOFI) to facilitate the exchange of aqua-culture information in the Gulf area among regional experts and stakeholders, and to promote and develop a sustainable aquaculture industry.

RECOFI member countries (Bah-rain, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) are responsible for the timely data en-

try and validation along with the promotion of the information sys-tem at the national, regional and global level.

RAIS is organized and maintained through a regional and national mechanism: (1) a Regional Centre located in Kuwait City is linked to the FAO in Rome and to the RECOFI Secretariat in Cairo, Egypt; and (2) a National Centre in each RECOFI member country under the super-vision of an officially nominated RAIS National Coordinator. All au-thorized users have the right to directly post new information.

The system has been conceived to be as user-friendly as possible and allows rapid data entry from the administrators and author-ized users and easy data retrieval. Users who want to contribute by submitting new items are kindly requested to contact the RAIS Re-gional Centre or the RAIS National Coordinators. The addresses are available on the website.

Italy: New website on aquaculture in the Gulf area goes live

A study conducted by a group of researchers from the University of British Columbia, the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil, and the WWF Switzerland have analysed fisheries nations’ com-pliance with the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries devel-oped by the FAO. The article has appeared in the journal Nature. The code provides guidelines for the sustainable and equitable ex-ploitation of fisheries resources, but adoption is voluntary. In their

study the researchers investigated 53 countries who together account for 96% of global capture fisher-ies. The study focused on the will to comply with the code and also analysed how efficiently the code is actually complied with. In their final ranking Norway was placed first followed by the US, Canada, Australia, and Iceland. The first EU country to be ranked was Denmark in tenth place, after Na-mibia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Japan.

USA: Norway tops ranking of fishing nations’ compliance with FAO code

The Marine Stewardship Council has decided to shift its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters from Sydney to Tokyo. Rupert Howes, the MSC chief executive, stated in a letter that the move reflected the grow-ing importance of Northern Asia, and Japan in particular, in terms of the number of fisheries that were at some stage in the MSC certification process. Japan is also the world’s second largest producer and

consumer of seafood and retail-ers in the country carry some 150 MSC-certified products. Interest in sustainable seafood is projected to increase in northern Asia and demand for certification services will be better served by moving the regional headquarters to Tokyo. However, the office in Australia will be maintained and strengthened and later in the year a small office will be opened in Hong Kong.

UK: MSC shifts regional headquarters from Sydney to Tokyo

SALMCO Technik GmbH · Hamburg · GermanyTel.: +49 40 713 14 72 · E-Mail: [email protected] · Internet: www.salmco.com

Please visit us:

ESE / SPE Brussels

28 - 30 April 2009

Hall 4, Booth 6155

1� Eurofish Magazine2/2009

The first day was organized as a series of plenary ses-sions covering the salmon

industry and its markets as well as presenting the latest develop-ments in the retail sector. Four parallel seminars were held on the second day. The first focused on fisheries management of sev-eral north Atlantic fish stocks and then moved on to consider the pelagic industry in more detail. The second and third seminars fo-cused on company developments in both aquaculture and fisher-ies and was made up of individ-

ual company presentations. The fourth seminar was dedicated to a Marelife innovation workshop.

Economic crisis offers opportunities as well as threats

Participants were welcomed by the conference chair and Presi-dent of the AIPCE (European As-sociation for Fish processors and Traders) Mr Guus Pastoor. Mr Jørn Krog, Secretary General of the Norwegian Ministry of Fish-eries and Coastal Affairs, then of-

ficially opened the conference by outlining his views on the current crisis that he considered as a mix-ture of threats and opportunities. He pointed out that this crisis was likely to lead to structural changes and would require high adapta-tion capacity and the develop-ment of new ways of thinking. He also reminded participants that responsibility is a prerequisite to economical development, but expressed his confidence in the future of the industry as the po-tential for seafood is, in his view, unlimited.

The floor was then opened to a session devoted to salmon mar-kets and competition.

Dag Sletmo, Head of Research at ABG Sundal Collier presented the outlook for the industry from an investor’s perspective. The main factors affecting the sup-ply side were linked with the disease situation in Chile which will probably lead to a sharp decline in salmon production in 2009. The demand side of the equation seemed to be more un-predictable as the impact of the

North Atlantic Seafood Forum

Business as usual for the north east Atlantic industry ?The North Atlantic Seafood Forum opened on 4 March amidst the resounding shocks of the financial crisis. This forum provided one of the first opportunities to take the pulse of the north Atlantic fishing industry since the collapse of the financial markets and the onset of the recession. With 470 delegates from 20 countries and every link in the coldwater seafood production chain represented, from production to processing, marketing, retail, and finance the event has clearly established itself as the premium event for the sector. Director Jorgen Lund said, “we’re delighted with such a big attendance at a difficult time, proving the usefulness of this unique event – and we have some great ideas for making NASF 2010 even better.” The date of the next Forum is 3-4 March 2010.

events


[ EvEnts ]

crisis on seafood consumption is uncertain.

Sales were reported as stable in volume and growing in value by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council for the first two months of 2009 compared to 2008. So will the reduction of supply lead to higher prices and higher profits for the Norwegian industry or will the rise in price be tempered by lower demand is the question all analysts are pondering currently. Still higher returns would be con-sistent with profit cycle patterns that have affected the industry over the past 30 years.

Reduced volumes of salmon from Chile may benefit Norway

Lars Liabø from Kontali Analyse presented the main trends in terms of production and mar-kets for the salmon industry. In his view Norway in the long run is the only country that could increase production further, the regulatory environment permit-ting. Chile is experiencing pro-duction problems linked with acute diseases outbreaks and hence will experience reduced volumes at least until 2011, while the Faroe Islands are still recover-ing from their disease problems. Other major producing nations (UK, Canada, Ireland and USA) are not expected to manage large increases in production levels.

Markets in EU and Japan have been growing despite the crisis, in

particular thanks to the strength-ening of their respective curren-cies while the US and Russia have shown signs of decline. Demand in the US has fallen despite the strength of the dollar vis à vis the currencies of the major supplying nations while Russian demand

was hit hard by the depreciation of the rouble. All in all, due to the Chilean crisis world harvest of salmon is expected to decline for the first time in 17 years. The impact it will have on the price of salmon will depend on the devel-opment in demand which is cur-

rently hard to predict in this very unstable economic environment.

Paul Aandahl from the Norwegian Seafood Export Council men-tioned that predicting seafood consumption was looking into the future and hence very difficult.

With 470 delegates from 20 countries and every link in the coldwater seafood production chain represented, from production to processing, marketing, retail, and finance, the North Atlantic Seafood Forum has clearly established itself as the premium event for the sector.

Grieg-Hjaltland Advert_Sept 08.indd 1 2/3/09 10:27:46


[ EvEnts ]

Still, over the years, salmon has proved to be a very resilient prod-uct able to adapt over the past three decades to many changes in consumption patterns. In his view there is still very much unrealized potential regarding product dif-ferentiation provided that salmon products are able to fit into the dominating paradigms of today’s markets ie. health, convenience, quality and environment.

Industry could be forced to consolidate

further in Chile

The session on the salmon in-dustry concluded with two pres-entations on the situation of the Chilean industry. Professor Bjørn Hersoug from the Norwegian Col-lege of Fishery Science, exposed the basis for the crisis currently experienced by the Chilean in-dustry, as the result of a combi-nation of underlying production, labour, and ecological issues that will lead to a very sharp drop in production. Productivity is de-clining fast and more than 60 % of the industry is estimated to be affected by the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) disease . The Chil-ean industry is a geographically concentrated industry with most of the production happening in a coastal area 300 km long that has favoured the rapid spread of

the disease. A medium term so-lution could be to move part of the industry to other regions to lower production concentration, but this will be hampered by the extremely complex situation re-garding licenses and siting that can lead to up to five years delay for the creation of a new fish farm. Prof Hersoug expects therefore the drop in production to be as severe as 30% of total volume and

an increase in production costs which will trigger a new wave of consolidation in the sector.

Geir Isaksen, Cermaq CEO, con-firmed the gravity of the situation in Chile. The impact of the sani-tary crisis has not shown itself yet in the statistics as forced harvests have lead to high production vol-umes in 2008. Production figures are also closely linked to previous years smolt releases which has lead to a delayed impact of the cri-sis in terms of production volume. But smolt releases in 2008 were very weak and the total number of fish currently in the pens is

around 58 million down from 152 million last year. On top of that the average size of fish is very much reduced. This will then lead to a record low harvest in 2009 and probably even 2010 as the sanitary situation remains very unstable and all sites have to be fallowed over the next 18 months.

Seafood consumption on even keel so far

The afternoon of the first day was dedicated to the development in the European retail sector. Jonathan Banks from AC Nielsen discussed an overview of the trends affecting the European seafood market. For him four mega trends are currently at play in Europe: ethics, health, con-venience and indulgence are the main characteristics of demand. The impact of the economic cri-sis on the seafood sector remains to be seen as food products and especially fish have proven to be recession resistant commodities. So while the general decline of consumer confidence is evident,

the overall gloom is not yet re-flected in seafood consumption data.

Marks and Spencer, with Andrew Mallison, was the first of the four invited retailers to give his opin-ion on the current market. In his view, consumer confidence is clearly down and the future will be determined by seeing how re-cession proof fish products are. But luxury types of products are likely to be hit first, as growing stocks of Canadian lobsters are already showing. In this climate, Mr Mallison admits that environ-ment concerns have been over-shadowed by economic ones for the consumer, but still a recent poll shows that 75% of consumers think it is as important as ever to do business sustainably in times of economic crisis. Marks and Spencer is renowned for its com-mitment to sustainability and has been careful in neutralizing the impact of its operations on the environment through its strategy called “Plan A”. All environmen-tal efforts carried out under plan A (investments in eco-stores, re-duction in unnecessary packag-ing, optimization of vehicle fleet, rain water usage etc.) have been at least cost neutral and have con-tributed to shaping the image of Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer strategy in these troubled

Bjørn Hersoug, Norwegian College of Fishery Science

Mr Jørn Krog, Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs

Lars Liabø, Kontali Analyse Paul Aandahl, Norwegian Seafood Export Council

Gunnar Domstein, Norway Pelagic

“The impact of the economic crisis remains to be seen as food products and especially fish have proven to be reces-sion resistant commodities.”

North Atlantic Seafood Forum – The speakers


[ north atlantic sEafood forum ]

times is to focus on sustainability as a long term goal and to com-bine this with innovation in terms of products and sales strategies in order to remain close to consum-er needs, which is crucial in reces-sionary times.

Fresh fish sales lower in France,

but not in Germany

Mr Beaufils from Carrefour pre-sented the developments on the French market where fresh fish sales have been declining lately probably due to a reduction in the food budget of households. Still Mr Beaufils insisted that price was not the only criterion to consider as quality remained as important, hence the efforts by Carrefour to develop its own quality line (“Filière qualité Car-refour”).

Mr Pauly from Globus presented the strategy of his chain on the German market, which consists in offering service and knowledge to its seafood customers. All their stores have fresh fish counters served by especially trained per-sonnel which enables them to of-fer the highest standards of serv-

ices. Mr Pauly reported that the impact of the financial crisis had not impacted fish consumption in Germany so far, nor did there seem to be major changes in fish consumption habits.

The market situation in Norway was presented by Vidar Olsen from Norgesgruppen, the larg-est Norwegian retailer, who felt that customers nowadays do not want to buy food as a raw mate-rial, but want to have meal solu-tion at their disposal. In his view it is the responsibility of the in-dustry to serve the retail sector with new products as processors are often not proactive enough in this field.

The panel discussion that ensued after the presentations enabled the audience to question the pre-senters directly. One of the con-

clusions arising from the panel was that consumers tend to trans-fer their responsibility in terms of sustainability to the retailers. Sustainability is indeed reported as an issue difficult to understand for the average customer and they therefore assume that any prod-uct presented by the retail com-

plies with or should comply with sustainable requirements.

On the second day of the forum EUROFISH decided to focus its attention on the fisheries man-agement summit that looked at the outlook for resource and sup-ply in the North Atlantic, as well as on the special pelagic industry session.

Norwegian spring spawning herring

stock in excellent shape

Dr Reidar Thoresen from the Institute of Marine Research, Norway presented the evolution of and interactions between the different stocks in the North East Atlantic over the past 30 years. The main stocks dominating the area were mostly pelagic spe-cies of which Norwegian spring spawning herring, blue whiting, North Sea herring, mackerel and capelin stocks are the most im-portant. The interactions between herring and capelin stocks are key to understand developments of these stocks as these two species predate on one another at various stages of their lifecycles. Another key element to understand vari-ations of the different stocks are the changes in sea temperature. Indeed this is a key element in the abundance of copepods (zoo-

plankton) which form the basis of the food chain. Temperature variations have been negatively affecting the North Sea herring stocks lately while Norwegian spring spawning stock has thrived to reach a total biomass of around 12 million, making it the largest fish stocks of the oceans. To put this enormous amount of bio-mass into perspective Dr Thore-sen pointed out that this repre-sented a volume equivalent to the weight of half of the population of the USA.

To conclude, prospects for the different stocks are positive for Norwegian spring spawning her-ring, negative for the blue whiting and North Sea herring, stable for mackerel, while capelin stocks are likely to experience a high degree of variation.

Will cod make a reappearance on the Grand Banks?

Professor George Rose from Me-morial University Newfoundland, Canada, presented the situation regarding fish stocks from the other side of the Atlantic. He re-minded the audience of the dra-matic collapse of the Grand Banks cod fishery, a collapse probably provoked by excessive fishing pressure applied at a time of poor

Frank Asche, University of Stavanger, Norway

Mike Parker, Food Vest Andrew Mallinson, Marks and Spencer

Jonathan banks, A.C. Nielsen

Jürgen Pauly, Globus Reidar Thoresen, Institute of Marine Research, Norway

“Sustainability is indeed report-ed as an issue difficult to under-stand for the average customer”


[ EvEnts ]

environmental conditions leading to low cod recruitment. He took this case to remind participants that sustainability is first of all bi-ological as without fish no fishery can survive. These poor environ-mental conditions have contin-ued to prevail on the Grand Banks for the past ten years which has prevented cod stocks from recov-ering. But indicators such as tem-perature and abundance of forage species are all turning positive, so scientists are optimistic that cod could return to the Grand Banks. A further encouraging sign has been the observation of the first large aggregation of spawning cod off the Canadian coast since 1992. This leads to numerous questions for the fishing community. Before their collapse the Grand Banks stocks were the largest cod stocks in the world. What then will be the impact of a revival of this stock on the markets if this happens? What toowill be the impact on the shrimp and snow crab stocks and hence on their fisheries that have thrived since the demise of the cod?

The situation of the stocks around Iceland was detailed by Dr Olafur Asthorson from the Ma-rine Research Institute Iceland. Dr Asthorson confirmed the im-pact of temperature variations on different fish stocks around Iceland and Greenland since the beginning of the century. As a rule warmer temperature ben-efited cod stocks while colder temperatures led to a decrease in the abundance of this species in Icelandic waters. But since 1966, when a nearly 30-year-old cold spell ended, temperatures

are rising again which is likely to benefit cod stocks, but will have a negative impact on capelin and shrimp stocks. Since 2005 cod has also been reported with in-creasing frequency in Greenland waters. Dr Asthorson concluded by stressing that while the envi-ronment is the underlying factor for fish stocks development, any benefit derived from changes in environmental conditions such as water temperature, would always be far less than the benefit derived from sustainable management and exploitation of fish stocks.

Wild cod production could increase in 2009

The white fish session was opened by Bernt Bodal from American Seafoods, one of the largest catch-ing companies in the US and one where all managers have onboard fishing experience! The outlook for supply, trade and prices of white fish from the North Atlantic was then detailed by Kolbjørn Giskeø-degård from Nordea. He men-tioned that seafood is recession

resistant to some extent but that there are large variations among seafood products. Since people will always need food but not expensive seafood,high end seg-ments are the hardest hit. Regard-ing species, cod has been expe-riencing decline in consumption over the past few years. Indeed the impact of the financial crisis on its main markets (Spain, Por-tugal and UK) combined with high prices have led to poor demand for cod. Demand for salmon and small pelagics has been stable on the contrary. These developments

were reflected in the stocks of whitefish companies faring badly while stocks of salmon and pelagic producers have been going up. The outlook for 2009 could be better for cod with increased production forecast which could lead to lower prices and renewed interest for this very traditional species on the Eu-ropean market. This in a context of growing scepticism towards cheap Asian whitefish imports acting as potential cod substitutes.

Interest in tilapia and pangasius grows

Frank Asche from the University of Stavanger then went on to describe the development of Vietnamese products on the EU market. In his view, farmed seafood has only started to impact seafood markets. Shrimp and salmon have led the way but pangasius and tilapia are now following in their footsteps. These two species are the first to target the white fish market direct-ly. This market is the largest sea-food market and one that presents a high level of processed products. It is therefore an easy market for new species to penetrate as con-sumer do not place that much focus on species when it comes down to processed products, espe-cially if these new species enter at the lower end of the market.

World production of tilapia is actually higher than pangasius production but a large share of production is consumed locally which reduces the visibility of this species on European markets. On US markets though tilapia is now the third species consumed. The US was forced to find an alterna-tive white fish supply earlier than

the EU as supplies of whitefish were lower there than in the EU.

Regarding pangasius, most of the production is very densely con-centrated in the Mekong delta, increasing the biological risks. The economic crisis has also affected producers in Viet Nam which means that production levels are likely to drop in 2009. But large aquaculture corporations (from Norway among others) are report-ed to be showing increasing interest in this production. The knowledge transfer from the salmon industry could help taking the pangasius in-dustry to the next level and may be considered as the next challenge for the aquaculture sector.

In the short term, the impact of the economic crisis will probably limit the growth in volumes, but in the medium run the combina-tion of low cost and favourable flesh characteristics can still make pangasius a major player on the market. The threat to pangasius could well come from other new species that offer strong potential for development such as barra-mundi or cobia.

Pelagic products may be the most recession proof

The overview of the pelagic in-dustry and markets was started by Gunnar Domstein CEO of Norway Pelagic, one of the largest producers of pelagic for human consumption in the world. Nor-way Pelagic mostly concentrates on the Norwegian spring spawn-ing herring stock which has seen its numbers double since 2003. Mr Domstein’s message was up-

“Any benefit derived from changes in environmental

conditions would always be far less than the benefit derived

from sustainable management”

“Farmed shrimp and salmon have led the way but pangasius

and tilapia are now following in their footsteps.”


[ north atlantic sEafood forum ]

beat as coupled with this increase in production demand does not seem to falter on the main markets. Russian demand re-main strong despite the fact that transactions are now based on cash rather than credit, African demand has never been so good and EU and Japanese demand is reported as stable. The impact of the crisis is therefore not yet felt by the pelagic industry and pe-lagic fish could well be the most recession proof of seafood prod-ucts due to their low price, high availability and health qualities.

This analysis was confirmed by Kristin Lien from the Norwegian Seafood Export Council that reported stable if not increas-ing exports towards the four main markets for Norwegian pelagic products, namely Rus-sia, Ukraine, EU and Nigeria. The outlook for pelagic demand is good in her opinion mostly due to the nutrititive value of pelagic fish combined with the ease with which pelagic products can be adapted to new consumption trends and the benefit of a large traditional consumption base. Ingelill Jacobsen confirmed that the impact of the economic cri-sis has not yet been felt on the Russian market and demand remains strong as herring is one of the main national dishes. The main uncertainty regarding Rus-sian demand is linked with the financial strength of markets actors (not least, the importers) who will be under increasing pressure with the development of the economic crisis.

Mood at the conference generally optimistic

To conclude we can say that the spirits were surprisingly high compared to the gloom that is prevailing in most other industrial sectors. This partly due to the im-

portance of small pelagics for the north Atlantic region, products that may be more recession proof than others due to their low price and healthy reputation. Prob-ably also because the signs for a potential cod recovering in the North Atlantic are good and that

the Norwegian salmon industry is likely to benefit from the Chilean production problems. Last but not least the impact of the economic crisis on the demand for seafood does not seem to have hit major markets yet. Currently the crisis seems to have affected mostly the

high end segments of the markets. Whether this will continue to be the case in the medium term re-mains to be seen. For the time be-ing at least for the seafood sector sourcing from the North Atlantic it is business nearly as usual.

Gilles van de Walle, Eurofish


[ EvEnts ]

This was the message ema-nating from the conference on seafood and health held

at the end of January in Fishmon-gers’ Hall in London. At the con-ference, a distinguished line up of international experts presented the latest medical evidence prov-ing that increased seafood con-sumption is directly linked to the prevention and cure of a whole range of life-threatening diseases, plus conditions such as obesity and depression.

The audience also heard breaking news which confounds the com-mon perception that the choles-terol in shellfish is harmful, and also highlights the role of seafood in satisfying appetite and there-fore combating obesity. ‘This evi-dence has never been presented before outside academic circles,’ said Maldwin Drummond of the Fishmongers’ Company as he welcomed delegates.

Conference delegates were also given the news that the trace ele-ments iodine and selenium, and vitamin D, in fish and shellfish are essential for good health. In fact, after the long chain omega-3 pol-yunsaturated fatty acids (eicosap-entaenoic acid [EPA] and docosa-hexaenoic acid [DHA]), vitamin D

should be recognized as the next big aid in disease prevention.

Aquaculture is the way to increase global

supply of seafood

The use of aquaculture to increase the world’s seafood supply was ac-tively encouraged. ‘There are not enough fish in the world’s oceans to provide the recommended level of EPA and DHA in the diet,’ said Michael Crawford from the

Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London’s Metropolitan University. ‘About 219 million tonnes of fish need to be eaten globally to reach this level, whereas FAO reports annual catches of 94-104 million tonnes, of which a third is fed to animals. ‘We’ve got to think seriously about the “agriculturisation” of the oceans; we’ve got to stop this hunting and gathering non-sense.’ Fish muscle is extremely rich in DHA, Professor Crawford said, and DHA is essential for the brain which is made of fat. Trials

have shown that DHA given to pregnant women resulted in bet-ter brain development in their children, whereas lack of DHA in the diet led to a rise in mental ill health in all age groups.

According to Professor Crawford, treating patients with brain dis-orders costs the British National Health Service (NHS) £77 billion every year. ‘It is bigger [more ex-pensive] than anything else,’ he said, and added that the NHS also

spends £4 billion a year treating people with obesity, which could be prevented by eating more sea-food.

Ratio of omega-6 to omega-3

fatty acids significant

‘Why wait for disease to develop and then spend millions prevent-ing it?’ asked Bill Lands from Mar-yland in the USA, who stated that coronary heart disease, one of the biggest causes of death in Western countries, could be prevented if

diets contained the correct ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 highly un-saturated fatty acids. ‘Food [com-position] has a direct connection to death,’ Professor Lands said. If the diet contained more omega-6 fatty acids – found in seed oils – than omega-3 fatty acids, then it posed a higher risk of causing a heart attack than a diet with more omega-3 than omega-6 fatty acids. ‘The US diet is high in omega-6 highly unsaturated fatty acids, whereas these are low in the Greenland diet [where there is less heart disease]. A high omega-6 level means an omega-3 deficit.’ ‘There are wonderful long chain [20 and 22 carbon atom] omega-3 fatty acids in seafood; plants don’t make these long chain fatty acids. Eat more omega-3, less omega-6 fatty acids,’ he recommended.

Professor Philip Calder from the Institute of Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, Southamp-ton University, stated that there was now a huge amount of data showing that high fish consump-tion could lead to a big reduction in human mortality caused by cardio-vascular disease. ‘There have been many studies with long follow up periods which prove this,’ he said. Atherosclerosis, or the build up of fatty deposits on blood vessel walls, was slowed down or limited, then reversed, in just a few months by the inges-tion of more omega-3 fatty acids. ‘Omega-3s have a bigger effect than statins [in preventing heart attacks],’ he said, and added that there was a reduction in overall mortality as well as coronary mor-tality if the diet contained more omega-3 fatty acids.

Multiple health benefits conferred

by omega-3s

Tom Gilhooly stated that omega-3 fatty acids will cure a whole host of

Seafood and Health Conference, London

New evidence proves that seafood consumption guarantees good healthEating more fish and shellfish, particularly the latter, would dramatically improve human health – and save literally billions of pounds (sterling) in treating illnesses that could be prevented if diets contained higher levels of seafood.

“There are not enough fish in the world’s oceans to provide

the recommended level of EPA and DHA in the diet”


[ sEafood and hEalth confErEncE ]

illnesses: cardiac disease, depres-sion, arthritis – ‘they have none of the side effects of anti-inflam-matory drugs such as Ibuprofen’ – eczema, and ADHD (behaviour-al disorders). Dr Gilhooly, who

set up The Essential Health Clinic in Glasgow, has been in general practice for 20 years. There is a huge amount of scientific evi-dence emerging about the health benefits of omega-3s, he said, and

added that their use is very safe and natural. He pointed out that statins had adverse side effects such as nerve damage, although they are very effective drugs. Dr Gilhooly prescribes omega-

3fatty acids in fish oil capsule form ‘because this is easier for pa-tients to take, although it is better to eat seafood because of the trace elements and extremely powerful antioxidants it contains’.

Prof William Lands – College Park, Maryland, USA

Dr Tom Gilhooly – The Essential Health Clinic, Glasgow

Bruce Griffin, Reader, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford

Prof Barbara Demeneix, Director, Dept Régulations, Développement et Diversité, Muséum National d’Histoire Natural, Paris

Sarah Keogh – Consultant Dietician, The Albany Clinic, Dublin

Seafood and Health Conference – The speakers


[ EvEnts ]

Depression can be caused by a lack of omega-3 fatty acids in the diet, Dr Gilhooly said. ‘I prescribe capsules containing one gram of EPA and multivitamins and tell them [patients] to come back in four weeks.’ According to Dr Gil-hooly, curing cardiac disease and depression are the main benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. ‘Side ef-fects, as caused by some drugs, are replaced by side benefits.’

Dietary cholesterol in shellfish does not cause heart disease

Bruce Griffin, reader in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Surrey University, told the con-ference delegates that, contrary to popular belief, particularly in the USA, the dietary choles-terol in coldwater prawns has

no connection with cardio-vas-cular disease. ‘There has been no convincing evidence over 30 years that this is the case,’ he said. He pointed out that the egg industry had done a lot to dispel the misconception that dietary

cholesterol is linked to heart disease. ‘It is still safe to “go to work on an egg” [an old promo-tional slogan],’ he said. ‘Satu-rated fats are the main dietary cause of the disease.’ Dr Griffin has carried out the first trial to substantiate the fact that the di-etary cholesterol in shellfish – in this case coldwater prawns – is not the cause of heart disease. ‘Dietary cholesterol does not increase the blood cholesterol level.’

He also referred to information published by the Shellfish As-sociation of Great Britain, which itemises the amount of long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in different shell-fish species. ‘Shellfish is a major source of these long chain fatty acids,’ he said.

Trials show non-oily fish more satisfying than other high protein foods

Lean [white, non-oily] fish has a low energy density combined with high protein levels, but is more satisfying than other high protein foods, according to Anna Karin Lindroos, MRC Human Nu-trition Research, Elsie Widdow-son Laboratory in Cambridge in the UK. Trials showed that it stopped people feeling hungry sooner than other protein foods

such as beef and chicken, she said.

Dr Lindroos pointed out that obesity, caused by ‘eating more calories than you need’, is a major health problem in Western coun-

tries. Of the main protein foods, fish has the highest volume, but contains the lowest amount of calories, she said.

More people are becoming over-weight, particularly in the more developed countries of the world. ‘The USA tops the obesity league table, but in the UK 23% of the population is too fat. Over eat-ing is driven by the agricultural revolution and under exercising is driven by the technological revolution.’

Seafood is a rich source of trace elements

Fish and shellfish are exceptional sources of iodine and selenium, according to Barbara Demeneix, director, Department of Regula-tions, Développement et Diver-sité, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. In fact, shellfish are probably the richest source of both trace elements, she said, and recommended eating mus-sels, oysters, lobster and prawns. Iodine and selenium are needed to make thyroid hormones, and selenium has many other ben-eficial effects, even acting against cancer. (Margaret Rayman from the University of Surrey, told dele-gates that selenium works against mercury toxicity, ‘therefore preg-nant women don’t need to restrict fish consumption’.)

Thyroid hormone is essential for brain development in the foetus and deficiency during pregnancy can lead to children being born with below average intelligence. Lack of iodine and selenium will have severe and irreversible re-percussions on brain develop-ment throughout childhood, and will affect brain performance in adults even leading to depres-sion in old age. ‘The social cost of brain retardation is enormous,’ Professor Demeneix said.

“Oil-rich fish is the best dietary source

of vitamin D”

Vitamin D is traditionally associ-ated with calcium balance and bone health, according to Sarah Keogh, consultant dietician at the Albany Clinic in Dublin. However, deficiency is also linked to hyper-tension, Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and prostate can-cer, she said. ‘Increasing vitamin D levels is an area of growing importance in the human diet.’

A recent report in The Daily Tel-egraph, a leading British news-paper, stated that giving vitamin D supplements to older people could help cut the risk of Alzhe-imer’s disease. Exposure to ultra violet radiation from the sun is the main source of the vitamin, but people in northern countries cannot obtain enough during the winter and therefore must rely on what they eat. ‘Oil-rich fish is the best dietary source of vitamin D, but people also need supplements,’ Ms Keogh told delegates.

Professor Crawford said that there was a decline in trace elements in fruit and vegetables, so seafood consumption was even more necessary to obtain sufficient supplies.

“Of the main protein foods, fish has the highest volume,

but contains the lowest amount of calories”


[ sEafood and hEalth confErEncE ]

Health message not reaching its target

There was much discussion dur-ing the conference about getting the message about how seafood consumption can improve hu-man health across to consum-ers. ‘There is an enormous gap between the scientific weight of evidence and what is being done to change consumer habits,’ was one speaker’s complaint. ‘People from the seafood industry know the message,’ said Chris Leftwich, Chief Inspector at Billingsgate Market, ‘the job is to get the mes-sage out to the public.’

Professor Calder said that while health professionals were not getting the message about the benefits to human health from increased seafood consumption,

they were being ‘bombarded’ by advertising from pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical com-panies wanted to promote statins as a means of preventing heart disease so the fact that the trials which showed that omega-3 fatty acids were more effective in this were embarrassing for them, Pro-fessor Lands told the delegates.

Dr Gilhooly said that there was now enough good evidence that increased seafood consumption improved human health to lobby the UK government. ‘Doctors will only follow official guidelines,’ he said. On this topic, it was said that the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) guideline that people should eat two seafood meals a week, one of which should be oily fish, was conservative and the FSA was reviewing this advice.

It was pointed out that the omega-3 message is being constantly al-luded to in the media. However, taking omega-3s must be easy to do, such as by capsule, ‘then peo-ple will do it’.

Seafood can combat the problem of obesity

Professor Lands said that disease prevention was not a very profita-ble activity so the US government won’t take it up. Tim Lang, pro-fessor of food policy at London’s City University and an advisor to the UK government, however told delegates that the impact of diet on health was high on the political agenda, particularly with regard to obesity which is deeply troubling government ministers all around the world. ‘Seafood usually gets lost amongst competing foods,’

he said, ‘but there is compelling evidence that it improves human health.’

He also took up the sustainability issue. ‘Why is the UK not investing massively, massively, in the sus-tainable production of seafood?’ Mussels can be easily farmed and children should be given one meal of mussels at school to provide them with the seafood they need for their health. Professor Deme-neix backed this up by saying that 100 grams of mussels provides the daily requirement of both iodine and selenium.

The message from the well-at-tended conference was clear; sea-food is essential for good health. But will the message get sufficient support to make people realize this? Mike Urch

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SPE show ´09 in Brussels

The Croatian mainland has a coast almost 1,800 km long, but this amounts to

just 30% of the total coastline; a further 4,000 km of coastline comes from the roughly 1,200 Croatian islands in the Adriatic, of which only a fraction are in-habited. According to the 2001 census the biggest, Krk, has about 18,000 inhabitants while the smallest, Sveti Andrija, has just 1! Croatia is also richly endowed with freshwater with 3,650 km of

rivers and a further 100 square km of lakes.

Small coastal vessels dominate fleet

This geography has wrought the development of an ancient fish-ing tradition on the coast and the islands that has persisted into the modern age. Well, almost. For the Croatian fishing fleet consists largely of relatively old vessels that remain from the time when all in-dustry was owned by the state. The age, condition, and size of the ves-sels means they can not put out to sea in poor weather. Some of the vessels particularly those of the tuna fishing fleet have been mod-ernised and installed with newer equipment making them safer to operate as well as improving the quality of the catches, but the smaller vessels with an average

Croatian fisheries and aquaculture

Inching towards compliance with EU regulationsCroatia’s natural beauty is staggering. The country’s mountainous interior, extended coastline, and pleasant weather together with its charming town centres and fishing villages have made it a magnet for tourists from all over the world.

Tonci Božanic, State Secretary for Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Development.

Nedo Vrgoc, Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries.

Miro Kucic, President of the Fishing and Fish Processing Association in the Croatian Chamber of Economy.

The Croatian fleet is comprised mainly of smaller boats that are away at sea for usually not longer than a day. In the coastal belt the main method is trawling while in the open sea it is trawling and purse seining.

Croatia


croatia

size of 14 to 15 m, which constitute the main body of the fleet, have not been modernised. Details on the fishing fleet are still partial as Croatia does not yet have a complete and up to date fishing fleet register. According to the Croatian Central Bureau of Statis-tics in 2007 the fleet included 488 vessels (defined as over 12 m and over 15 GT) with a total tonnage of just under 29,000 GT. FAO data from 2006 suggests that the total fleet numbers some 3,700 vessels that average 66 kW engine power and 11 GT indicating that small coastal vessels dominate the fleet. The difference in number stems from the differences in definition, as in Croatia there is a legal differ-ence between vessels and boats. But when it comes to fishing fleet register, both the vessels and the boats count.

Port modernisation hindered by

local authorities

These vessels work on average 120 to 130 days per year typically

making one-day trips when they go out early in the morning to the fishing grounds where they fish for eight to ten hours and return to port. The travel time to and from the fishing grounds typically

takes a further two to thee hours. Vessels are not bound to a port, but often overnight in one port then leave the next morning for the fishing grounds and return with their catch to another port. Vessels from Dalmatia for exam-ple will go and fish in the north Adriatic and vice versa. But this only applies for larger, safer ves-sels, as small units usually stay close to home. However, this lack of a home port for some vessels reduces the ties between fisher-men and the local community in a port town or village. As a conse-quence local authorities, who are often responsible for the port, are reluctant to invest in the facilities and infrastructure that would im-prove the port, and make it easier to land, store or sell the fish. In-stead port authorities prefer to focus on the booming marine

There are about forty small and medium-sized processing companies with less than fifty employees involved in the production of salted and marinated anchovies and sardines.

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tourism sector, which has seen an expansion in the number of private yachts and other vessels that berth at Croatian harbours. For the central government that is committed to improving the ports for the benefit of the fishermen this is a knotty problem and one that has slowed down the port modernisation efforts.

Trawling and purse seining widely practised

Croatian capture fisheries is a mul-tispecies fishery with more than 200 species in the catch of which 80 to 100 are commercially im-portant. The Croatian fleet is also characterised by the use of many different kinds of gear. According to the fishing law, says Nedo Vrgoc from the Institute of Oceanogra-phy and Fisheries, there are about 55 different kinds of gear used for fishing. The fisheries can be clas-sified into coastal, which includes the channels between the Croatian islands, and the open seas. In the coastal belt the most commonly used fishing method is trawling while in the open seas it is trawling

and purse seining. The important species in terms of volumes are the small pelagics – sardines and anchovies, but catches of demer-sal fish, crustaceans, and cepha-lopods are also significant. The most important species are hake (Merluccius merluccius), mullet (Mullus barbatus), Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), octopus species (Eledone spp.), pandora (Pagellus spp.) and various flat-fish. Although not significant in quantity, value-wise there’s one species that holds the top position - Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus).

As a proportion of GDP fisheries amounts to about 0.20%, but the sector plays a disproportionate role in the economies in towns and villages along the coast and in the islands where the prosper-ity of small communities is closely linked to the fishing, fish farming, and fish processing industries. The preponderance of small coastal vessels and the lack of specifically designated landing sites mean that fish is landed at more than 300 locations all along the coast.

This makes it difficult to accurately monitor the catch and obviously also has an impact on the quality of the statistical data. The lack of adequate landing places with the facilities to store and cool the fish also holds back the development of the market organisation. Cur-rently there is no market organisa-tion similar to that defined in the Common Fisheries Policy, nor are there any producer organisations. Tonci Božanic, State Secretary for Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Development says his ministry strongly supports the development of producer organisations, and the process of establishing wholesale markets, which is another step on the path to compliance with EU regulations, has already begun.

EU accession offers advantages to fisheries sector

As an accession country Croatia is working on bringing its legislation into conformity with EU legislation and in the field of fisheries is be-ing supported through a twinning

project with Spain with the objec-tive, among others, “to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Di-rectorate of Fisheries to plan, de-sign and implement a CFP-com-pliant national fisheries policy.” Accession to the EU is generally considered a good thing. As Mr Božanic says, Croatia has had to bring its legislation into conformity with EU laws which for the fisheries industry has meant an increase in standards, but will also lead to the creation of a market infrastructure that will result in more transparen-cy and better prices. Croatian fish-ermen should also be able to get higher prices particularly for their demersal catches and with the for-mation of producer organisations Croatian fishermen will be able to negotiate prices with a wide range of buyers and not be tied to just one as is often the case at present. Another important issue that was pushed by the accession process is satellite-based vessel monitor-ing. In 2005 Croatia carried out a pilot monitoring scheme with four tuna fishing vessels over 24 m. Since then the scheme has been expanded and by the end of 2009 more than 400 vessels is expected to be equipped with the system, says Mr Božanic.

Some stocks in the Adriatic decline

Vessel monitoring is one of several tools being deployed to monitor and control vessels to ensure that they are not operating in an area that is off limits to fisheries, and that they hold the permits to fish in the area. Monitoring vessels is ultimately about reducing il-legal fishing, which is a threat to fish stocks. The Institute of Ocea-nography and Fisheries in Split has been carrying out surveys of stocks in the Adriatic for the last 60 years. It is one of the biggest institutes for fisheries research in the Adriatic. Immediately after

Croatian catches of small pelagic fish are also used to feed the farmed tuna.


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the Second World War and before the onset of bottom trawling the institute carried out its first com-prehensive survey of the Adriatic. Because of the circumstances the picture to emerge from the Adri-atic at that time was a report from an unexploited sea and it formed the reference for future surveys. Since then the institute has con-ducted and continues to conduct regular surveys in the Adriatic for both pelagic and demersal species of commercial importance. Dr Vr-goc, who is in charge of demersal monitoring at the institute, says that there have been several ma-jor changes in the demersal stock situation compared with the first survey. These include a change in the total biomass index of the sea, and changes in the composition of the demersal community. Many of the large, slow growing species that are indicators of the health of the sea such as sharks and rays have almost disappeared from the open sea. Another indicator, the average size of the individuals of John Dor-ry (Zeus faber), has reduced from 40 cm when the first survey was carried out to 20 cm today. But, importantly, there are differences in the situation on the eastern and western parts of the Adriatic.

Unequal fishing pressure on eastern and western

sides of the Adriatic

There are several reasons for these differences explains Dr Vrgoc. There are physical differences in terms of the hydrography and sedimentology of the two parts and this influences the benthic flora and fauna. However, prob-ably the single most important factor he sees is the impact of fishing pressure. The overall im-pression of demersal stocks in the Adriatic sea is that they are fully or over exploited, but comparing the eastern and the western sides gives a different picture. In the

east catches of demersal species is more or less stable. There are fluctuations from year to year but no clear negative trend, while in the west there is a negative trend especially for indicator species.

Fisheries management in Croatia is aimed at preserving the sustain-ability of the stock and thereby the activity. A number of meas-ures such as temporal and spatial gear limitations, closed seasons, and minimum landing sizes are deployed to manage the fisher-ies. Trawling is prohibited within one nautical mile (1.85 km) of the shore (and also two nautical mile from the island in the open sea) and this will be extended to three nautical mile or a depth of 50 m. Bottom trawl fishing is totally for-

bidden in about 30% of Croatian territorial waters, and in a further 10% it is forbidden for 100-300 days in the year. Dr Vrgoc states that the aim is to move the bot-tom trawlers from the inner sea to the open sea as the inner area is an important nursery and spawn-ing ground for a number of spe-cies. The coastal fishery should be preserved for the coastal fishing vessels while the bigger vessels are relocated to the open sea. Fishers are obliged to report all catches regardless of the quanti-ties or the species caught. Apart from tuna which is governed by ICCAT Croatia has no system of quotas for species. Fisheries data though improving is still very unreliable, and any trends that may be discernible in the figures

may in fact be due to better data collection. Miro Kucic, president of the Fishing and Fish Process-ing Association in the Croatian chamber of economy, for one is distinctly unimpressed by the of-ficial fisheries data.

Good international scientific collaboration

Croatia is actively collaborating with other nations in the Adriatic particularly Italy to compile and share accurate information from the area. The collaboration also facilitates efforts to harmonise regulations and fishery manage-ment measures in the different countries. In additional to par-ticipating in surveys Croatia is also one of the members of the AdriaMed project, that seeks to improve scientific cooperation as the basis for the management of fisheries in the Adriatic. This was established by the FAO in 1999 to promote cooperation between the countries of the Adriatic. Ini-tially funded by the Italian Min-istry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, since 2007 it has been funded by the European Commission. Other participating countries are Albania, Italy, Mon-tenegro, and Slovenia.

Scientists at the institute col-laborate not only with other sci-entists, but also with their key constituency, the fishermen. The relationship is symbiotic as the scientists collect the information directly from the vessels and after processing it discuss the results with the fishers. In some cases says Dr Vrgoc the data collected by the scientists is supplemented by private data that the fishermen collect themselves which is usual-ly very useful information. I have between six and ten colleagues who are always at sea collecting data directly from the vessels, he says, and without this collabo-

Catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea in tonnes

Country 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Afr

ica

Algeria 1,586 1,208 1,530 1,038 1,511Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 753 1,299 1,090 1,327 0Morocco 2,557 2,780 2,497 2,386 3,059Tunisia 791 2,376 3,249 2,545 2,195

Asia

China 19 41 24 0 72Cyprus 79 105 149 110 1Japan 3,011 2,653 2,976 2,452 2,078Korea, Republic of 0 700 1,145 27 276Taiwan Province of China 445 51 277 9 0Turkey 3,300 1,075 990 806 918

Euro

pe

Croatia 1,139 827 1,017 1,022 820France 6,507 7,032 9,455 8,882 10,792Greece 422 389 318 254 285Ireland 3 1 1 2 0Italy 4,717 4,497 4,798 4,693 4,621Malta 255 264 346 263 334Portugal 63 27 76 109 29Spain 4,651 5,154 3,780 4,722 5,682

Source: FAO Statistics

Industrial fish production in Croatia in tonnes2005 2006 2007 2008

Frozen fish 4,001 4,318 5,162 4,368Dried, salted or non salted fish, pickled fish, exclud. smoked

2,161 3,924 3,860 3,723

Fish cans 8,447 7,098 9,588 9,757Other processed products 70 45 88 72


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ration I may as well close down my laboratory. Before the results of the research are finalised Dr Vrgoc consults with the fishers to ensure that their opinions are also included in the final recom-mendations. “I am at sea on board a scientific vessel for ten to fifteen days in the year,” he points out, “as opposed to the fishermen who are there for 130 days. The purpose of the exercise would be defeated if there opinions were excluded from the recommendations.” Once the results of the research have been finalised they are pre-sented to the fishermen all over the country.

Main farmed marine species seabass,

sea bream, tuna

The aquaculture sector is divid-ed into a marine and a smaller freshwater production. Seabass and seabream and bluefin tuna

are the main marine farmed species. Seabass and sea bream farming is hatchery-based where the entire production cycle is controlled. Producers either have their own hatcheries or purchase fingerlings from other hatcher-ies in Croatia or abroad. Some 70 companies are involved in seabass and sea bream farming (2006) and volumes have been increasing steadily the last six years to reach 4,000 tonnes in 2007 of which seabass amounts to some 65%. Croatian producers are moving into greater value ad-dition, improved branding, and niche products and there has been some degree of consolida-tion on the market to reap econo-mies of scale. According to Miro Kucic, the long term goal of the industry is to reach a production of 10,000 tonnes and some farms are aiming at hatchery facilities with a production of 40 million juveniles.

Tuna exports highly valued

Bluefin tuna fattening is the prac-tise of capturing large tuna placing them in cages and feeding them for a few months before harvesting. This has given rise to tuna farming which is the term used to describe a fattening period for smaller fish that often lasts for in excess of two years. The tuna are captured in the Adriatic by purse seiners and are then transported very slowly in towing cages back to the on-grow-ing site. The fish are transferred to holding cages and fed with small pelgaic fish, but also cuttlefish, or krill. Once they reach the desired size they are harvested and frozen down to -60 degrees on Japanese freezer vessels and shipped back to Japan, which is the destination for 90% of the Croatian farmed tuna. Tuna volumes topped 4,000 tonnes in 2007, but the interna-tional body regulating the tuna

management measures has now reduced the total allowable catch for the fish from 22,000 tonnes in 2009 to 19,950 tonnes in 2010 and subject to an assessment of the stock in 2010 to 18,500 tonnes in 2011. Farming capacity has also been capped.

Carp production stable, trout increasing

Freshwater farmed fish is primari-ly trout and carp, with production of 2,000 tonnes and 1,500 tonnes respectively in 2007. Carp produc-tion has been more or less stable the last six years while trout pro-duction has risen steadily. Carp is farmed in large ponds where they feed on a mix of the naturally oc-curing vegetation in the pond as well as grains like corn and bar-ley. The fish are mainly sold live and the Christmas period is when they are most widely consumed. A proportion of the fish is exported to neighbouring countries, Ser-bia and Bosnia as well as some to Germany. Carp ponds play a role in providing habitats for various kind of birds including some en-dangered species and some farms offer ecotourism activities that in-clude fishing, and bird watching in attractive surroundings.

Processors expanding range of value-added

products

The fish processing industry in Croatia has a long history mainly in the production of canned prod-ucts. The impact of globalisation is however forcing the industry to restructure and move into more value-added products and away from the basic canned items such as sardines. Production has fallen from 15,000 tonnes to 5,000 tonnes and Mr Kucic is not optimistic about the future of the sardine canning sector. Raw material for the processing industry has fo-

Croatian fish production in tonnes

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007Index 07/06

Freshwater farming 3,485 3,260 3,429 4,335 5,113 4,395 86.0- Carp 1,851 1,633 1,575 2,183 2,312 1,503 65.0- Trout 913 791 1,075 1,301 1,885 2,031 107.7- Bighead carp 10 7 7 9 14 16 114.3- Catfish 42 70 62 40 23 19 82.6- Pike perch 185 277 265 354 387 257 66.4- Other 484 482 445 448 492 569 115.7Carp farm area 7,786 7,663 7,809 6,623 6,229 6,036 96.9Trout farm area 4.28 4.51 5.70 5.77 5.87 5.78 98.5Hatcheries production 1,396 1,141 1,634 1,690 1,480 1,613 109.0Farming and catch of sea fish and other organisms - total

29,155 26,181 39,954 44,111 52,037 51,819 99.6

Catch - small pelagic fish 21,728 19,593 26,174 28,621 31,646 33,041 104.4- sardine catch 12,626 12,271 16,357 16,521 16,950 16,900 99.7- anchovy catch 3,187 3,341 7,473 9,504 11,850 13,200 111.4- tuna farming and catch (1997 -2003) 3,971 3,028 4,604 4,446 7,722 5,005 64.8- tuna farming ( since 2004) 3,777 3,425 6,700 4,180 62.4Other fish farming and catch 4,124 3,880 5,880 7,623 8,357 8,893 106.4- other fish catch 1,624 1,457 2,830 4,573 4,857 4,893 100.7- farming of sea bass and sea bream 2,500 2,423 3,000 3,000 3,450 3,950 114.5Cephalopods catch 560 488 728 1,094 904 1,621 179.3Crustaceans catch 204 184 274 258 298 451 151.3Shelfish farming and catch 2,539 2,036 3,121 3,090 4,132 3,633 87.9- shelfish farming 2,456 1,942 3,000 3,000 4,000 3,500 87.5

Source: DZS (Central bureau of statistics)


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cused largely on the pelagic spe-cies, anchovies, sardines, which are processed into salted and mar-inated products. These have been exported in increasing quantities to markets in Europe. There are about 40 companies, mainly small and medium sized with less than 50 employees, that produce salted and marinated anchovies and sar-dines, often combining them with olives, cheese or other ingredients. But uncertainty regarding the situ-ation of the stocks and the size of the harvest makes these firms vul-nerable to unexpected changes in the supply of raw materials. Pelagic catches are also used as feed for the tuna farming and fattening indus-try. Fresh or thawed small pelag-ics, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and horse mackerel, are shovelled or pumped into the tuna cages. Of the white fish products seabass,

sea bream, and trout have typically been sold fresh on ice which is still the dominant product form, while carps and other farmed freshwater species are often sold live. Wild

demersal fish is also sold fresh on ice. However, producers are be-ginning to explore the production of smoked fillets of bass and trout and even carp.

Croatia’s trade in fish and seafood is characterised by the import of cheap small pelagics species such as herring to feed the farmed tuna, a high value export spe-cies. Total exports amounted to about 30,000 tonnes in 2008 with a value of USD150m while import volumes were 54,000 tonnes with a value of USD140m.

Croatian fisheries and aquacul-ture is an important part of the coastal economy on the mainland and particularly on the islands. The country’s turbulent past has taken a toll on its progress, but it is now making efforts to catch up and it has several advantages on which to build. These include forward looking aquaculture and processing sectors which are set to increase in importance in the future.

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Seabass and sea bream is typically sold whole fresh on ice but some farmers are now exploring the possibility of smoking fillets.


One of the oldest carp farms in Croatia has been running for almost a cen-

tury and is owned by the compa-ny Ribnjacarstvo Poljana. Here, in a total of 1,200 acres of ponds 600 tonnes of carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio) as well as 150 tonnes of various other fish are farmed per annum. The other species include European catfish, pike, pike perch, bighead carp, silver carp and some tench. The farm controls the whole farming cycle from the eggs to the market-sized fish, the only operation that is currently lacking is processing. An on-site hatchery provides enough larvae for the needs of the farm. The hatchery is essentially a recirculation unit that works for three to three and a half months a year from around

April to July says Krešimir Drašner, the veterinarian on the farm, after that it is disinfected and closed down until the next season. Be-

cause of its large size the hatchery can produce a lot at once and if the weather is good a number of larvae can be released into the

ponds, while if there is too much wind or rain then there is enough space in the hatchery to hold the larvae.

Preference for bigger fish in Bosnia, Serbia

In June or July depending on how warm the weather is and just before the yolk sac disappears the larvae are introduced from the hatchery into the 14 smaller ponds. The ponds are fertilised with chicken manure to trigger the growth of the planktonic or-ganisms on which the larvae feed. After a period of about two weeks a paste made of a fine grained mixture of nutrients mixed with water and small pelleted feed containing a high percentage of protein that is manufactured on the farm itself is added to the ponds. Forty or 50 days after the larvae are introduced they weigh three to eight grams and are then transferred to larger ponds of six to ten acres where they over-win-ter. One-year-old fish are kept for a year in medium-sized ponds and are then transferred to the largest ponds where they grow to market size. It takes three years to achieve a market-sized fish of 2.5 kilos, which is the desired size on markets in Bosnia and Serbia where bigger fish are preferred, in Croatia the company sells fish of one to two kilos. Most of the fish is absorbed by these three markets particularly over the Christmas season when it is traditional to eat carp. Some fish is also sold to Ital-ian and German customers.

The largest of these ponds can be up to 200 acres in size. Ponds are

Ribnjacarstvo Poljana

Plans to add value to carp and eel-productsIn addition to marine aquaculture of seabass and sea bream as well as the farming or fattening of tuna Croatia also has a sizeable freshwater aquaculture industry focusing on carp and trout, though other species such as pike perch, tench, catfish, grass carp, silver carp, and bighead carp are also farmed. The total tonnage of freshwater fish farmed in 2007 amounted to 4,400 tonnes of which 1,500 tonnes was carp and 2,000 tonnes was trout.

The carp farm is the main business of the company, but the hope is that the eels will contribute more to the bottomline in the future.

Mr Milan Božic, the director of Ribnjacarstvo Poljana, a one hundred-year-old carp farm.


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arranged on a gradient so there is no need to use pumps to drain the water, the water flows out thanks to the force of gravity. The differ-ence in height between the high-est and lowest ponds is three me-ters. Harvesting involves draining the ponds of their water and trap-ping the fish in nets. The ponds are arranged so that two or three large ponds usually have a small-er pond close by that is at a lower level. Water from the large pond with the fish is drained collecting the fish together in the lowest part of the pond where they can be en-circled with a net and heaved out. Nets with different mesh sizes are used, first a 5 x 5 cm mesh for the largest fish, followed by a 2 square cm and finally a 1 square cm. De-pending on the pond size it can take up to two weeks to empty a pond.

Ponds are highly efficient

filtration systems

Water from the ponds is allowed to drain back into the river from which it is sourced. Tests done by Poljana on the water as it enters

and as it leaves the farm show that the water is actually cleaner when it leaves the farm than when it en-ters. The ponds filter everything, says Krešimir Drašner, and be-sides we use no medicines in the water nor do we spray the ponds. The only time that medicines

may be given to the fish is at the “monthling”stage, when they are roughly one month old, and the one-year-old stage when it can be mixed into the pellets. During later stages of development the fish are fed with whole grains in addition to what they get of natu-ral feed from the ponds. The grain is primarily corn and barley with some wheat for the small fish.

Apart from being older and larger than most of the other carp farms in Croatia Poljana also boasts oth-er advantages. The geographical location of the farm is very favour-able with the inclined terrain that allows the water to flow through gravity rather than having to be pumped. The natural feed pro-duction in the ponds is very good and the carps feed half and half on grains and the natural feed.

Ribnjacarstvo Poljana d.d.Ribnjaci bb HR 43283 Kaniška Iva Croatia Tel.: +385 34 431012 Fax: +385 34 431122 [email protected] www.ribnjacarstvo-poljana.hr

Director: Milan BožicProducts: Carp (Cyprinus carpio

carpio) 600 tonnes, European

catfish, pike, pike perch, bighead carp, silver carp, tench, 150 tonnes, eel, 90 tonnes

Product form: Live fishFacilities: 1,200 acres of ponds,

hatchery, feed factory for pel-leted feed, processing facility (upcoming)

Markets: Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Italy, Germany, Netherlands

Certification: ISO22000Employees: 50

Poljana Company Fact File


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Production is certified to the ISO standard and the company has developed its own breed of carp that bears the company name and is farmed in other parts of the world such as Israel, Hungary and Romania. This particular breed has been certified by the Croatian Chamber of Economy as being a genuine Croatian product which is also a quality stamp for the fish.

Collaboration with Dutch government

Five years ago Poljana was se-lected under a Programme for

Co-operation with Countries in Central and Eastern Europe established by the Dutch Min-istry of Economic Affairs and its implementing agency EVD. The programme supported the tran-sition of countries in Eastern Europe to a market-oriented and sustainable economy. It encour-aged Dutch investment in these countries and promoted trade relationships between the Neth-erlands and private Eastern Eu-

ropean companies. In this case an eel farm was set up in Poljana. Under the terms of the agreement the Dutch installed the system, provided part of the feed, the glass eels for the first season and at the end of the grow out period also bought back the grown eels, while Poljana provided the build-ing and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the system. Each year a fresh batch of eels is introduced into the system; the first batch was introduced in 2006. The catch season for glass eels is between November and May and prices have been fluctu-

ating violently. Last season prices varied from EUR500 to EUR650 while this season they have fallen slightly to EUR400 to EUR550, says Mr Drašner and for this farm we need 300 kilos, which is a big investment. The problem is that glass eels are still only available from the wild. Efforts to control eel reproduction have been going on since 1938 and although larvae can be produced in the labora-tory mortality levels are still far

too high. This has meant that eel farmers, eel fishermen, con-servationists, and the industry all depend on glass eels caught from the wild. The pressure on eels is visible in the decrease in the stocks of European eel which have declined to 1% of their level 30 years ago.

Recirculation system for eels

Eels mature at radically different rates says Krešimir Drašner, this is partly because males and females naturally grow at different rates

but also because the stock of glass eels is taken directly from nature and are not selected. As a result you can have specimens that grow to market size in 3 years while others take less than a year, while others do not grow at all. Because of this uneven growth in a batch of eels it is necessary to grade them at regular intervals.

The system that has been installed recycles 80% of the water, while

20% is renewed every day. For the glass eels there is a separate water system and biofiltration unit. To keep down costs the company has installed a heat pump which traps the heat from the water that is removed from the system. This brings down the water tempera-ture from 23.5 degrees to 3 degrees centigrade. Another device, an ox-ygen generator, is used to extract oxygen from the air. This serves as a substitute for liquid oxygen. The advantage is that it is significantly cheaper and more reliable if one does not have a good supplier, though on the other hand, liquid oxygen is of higher purity. The dif-ference however in terms of the effect on the fish is negligible. Mr Drašner also points out a further refinement that the company has devised and installed. This allows the oxygen levels to be regulated not only for all the tanks in the system together, but also for each individual tank depending on the size of the fish, their appetite or other needs.

Processed products the next step

Eel mortality in total in one gen-eration is 15-20% over three years which according to Mr Drašner is acceptable. About 5% of the glass eels do not survive the trip to the farm or die shortly after arrival or fail to take to the feed and then die a couple of weeks later. So far there have been no incidents of disease, which is a relief as eel is a new species to be farmed in Croa-tia and experience is limited.

Over the next year Poljana in-tends to expand into processing some of the fish it produces and will build a processing facility for fillets, smoked, canned and fro-zen fish. The permit for the plant has already been obtained and so the construction can start at any time.

The eel farm has a capacity of 100 tonnes and was built in collaboration with Dutch specialists as part of a Dutch government programme.


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The town of Kali on the is-land of Ugljan, a short ferry ride from Zadar, has a long

history in the fishing industry. Even today 80% of the population is involved in fishery-related ac-tivities and people from Kali have spread to other parts of the world where they have put their knowl-edge of the sea and fishing tech-niques to good advantage. For ex-ample, in the Australian town of Port Lincoln, the seafood capital of Australia, most of the 200-odd Croatian families settled there are from Kali. One of these families decided however in 1996 to return

to Kali to establish one of the ear-liest tuna farms in the Mediter-ranean. Dino Vidov, who is today the operations manager of Kali Tuna, says the decision to move back was influenced by their Jap-anese client who initially wanted the Vidovs (joined by their friend and business partner Mr. Santic) to start a tuna farming operation in Italy. Instead they returned to their roots in Kali where they had the advantages of knowing the language, the local culture, and thanks to the fishing tradition on the island, the possibility to hire experienced staff.

Tuna captured in the Adriatic

The first year of operations was more like a project with a total of just 30 metric tonnes of tuna. Over the following years the company expanded the number of towing cages and holding

Kali Tuna

One of the earliest tuna farms in the MediterraneanThe most valuable part of the Croatian fish farming industry is undoubtedly the tuna farming sector which also generates the most in terms of foreign exchange as almost all the tuna farmed or fattened is exported. The practice of growing out or fattening wild-caught specimens has been termed capture-based aquaculture by the FAO, as opposed to hatchery-based aquaculture where the full breeding cycle is controlled.

Dino Vidov, the operations manager at Kali Tuna.

Kali Tuna is based in Kali on the island of Ugljan, a short ferry ride from Zadar. The people of Kali have a long tradition in fishing and related activities.


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cages and the volumes started to rise. Kali Tuna has a fleet of five fishing vessels which capture the tuna in the Adriatic. The vessels are purse seiners which travel out into the Adriatic and when they find a school of tuna they will enclose it with the nets and then wait for the towing vessels to come by and attach them-selves to the net of the purse seine vessel. Divers then join the purse seine net with the net of the towing cage through a small door and gently force the fish in to the towing cage. The cage is then towed back to the farm at a speed of 1-2 knots to minimise stress and the accompanying mortality. Because of the slow speed even a short journey can take a long time to complete and to prevent the fish from losing weight they are fed at intervals. Once back at the farm the fish are transferred to holding cages. A school of fish can vary widely,

says Dino Vidov, both in size and in composition. Typically the fish in a school are all about the same size, but schools with fish of varying sizes are not unusual. The size of the fish determines how they are stocked in the tow-ing cages, the bigger fish will not be fed for very long – only a few months – before they are harvested and will therefore not show the same increase in size as the smaller fish. These will be farmed for up to two years be-fore they are harvested and will increases significantly in weight. This has to be taken into account when distributing the fish from the towing to the holding cages so that fewer small fish are placed together in a cage to give them the necessary space to grow. At the same time, says Dino Vidov, we have discovered that we can-not let the density fall too low as that seems to have a negative im-pact on their feeding.

Slow tow for low stress

For Kali Tuna the fishing grounds in the Adriatic are relatively close by and the towing vessels taxi back and forth between the farm and the fishing vessels. In some countries in the Mediterranean that practise blue fin tuna farming the trip from the fishing vessels back to the farm may take sev-eral days, weeks, or even months. During the trip the utmost care is taken to bring the fish back in the best possible condition. Once the fish arrive they are transferred to the holding cages and the feeding starts. Sometimes the fish may re-quire a couple of days to adapt to the new surroundings but usually they start feeding well. The way they feed is a general indicator of their well being and a good sign as to whether they have settled into the new environment. The fish are kept under close surveil-lance by divers who go down

once or twice a day to observe the fish and keep tabs on feeding behaviour, feed ratios, water tem-perature and biomass growth. Af-ter 12 years of observing the fish the company has a good idea of what the fish should be eating at certain times depending on the water temperature and the size of the fish.

Varied diet of small pelagics

The feed is typically small pelagic fish such as sardines, herring, mackerel, horse mackerel, but Mr Vidov explains that they like to give the fish a varied diet so as not to let the fish build up too much fat, especially if it is to be sold fresh. Too much fat affects the colour of the fish, which is an important parameter, and short-ens its shelf life. The company’s Japanese clients sometimes insist that the fish is also given calamari and krill as this gives the meat a different colour, flavour, and tex-ture. We are constantly experi-menting with the feed, trying out different species and different de-livery methods to see what works best and what does not work, says Dino Vidov. So, apart from using the local Croatian catch of small pelagics the company also im-ports herring from Sweden and even sardines from California. Sometimes the feed is shovelled overboard manually, while other times it is pumped through pipes, while at yet other times a half submerged feed cage is used into which frozen blocks of fish are pitched and allowed to thaw over time.

High food conversion ratio

Bluefin tuna maintain an unusu-ally high body temperature and because of their constant move-ment they have a high energy

The tuna are fed with a mixture of small pelagic fish such as herring, sardines, mackerel, horse mackerel. The feed is sometimes shovelled into the cages, but is also pumped in, or left in a feeding barge.


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demand. As a result only a small percentage of the feed given to the tuna is converted into biomass.

The Feed Conversion Ratio is high at 15-20:1 for larger fish and 10-15:1 for smaller specimens. This has raised questions about the sustainability of tuna farm-ing and the pressure it places on stocks of small pelagic fish, and has increased the urgency to develop artificial diets that will improve the feed conversion ra-tio and ensure a better quality of the final product. However, on the Japanese market which is the destination of 90 percent of the world’s farmed tuna much of the fish is eaten raw. And here there is resistance to the idea of artificial feeds for fear that it will affect the taste and texture of the flesh.

Illegal fishing threatens the future

The bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean is managed by IC-CAT, the International Commis-sion for the Conservation of At-lantic Tunas, which has reduced the Total Allowable Catch in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediter-ranean from 29,500 tonnes in 2007 to 25,500 tonnes in 2010. However, the ICCAT scientific committee

believes that reported catches were probably higher than TAC levels in 2007 and that the under-reporting of catches is substantial. Its estimates of catches in 2007 are 61,000 tonnes. The ICCAT report 2008-2009 (I) states that the TAC is not respected and that unless fishing is reduced in the near fu-ture the stock risks collapsing.

For Kali Tuna the reduction in the TAC is not good news but in addi-

tion a limit is being set on farm-ing capacity. For Dino Vidov this seems strange. For one, farming the fish due to the controlled en-vironment is usually a reliable way to monitor numbers, he points out, for another if there is already a quota then as long as we stay within the quota let us decide how long we want to keep the fish and when we want to sell it. By im-posing a cap on farming capacity farmers will be forced to sell fish when they approach the ceiling.

Most of Kali Tuna’s production goes to Japan either fresh by air or frozen at minus 60 degrees C. Japanese freezer vessels take the fish on board as soon as they are harvested and freeze them down in eight to ten hours after which the vessels sail back to Japan, a trip that lasts 20 to 30 days.

Kali Tuna d. o. o HR 23272 Kali Croatia Tel.: +385 23 282800Fax: +385 23 282810 [email protected] www.kali-tuna.hr

Operations manager: Dino Vidov

Products: Bluefin tuna farmed and fattened

Product form: Fresh or frozenMarkets: JapanCapacity: 1790 tonnes

Kali Tuna Company Fact File


Commercial production of seabass and sea bream started in 1982 with about

100 tonnes of fish and since then growth has been steady if not spectacular. Today production amounts to about 1,000 tonnes of which seabass amounts to around 65% and the rest is sea bream. This proportion varies slightly from year to year though more bass is produced than bream. We started with seabass, explains Krešimir Peroš, the production manager, and sea bream is a more delicate species and production was a lit-tle more complicated in the early days. The problems of early lar-val development have now been solved, but volumes are lower due to the market situation with the enormous production of sea bream in Greece and Turkey.

The company has two farming sites for the fish. One in the Mala Lamjana bay on the island of Ug-ljan, a brief ferry ride from Zadar, and a second that started in 1991

on the southern part of Pasman island near the island of Kosara about 20 km away. The water is clear with a temperature of 23-25 degrees C in summer and

around 14 degrees in winter and there is no industry in the area that could compromise the wa-ter quality. It takes 18-24 months for the fish to reach market size of 300-400 g, though for the pro-duction of fillets bigger fish will be used. Each of the sites has a capacity of some 500 tonnes and production from both sites is brought to a single process-ing facility in Lamjana to be prepared for distribution. Cur-rently the main product is fresh fish packed on ice in styropore boxes. Each fish is labelled with the company name on a flag pin that functions both as a quality label and a marketing tool.

Vertical integration for better control

Shortly after the company was established it was decided that vertical integration was the way forward. This would give full control and traceability of the fish along the value chain al-lowing the company to monitor the production at all stages and better guarantee the quality of the final product. To do this it was necessary first to establish a hatchery which was done in 1982 in the town of Nin about 20 km to the northwest of Zadar. Produc-tion at the hatchery covers all the company’s requirement for sea-bass and bream fry.

Cenmar is already the biggest Croatian farmer of seabass and bream however it is surrounded by major producers in Greece and Turkey that produce several times the quantities that Cenmar brings to market. We will never achieve the volumes that are pro-

Cenmar joins up with four other companies

Going for growth through mergersSeabass and sea bream have been farmed in Croatia for about thirty years with production gradually increasing to almost 4,000 tonnes in 2007. One of the oldest companies in Croatia working with these two species is Cenmar. It was established in 1979, just as fish farming was starting in the Mediterranean, as a spinoff from the Institute of Fish Technology.

Each fish is labelled with a pin bearing the company name, a sign of quality, and useful marketing.

Ms Almiana Avramovic, marketing manager and Mr Krešimir Peroš, farm manager of Cenmar. The company is moving in to the production of value-added products to serve niche markets.


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duced by some of those compa-nies, says Krešimir Peroš, but we have ambitious plans of our own. After twenty-five years of modest growth the company is planning to merge with three other com-panies in order to achieve several objectives at once. The merger will place Cenmar at the heart of a conglomerate that will have

a hatchery, production sites, and processing facilities for the pro-duction of a variety of different value-added products. We have to bring the cost of production down and we can only do that by increasing the tonnage. Prices on the international market for seabass and bream are currently very low and have been for some

time now. In particular sea bream prices have fallen to EUR2.5 a kilo in some instances. We see a lot of operators from Greece and Turkey who are willing to take almost any price unloading their fish on the market. Their produc-tion price is lower than ours, but it is impossible to produce at a price below EUR4.0 per kilo, says

Mr Peroš. The company is there-fore planning to focus strongly on value-added production and marketing and with the new structure it has also changed the way the company is organised, with site managers for each site, a hatchery manager, an overall manager of the farm, and a sales and marketing manager.

Seabass and sea bream are produced at two sites each with a capacity of about 600 tonnes.

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Domestic market offers marginally better prices

Currently our main market is Croatia says Almiana Avramovic, the marketing manager, our pro-duction stands at about 1,000 tonnes and this year we may reach 1,500 tonnes of which the majority will be sold on the do-mestic market. Croatians do not currently eat much fish, which is an opportunity Cenmar is look-ing to exploit. Fish consumption in Croatia is estimated at about nine kilos per capita, which is well below the EU average of 21.4 kg. The Croatian figure is based on statistics which are not entirely reliable, however it is well established that consump-tion varies sharply depending on the region. On the islands and along the coast of the mainland the consumption of fish is far higher while inland in the north of the country it is lower. Prices

on the domestic market are also higher than they are abroad and we can control the whole distri-bution chain better when it is lo-cal, says Mr Peroš. And we have a distinct advantage over produc-ers in other countries because our fish will always be fresher. From the time it is harvested to the time it is sold is never more than 15 hours.

The new company formed by the merger of the other companies is systematically implementing a multi-pronged strategy to in-crease sales on the domestic mar-ket. As a first step Ms Avramovic is carrying out market surveys that will generate intelligence on consumer habits, consumption patterns, product preferences, and pricing. This information

will be used to develop a pal-ette of products including fresh, smoked, salted, and value-added products, which will be available from the companys own chain of retail stores in Zadar and Istria as well as the main supermarkets. Marketing these products will include informing consumers about the wide-ranging benefits of consuming fish and the ease with which it can be bought and prepared. Backing up the pro-motional efforts will be a new Cenmar logo and website that will offer consumers information on the fish, the products, and a range of recipes both simple and complex.

Coastal management plan reduces bureacracy

However, our efforts to promote fish consumption need to be complemented by nation-wide campaigns to get Croatians to eat more fish, says Ms Avram-ovic. In other parts of Europe such as Italy, the UK, and Den-mark national authorities are actively involved in promoting the health benefits of fish con-sumption. Such campaigns are planned, says Petar Pedišic from the Croatian Chamber of Econo-my, but the government should start to implement them on a regular basis. The government has introduced some measures to simplify the process of start-ing a fish farm. For example under a pilot scheme for coastal management that has been in-troduced in Zadar County the coast is divided into zones. Each zone is approved for a certain ac-tivity, some exclusively for aqua-culture, others for tourism, and yet others for both. Designating the zones in this way reduces some of the paperwork involved in fish farming and the scheme is expected to be extended to the entire Croatian coast.

The fish is harvested, graded, packed in styropore boxes on ice and distributed. From the time the fish leaves the water to the time it appears in a shop does not take more than 15 hours.

Cenmar d.d.Trg Tri Bunara broj 5 HR 23000 Zadar Croatia Tel.: +385 23 254960Fax: +385 23 250883; +385 23 254 960 [email protected] www.cenmar.hr

Fish farm manager: Mr Krešimir Peroš

Marketing manager: Ms Almiana Avramovic

Products: Seabass and sea bream

Volume: 1,000-1,500 tonnes per year

Farm sites: 2, each with a production of 500-600 tonnes

Planned products: Fresh fillets, smoked, marinated, salted fish, value-added prod-ucts, organic fish

Cenmar Company Fact File


We need to be flexible says Josip Zagorac, adding that there are too many

“pirhannas” out there, refering to the adversaries waiting to pounce on the unwary businessman. The pelagic fishing activities are the most significant in terms of vol-umes amounting to about 2,500 tonnes annually. The boats go out in the evening and return the next morning eighteen to twenty days in the month during the season. The season varies with the spe-cies, for anchovy it is 1 March to end September, for sardines it is closed from 15 December to 15 Jan-uary, and for tuna it is 15 April to 15 June. Bad weather and a full moon keep the boats in port. The fish is a mixed bag of anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and horse mackerel

which is kept in refrigerated sea water tanks on board and first needs to be sorted when it comes ashore. The boats are equipped with powerful lamps to attract the fish and once a shoal is found a smaller boat will be released into the water and between the two boats the fish will be surrounded with a net which is then hauled on board. The big vessels have a crew of nine who spend all their time on board for the three weeks when the vessel is out fishing every day. The boats are very well equipped with radars, fish finders, sonars, gps, autopilots and plotters. The equipment is largely Norwegian, but imported from the US where it is cheaper, while the hulls were bought in Romania and built up in Croatia by Adria Octopus workers.

Dealing in fresh fish offers

challenges, thrills

In the factory the fish are divided into species and then packaged on ice in styropore boxes each with a net weight of six kilos. I only deal in fresh fish, says Josip Zagorac, it is what I have been do-ing for twelve years and while it is very challenging I feel it is more rewarding and offers more variety than dealing, for example, with frozen products. Very early each morning, before the boats come in, Mr Zagorac is on the phone to the vessel captains to find out how much they expect to catch of what species. He then calls his custom-ers in Italy, France or Spain to find out the price. The price, however,

is constantly fluctuating depend-ing on the supply and demand, and while Mr Zagorac has a good idea of what the other Croatian vessels are bringing in he has no idea what the Italian, French or Spanish vessels are doing and their catches have a big impact on the price. Everything has to go very fast to be able to sell at the agreed price – the weight has to be calculated, the fish has to be sort-ed, packaged, sent off in trucks as fast as possible. Even so the trade is a kind of lottery, where prices can hit the floor or the ceiling very suddenly. The fish also has to be punctual about arriving in Italy as from there, for example, from the market in Venice, fish will be despatched to the market in Bar-celona at 18.00. If Adria Octopus’ fish does not arrive in time and misses the delivery to Barcelona it has to be written off. The quality is downgraded and it can be used only for fishmeal or fish oil and not for human consumption.

But it is the excitement and the challenge of organising every-thing properly and the potential for very good returns that make this business unique. I would far rather trade in fresh fish than fro-zen fish or any non-perishable, says Mr Zagorac, on occasion I have even sold the fish without first knowing the price. If a buyer cannot be found for all the fish it is frozen and then can be sold as feed for the tuna industry.

Seabass and seabream for sale in summer

The company also farms seabass and sea bream, an activity which offers a more stable income

Adria Octopus

Trading in fresh fish not for the faint-heartedAdria Octopus is involved in not one but several fisheries-related activities. Owned by two partners, Josip Zagorac and Ivan Birkic, the company owns three pelagic fishing vessels, has a processing factory, a shop, international trading activities and, in addition, farms about 150 tonnes of seabass and sea bream per year.

Josip Zagorac, one of the two directors in Adria Octopus at the bridge of one of his vessels.


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stream than the rapidly chang-ing prices in the capture fisheries trade. Volumes amount to about 150 tonnes a year and the fish is sold both within Croatia and to Italy. I only sell in summer says Mr Zagorac for that is when the prices are 25% higher thanks to the tourists. Competition from producers in Turkey and Greece is no threat because Adria Octo-pus can deliver fresher fish to Italy due to its proximity to the market than Turkey or Greece. If the fish is harvested today then within 12 to 15 hours, at the latest by tomor-row morning or in some cases the same evening the fish can be on the market in Italy, explains Mr Zagorac. Otherwise there is no real difference in the fish, seabass and sea bream are now commodi-ties, where ever they are farmed they are probably derived from the same supplier of fingerlings, the feed is more or less the same, as is the way they are managed. The only real difference is the time it takes to market.

Processing facilities to expand

The seabass is housed in six round offshore cages while the sea bream is in 68 ten m square cages that are equipped with a double layered net to prevent escapes as

sea bream can chew on the net to try and get out. Fry are obtained from a supplier in France and are delivered by trucks equipped with special tanks, a journey that

takes three days. When the fry ar-rive they are transferred from the tanks into towing cages and then very slowly towed to the farm and tranferred to the holding cages.

After harvesting the fish brought to the factory where they are graded into different sizes and then placed in boxes on ice. The processing facilities currently oc-cupy 1,500 square m which is not enough for any further value addi-tion. Mr Zagorac has been looking at the neighbouring plot of land in order to extend his own factory. This would give another 1,000 or 2,000 square meters and allow Adria Octopus to start salting and filleting anchovies as well as fillet-ing and freezing seabass and sea bream. He feels there is no market for fresh fillets in Croatia where people like to see the fish before they buy it in order to ascertain its freshness.

For Mr Zagorac the fish farming operations have been something of a mixed blessing partly be-cause of bad experiences with a supplier of fry in the beginning. The fry were of poor quality and mortality was very high so that after investing first in the fry, then for two years in the feed and the labour, at the end of it all in-stead of 150 tonnes of fish he had seventy. He has now changed the supplier and would like to increase the volumes from 100 to 300 tonnes, but remains to be convinced of the viability of the farming.

Adria Octopus d.o.o. Augusta Senoe 9 HR 23212 Tkon Croatia Tel.: +385 23 385 585 Mobile: +385 91 205 0721 and +385 98 273 851Fax: +385 23 385 585

Directors: Josip Zagorac, Ivan Birkic

Activities: Fish trading, seabass, sea bream farming, fish processing, fishing

Products: Small pelagics – anchovies, sar-dines, mackerel, horse mackerel, seabass, seabream

Product form: Fresh fish packed on ice in 6 kg styropore boxes

Markets: Croatia, Italy, Spain, France

Adria Octopus Company Fact File

Seabass and sea bream fry are supplied by a French company in Normandy and transported by truck equipped with special tanks. The journey lasts about three days.

The Elizabeth Tri is one of three vessels owned by the company. The hull is from Romania, the equipment from Norway and it was build in Croatia.

Once the fish has been sorted and packaged at the processing plant it has to be transported very quickly to the market in Italy in order to be sold at the agreed price.


One of the biggest companies in Croatia for the manufac-ture of salted anchovies,

Ostrea, is just completing a new processing factory with the support of SAPARD funds that will make it even bigger – from 3,500 tonnes to 5,000 tonnes. Currently located in Benkovac, the company expects to move to its new premises in Stanko-vci in a couple of months. The fa-cility in Benkovac are rented from government company and the new processing facilities will offer all the advantages of a modern, state-of-the-art factory that meets and even exceeds all the statutory require-ments for hygiene and sanitation. Apart from this the new facility will

consolidate all the company’s ac-tivities under one roof with a total of 7,500 square meters of space. Cur-rently Ostrea salts the anchovies at its facilities in Benkovac from where they are sent to a sister company in Albania to be filleted. When the unit at Stankovci comes on-stream the salting and filleting will both be car-ried out there. In addition a separate building is due to be constructed where the company will store the fish that is maturing.

Processing within 24 hours

Production last year (2008) amounted to 3,000 tonnes of

salted anchovies, recounts Marko Kajmak the commercial director, which was not a good year. In 2007 production was 3,500 tonnes; this year we expect catches to be good and with the new factory we ex-pect production to reach 5,000 tonnes. However, it all depends on the weather and the catches, the capacity at the new factory is much higher but if there is no fish to process then the capacity is irrelevant. In order to ensure a steady supply of raw material the company has agreements with a number of boats in the Croatian fleet to deliver anchovies. The production process starts by im-mersing the freshly caught fish in

a 25% brine solution. Any excess fish is stored on ice at refrigera-tion temperature between zero and four degrees centigrade until it can be processed, but all the fish is processed within 24 hours of arriving in the factory. After 60 to 90 minutes the fish is removed from the solution, headed and gutted, and placed in barrel in layers.

Each layer of fish alternates with a layer of salt and a filled barrel weighs 100 kg. The salt is regular table salt with a grain size of 2.5 mm and the ratio of salt to fish in a barrel is 26-35% depending on the final product. After the filled barrel is closed and a weight is placed on the lid to exert some pressure on the fish. The weight serves to squeeze the brine from the fish as well as to flatten the fish and it is important that it is not too heavy nor too light. At Ostrea the starting weight is 100 g per square cm which is gradually decreased as the fish matures.

Ostrea’s new 7,500 sq. m processing facility

All production activities to shift under one roofThe production of salted anchovy fillets is a Croatian tradition that dates back to the time of the Austro-Hungarian empire when they were considered a delicacy in the capital Vienna. Not much has changed in the way these fillets are produced today, much of the work is still done by hand, and the fish are matured for at least three months before they are processed further.

Ostrea is preparing to move from rented facilities in Benkovac to a new factory in Stankovci in a few months.


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While the process seems fairly straightforward a number of fac-tors influence the salting proce-dure, including the temperature, humidity, fat content of the fish, and what kind of final product is intended. For example in sum-mer the fish is matured for two to three months while in winter the maturation time can double. If the fish is to be processed into fillets in jars, the salt content is 30-40% higher than if it is to be canned.

Production under Italian brands

The product at the end of the maturation period can be de-scribed as partially cleaned salt-ed anchovies. If these are to be made into filleted anchovies they

are sent to the sister company in Albania where they are subject to further processing. This in-cludes cutting the fish into fillets, centrifugation, adding salt, plac-ing the fillets in jars and topping up the jars with sunflower or ol-ive oil to make the final project.

The jars will be labelled with the customer’s brand which could be, for example, Rizzoli, or De-licius, if they are intended for export, or Ostrea if they are in-tended for the Croatian market. Although the final product is as-sembled in Albania it is labelled

as a Croatian product, because all the materials that go into the production actually come from Croatia, says Marko Kajmak. The value addition that is done in Al-bania is less than 10% of the value of the final product and therefore it can be classified as Croatian. The filleted anchovies are avail-able in jars of 90, 150, and 700 g as well as 700 g tubs while salted anchovies are are packaged in 5 kg tubs.

Ostrea’s main production at the moment is filleted anchovies in jars and salted anchovies, but the company is considering other products such as conserves in jars as well as canned fillets. Finding the space for the manufacture of new product lines will not be a problem in the new factory.

Ostrea d.o.o.Benkovacke bojne 17 HR 23 420 Benkovac Croatia Tel.: +385 23 682 040 Fax: +385 23 682 012 [email protected]

Commercial director: Marko Kajmak

Products: Anchovy fillets, salted anchovies

Product forms: Fillets in retail jars, plastic tubs, salted anchovies in plastic tubs

Markets: Italy, other EU countries, Croatia, USA, Australia

Facilities: New factory of 7,500 square meters of space being completed in Stankovci

Employees: 200 to 500

Ostrea Company Fact File


2009Stand #4-5917


Lustra is owned by Jeri Peša and Siniša Vrandecic who have rented the old factory

from its owner for their produc-tion. The port of Milna has his-torically been a favoured place for fishermen to unload their catches because of its geographic location and today the fish can go straight to the factory a few hundred me-ters away to be processed. Found-ed in 2005 Lustra was established to recreate well-known products using traditional raw materials, recipes, and flavours that have been characteristic of the Croatian islands, thereby preserving and promoting some of the richness and diversity of the Croatian food culture.

Specialists in salted anchovies

Today there are only two process-ing factories on Brac, Lustra in Milna and Sardina in Postira where canned sardines are pro-duced. Before the last war there there were about ten factories on the islands, says Božena Vidovic the general manager of Lustra, but today only two are left. The local

Lustra is owned by Jeri Peša and Siniša Vrandecic.Ms Božena Vidovic, general manager of Lustra.

Lustra manufactures variety of products based on anchovy, tuna, sardines, and octopus.

Lustra manufactures for the local market

Keeping Croatian traditions aliveA short ferry ride from the Croatian town of Split is the hilly island of Brac, where the main transport hub is the port of Supetar, from where ferries travel to and from Split as well as to other Croatian islands in the Adriatic. Brac is the third largest Croatian island measuring approximately 36 km long by 12 km wide and has a population of about 13,000 people that is divided into no less than eight administrative regions. To the south west of Supetar is the picturesque fishing port of Milna, which hosts a 103-year-old fish processing factory. Today the factory is still functioning – a team of workers produce a variety of products based on anchovy, tuna, sardines, and octopus under the brand name Lustra.


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canning industry in particular has suffered; of the 15 to 16 canner-ies that dotted the Croatian coast from north to south very few sur-vived the war, due to the pressure from the tourist industry, falling interest from markets, and grow-ing competition from Asian pro-ducers. Lustra, however, special-ises primarily in salted anchovies and products based on these, and relies on local supplies for most of its raw materials; fish, olives, spices, and wine.

These raw materials are used to create the range of Lustra branded products that are sold primarily on the Croatian market through the big retail chains. Ms Vidovic hopes that by selling through the local Croatian branches of the international supermarkets she is also getting a foot in at the door to markets outside Croatia through the supermarkets. If the product does well here it may be that the supermarket will want to stock it in some of their branches in other countries which will be the first step in the creation of an internationally recognised brand, she says. Turning Lustra from one of several names unknown out-side the domestic market into an acknowledged Croatian brand is one of her key objectives. And to achieve this she feels the Croatian state has to play a more proactive role. The government has to as-sist in setting up active producer organisations which will work to market and promote Croatian labels, she feels.

Contract manufacturers for Italian brand

Now what is happening is that Croatian producers are contract manufacturing for Spanish and Italian companies, using native knowledge, skill, and expertise yet the outcome is a product with a Spanish or Italian label that is

then exported all over the world. Until we can establish our own brands we are nothing more than contract manufacturers even though we too have a long history of fishing and making these salted products, says Ms Vidovic. Lustra too started of with a modest 40-tonne production of its own items, but breaking into export markets is a prohibitively expensive and very difficult business and after three years the management ac-cepted that it would have to take the contract manufacturing route. The company entered into a part-nership with an Italian company that was selling salted anchvoy fillets to a Spanish customer and started with a plan for 500 tonnes of salted fish. The arrangement between the three partners was such that the Italians pay for the salted fish that comes to the fac-tory to be processed, but all other

costs are taken over by Lustra, including staff costs, financing of the production, and any other raw materials. The Spanish as the final customer have their own qual-ity expert on site monitoring the final product. The first year was not a success. Firstly, there was a shortage of fish, then the fish was too small as the Spanish customer would not accept fish smaller than 45 pieces per kilo and most of the fish was in the range 44 to 45 pieces per kilo. As a result instead of 500 tonnes Lustra only pro-duced 300 tonnes, while all the other costs - of labour etc. stayed the same.

Twin lines of development

The problem is that because of its long history in the fish indus-try the workers are all well quali-

fied and cannot be employed on contracts that last for less than six months. This can be an advantage because it means they can train other workers with less experi-ence. On the other hand if the fishing season turns out to be poor this can prove to be very expen-sive. For the time being however Božena Vidovic sees the company developing along two tracks – one for the contract manufacture of salted anchovy fillets under the Spanish or Italian brand name for those markets and the other is the production of traditional final products under the Lustra brand for the local market. The prod-ucts are distributed throughout Croatia and there is an office in Zagreb, the capital city that super-vises the market on the mainland and another in Split.

All the guts and heads of the fish are discarded and given to a com-pany that converts the waste into fishmeal. However because of the way the fish is processed the head and guts are actually salt free when they are given to the company while other processors have to pay to first have the salt removed from the waste before it can be made into meal.

New factory on the cards

Over the next two years the own-ers of Lustra plan to build a new factory on a plot situated in the centre of the island which they own. The new factory will repre-sent the latest in hyiene and sani-tation standards and its location in the middle of the island will of-fer some logistical advantages as well. The factory will probably be built with an Italian partner who will provide some of the funding. Once the factory is build and goes on stream a wider range of prod-ucts will be produced there than is the case currently.

Lustra d.o.o.HR 21405 Milna-Brac Croatia

Tel.: +385 21636349 Fax: +385 21636 237 [email protected] www.lustra.hr

General Manager: Ms Božena Vidovic

Products: Salted anchovies, sar-dines, octopus salad, tuna in oil

Product form: Jars of 95 g, 180 g, 600 g, plastic tubs of 1,000 g

Volumes: 40 tonnesMarkets: Croatia

Lustra Company Fact File

Filleting the salted anchovies is done manually and is a laborious and time consuming process.


Marine fisheries are com-posed of two very differ-ent fleet segments. The

first fleet, called high sea fisheries, mostly targets small pelagic fish all over the Atlantic (from Norway to West Africa) and is made up of a few (between 10 and 15) very large fishing units. Catches, as is often the case in the small pelagics in-dustry, fluctuate steeply from year to year, and dominate the share of the total Dutch production in vol-ume though not in value.

Marine fisheries under economic and

environmental pressure

The other main sector of marine fisheries consists of the “cutter” fleet. This segment is defined as the fleet targeting demersal fish that are marketed fresh. This fleet is very diverse in terms of size of fishing units (from 1 to 2,000 horsepower), use of fishing gear (beam trawl, twin rig, Danish seine, shrimps trawls,…) and spe-

cies targeted (cod, plaice, soles, shrimps, spiny lobster,…). This sector is experiencing a crisis due to a combination of economic and environmental factors.

Landings have been gradually de-creasing with catches of sole and plaice being hit the hardest. This fleet is also very sensitive to fuel prices which has led to very poor results due to the price hikes of the past few years. Beam trawls have also been subject to criticisms

Seafood consumption in the Netherlands increasing

Challenging times for Dutch marine fisheriesThe production sector is made up of four main sectors in the Netherlands: marine fisheries, the mussel sector, aquaculture and inland fisheries.

Netherlands

from the environmental sector due their impact on the sea floor. This combination of fuel prices, environmental scrutiny and de-clining landings has resulted in a very difficult situation for this seg-ment of the Dutch fleet.

Research is currently going on to reduce the dependency on fuel by trying other types of fishing tech-niques (fly shooting, Scottish and Danish purse seine, twin rigging..) that also have the advantage of being less prone to environmen-tal criticisms.

Another challenge this fleet will have to face in the next few years is certification to the MSC standard. Indeed the Dutch association for food retail (Centraal Bureau Lev-

The combination of fuel prices, environmental scrutiny and declining landings has resulted in a very difficult situation for the

“cutter” segment of the Dutch fleet.


nEthErlands

ensmiddelenhandel – CBL) has declared that all fish products sourced by its members (which include all major Dutch retailers) will have to be MSC or GlobalGAP (aquaculture products) certified by 2011. The brown shrimp fish-ery and some pelagic fisheries are already in the assessment phase and should not have too many difficulties in reaching certifica-tion, while the situation is much more unclear for the segment of the fleet using beamtrawls.

Mussel sector mulls its future

The Dutch mussel sector produced 30,000 tonnes in 2007 what rep-resents a clear drop from previ-ous years when production levels would normally range between 40,000 and 70,000 tonnes. Turno-ver in the sector was also down as the average price rise was not suffi-cient to compensate for the declin-ing volumes. The turnover of the mussel industry has been declining for the past five years due to a com-bination of declining volumes and average prices .

Production in the Dutch mussel sector is characterised by two main activities :- Seed collection- Ongrowing

As opposed to most French and Spanish mussel production, mus-sel seed used by the Dutch industry is collected actively. The juvenile mussels are harvested with dredg-ers on coastal sandbanks. Ninety-five percent of the seed originates from the Sea of Wadden (north western Netherlands) and the harvesting season is concentrated between the months October and December.

The seed are then relaid or “sown” on ongrowing beds, which are located in areas sheltered from storms and drifts. The total pro-duction cycle of a mussel range between 2 to 3 years depending on the size of the harvested seed and the abundance of nutrients in the ongrowing zones.

Most of the companies involved in seed collection or ongrowing activi-ties do not take part in the market-ing of their product. Their produc-tion is sold via direct contracts with processors or via the auction in Yerseke to the highest bidder, but in both cases mussels still have to

transit by the auction in order to register the sale. Ninety percent of the sales take place between the months July and August.

The Dutch processing market is dominated by seven major com-panies, commonly named the “big seven”. These buyers take care of the processing (cleaning or cooking even if most of the Dutch production is sold fresh), packag-ing, marketing and distribution of mussels. Some of them have built very strong brands, which is quite rare in the fresh seafood sector where most products are usually sold unbranded. Processors have

Fish products sourced by all the major Dutch retailers will have to Marine Stewardship Council or GlobalGAP (for aquaculture) certified by 2011, putting further pressure on the cutter fleet.

Research is ongoing with the objective of getting boats to switch to more fuel-efficient ways of fishing such as fly shooting, twin rigging, and Scottish and Danish purse seining

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nEthErlands

also been very dynamic in devel-oping new packaging (vacuum packed among others) that have helped remove some of the incon-venience of buying fresh mussels in dripping plastic bags!

The Dutch mussel sector is today confronted with a possible ban on wild seed collection due to the potential impact of active seed harvesting on sea floors. The mus-sel fishing community still points to the absence of proof concern-ing the real impact of these activi-ties on the marine environment. The sector even believes these activities enhance natural pro-ductivity by relaying the seeds in sheltered areas where ongrowing is optimum as most seeds would otherwise be washed away from the exposed sandbanks of the Wadden Sea.

The debate on this issue is very heated in the Netherlands as the ban on active seed collec-tion would threaten the survival of the industry and could lead to the collapse of the entire mus-sel chain. Alternative solutions to the wild seed collection are currently being researched and some encouraging progress has been made using advanced rope

culture systems. But opinions diverge on the real potential of these techniques in Dutch waters and most operators agree that the sector would still require some amount of active seed collection in order to remain economically viable.

Aquaculture dominated by tilapia, catfish, eel

Fish farming in the Netherland is entirely based on recirculation systems. The level of expertise and know how gained since the start of this technologies at the begin-ning of the nineties is impressive. Dutch fish production remains

relatively small on a EU scale with production levels at around 10 000 t but the sector has expe-rienced a steady growth over the past 10 years.

Three species dominate the fish production landscape in the Netherlands: tilapia, catfish and eel.

Eel is a very traditional and popu-lar species in the Netherlands. Eel fishing has been practiced for centuries in the country and eel farming originated at the end of the 1970’s. Eel farming is consid-ered the start of commercial fish farming in the Netherlands and

Dutch eel production now ac-counts for around 4500 t. The sec-tor is very fragmented with more than 50 companies involved. This equals to average production lev-els of less than 100t per company which is considered small by EU standards. Only one farmer has a production level higher than 300 t.

This sector is therefore very likely to undergo a process of restruc-turing in the years ahead due to changes in the production envi-ronment. Fish meal and oil prices will impact the cost of fish feed further, and restrictions on trade of eels (that has recently been put on annex II of the Convention on International Trade in Endan-gered Species (CITES)) will mean supply of glass eel will become increasingly problematic. These two developments will mean that small farmers will not be able to offset increases in input prices by economies of scale and will have to seek partnerships in order to survive.

The catfish farmed in the Neth-erlands is the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) which has been produced since the 1980’s. This catfish is a relatively easy

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0,000,180,360,540,720,901,081,261,441,621,80

Landings (000 t) Turnover (mln EUR) Average price (EUR/kg)

2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/20082000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008

Source : LEI/Productschap Vis

Evolution of landings, turnover and average prices of Dutch mussel production

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1995 2004 2005 2006 2007 20081995 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Source: GfK pannel/Productschap vis

Canned Frozen Fresh

Mar

ket s

hare

(col

ume

prod

uct w

eigh

t)

Share of the different products on the Dutch household market

The high seas fisheries fleet targets small pelagics all over the Atlantic from Norway to West Africa and comprises a few, very big, vessels.


nEthErlands

species to farm, as it can sup-port high stocking densities and presents low oxygen demands. Thanks to the availability of cov-ered space and waste disposal pits numerous pig farmers de-cided to join the adventure dur-ing the 1980’s. This resulted in overproduction and the market crashed in 1985. The number of companies involved in produc-tion went down from 60 in 1985 to 30 in 1987 according to the In-stitute for Agriculture Econom-ics (Landbouw Ekonomische Instituut (LEI)).

Integration has been continuous since that time and there were around 35 companies involved in catfish farming in 2005, for a total production of around 4000t. Av-erage farm size is thus somewhat higher than for eel farming as it is just above 100 t per farm but is still low compared to EU standards. As in eel farming, only a few pro-ducers (4) have production levels above 300 t.

Tilapia is the third important spe-cies in terms of volume farmed in the Netherlands with production levels at around 600 t in 2006. Production levels may have been much higher in 2007 and 2008, but no data is available to con-firm this development.

Alongside these species that present commercially viable volumes, there are numerous developments happening in the Netherlands regarding new spe-cies. Trials are currently under-way for pike perch, catfish hybrid species, tropical shrimp, sole, sea bass, barramundi to only cite a few. So even if Dutch aquaculture remains low in terms of volume, it makes it up by its dynamism and can today be considered to be at the forefront of the development of recirculation technologies in the EU.

The flat fish processing industry reinvents itself

The processing and wholesale sector is a very varied and dy-namic sector in the Netherlands. According to a study for the Dutch Institute of Agriculture economy (LEI 2006), this sector was made up of around 300 companies for a total turnover of around EUR2.7 billion a 13% increase since the year 2000. Sixty percent of this ac-tivity was generated by SME’s with a turnover of between EUR 5 and

540 million.The degree of concen-tration of the sector is quite limit-ed with the four main companies representing around 20% of the total turnover.

The processing sector in the Neth-erlands used to be traditionally fo-cused on the main species landed on its shores. Herring, flat fish spe-cies (sole, plaice) and shrimps have for a long time formed the basis of the Dutch processing industry. But the influence of the environmental (relocation or diminution of fish

stocks) and regulatory constraints (quotas, fleet reduction and fish-ing bans) has gradually led to a reduction of supply from domestic production.

The processing sector thus had to find alternative supply source, first European then worldwide to keep its level of activity. Domestic sup-ply continues to form a major part of the processing supply, but its share has been steadily declining over the past few years.

The flat fish processing remains the primary segment of the industry with around 25% of the total turno-ver of the sector, but results have been stagnating over the past few years. This is mostly linked to the efforts this sector had to dedicate to finding new supply sources and developing their product range in order to compensate for the di-minishing domestic supply.

The main species used by this seg-ment are traditionally sole and plaice, mostly processed to filets, breaded or frozen products. In order to compensate for the de-cline in domestic production of these species, new species have been introduced in the product range, namely Alaska plaice (Pleu-ronectes quadrituberculatus), yel-lowfin sole (Limanda aspera) or rock sole (Lepidopsetta bilineata) to mention a few.

New products such as ready to eat meals, breaded or surimi products are also being added to the prod-uct range in order to diversify the activities and reduce the depend-ency on flat fish species which has proved to be a significant weak-ness for this segment.

The share of flat fish species still remains dominant in this sub sec-tor but growth segments are nowa-days to be found in the new prod-uct range. Some companies even

Source: COMEX

Others

Belgium 13%

France 13%

Germany 13%

Italy 13%

Spain 11%

Nigeria 4%

Portugal 4%

Switzerland 4%

United Kingdom 4%

China 3%

Distribution of Dutch exports by countries of destination (value)

The processing sector has a lot of depth with about 300 companies and a turnover of about EUR2.7bn a 13% increase since 2000.


nEthErlands

report these new products now currently account for 25% of their turnover from zero five years ago.

Companies operating in this sector are fully focused on the European market with a preference for south-ern countries such as Italy and Spain. In 2005, around 85% of the turnover of the sector was drawn from export activities.

Major European markets (Ger-many, France, Spain and Italy) are the main recipients of Dutch ex-ports. Belgium, not a particularly large market nor one very focused on seafood also accounts for an im-

portant share of Dutch trade. This can be explained by the geographic proximity of both countries but also because Belgians are particularly fond of some Dutch products such as fresh mussels (which account for around 30% of value of Dutch exports towards Belgium), brown shrimp or “maatjes”.

Italy is a major market for flat fishes and freshwater fish filets (mostly pangasius and Nile perch) as well as tropical shrimps. Exports to Germany are mostly composed of shrimps and fish fillets (both freshwater and marine) while the French demand for Dutch product

focuses on mussels, shrimps and fillets of firewater fish (Nile perch and pangasius mostly). Nigeria and China are the main destination of Dutch exports in terms of volume due to the large quantities of small pelagic species supplied to these markets. But the low unit price of these species explain the much lower importance of these markets in terms of value.

Dutch market, household consumption

on the rise

The Dutch household market absorbed around 56 000 tonnes

(product weight) of products from fisheries and aquaculture. Ac-cording to the GfK panel carried out every year in the Netherlands, consumption has been increas-ing constantly since 2003. The total increase in volume over the period amounts to around 20% representing an annual average growth of close to 4%. Growth in consumption has however slowed down over the past two years to 2% and 1% in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Market share of canned products has declined constantly on the Dutch market for the past 10 years.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 20061998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Source: FEAP, Productschap vis and LEI

Catfish Total Eels Total Tilapias Total

´000

t

Production volumes per species in the Netherlands

0,00

1,75

3,50

5,25

7,00

8,75

10,50

12,25

14,00

Pangasius (fresh) Pangasius (forzen)

2005 2006 2007 20082005 2006 2007 2008

Source : Productschap vis:panel Gfk

Evolution of pangasius market share on the fresh and frozen market for household consumption

Eel, catfish and tilapia dominate farmed fish production, but trial on a number of other species including pike perch, sole and barramundi are also being carried out.

Consumption of seafood by Dutch households has increased consistently since 2003 to reach 56,000 tonnes in 2008

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The frozen segment that had been constantly growing over the past 4 years showed a slight decline in 2008. This decline would have been even steeper were it not for the dynamism of pangasius sales.The fresh market is growing slowly in line with the developments of the past few years.

In the general value-ranking of all species and products “maatjes” (lightly salted raw herring) re-mains the first product in value on the Dutch market this thanks to the developments in terms of packag-ing that have enabled an increase in the shelf life of these delicate products while ensuring broader market penetration. Salmon occu-pies the next places on the list with all its different product forms.

As mentioned above the progres-sion of pangasius on the Dutch market, in line with consumption patterns in most European mar-kets, has been impressive. In the course of five years this species has gained a 13% market share of the frozen segment in a period of overall stagnation of this seg-ment on the Dutch market. In the fresh segment where pangasius is sold thawed its market share has climbed to close to 6 %.

The fisheries side of the Dutch seafood sector is currently expe-riencing a deep economic and environmental crisis that will lead to profound changes in the Dutch production landscape.

The aquaculture sector has to confirm its potential and espe-cially show it can reach com-mercially viable productions in terms of new species.

The processing industry will continue to dominate the Dutch seafood sector by the level of activity it represents and will re-main a major supplier of the EU seafood markets, continuously finding new source of supply and activities in order to compensate for the decline of domestic pro-duction.

Dutch household consumption is increasing boosted among others by the development of new packaging technologies that have enabled the revival of traditional products such as “maatjes” and by the fact that Dutch consumers seem to be welcoming new species on their markets, with pangasius leading the bandwagon.

Gilles van de Walle, Eurofish

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

tonn

s pr

oduc

t wei

ght

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 20082003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Source : pannel GfK/Productschap vis, year 2008 based on projections from figures for 1st half of the year.

Evolution of household consumption of fisheries and aquaculture products on the Dutch market (tonnes product weight)


We want to make the mar-ket for every kind of fish that is of significance to

Anova. We want to be the company that invests most in sustainability to ensure continuous, long-term business.” That is how manager Willem Huisman describes Anova Food’s philosophy. With sales of about 200 million euros the im-port and wholesale company from ‘s-Hertogenbosch is in the mean-

time one of the biggest fish com-panies in The Netherlands. The import of about 50,000 tonnes of fish products every year from countries outside Europe and the organisation of the necessary sales logistics constitute the company’s strengths. Anova Food was one of the first companies to supply fresh and frozen Lake Victoria perch to the European market (as from 1994) and they are today among the

leading companies in this segment. In Germany, they see themselves as the undisputed market leader. The company claims that nearly half of the Lake Victoria perch traded in Europe passes fresh or frozen through their hands. That is about 250 to 300 tonnes per week. Cargo planes land the fresh fish daily in Holland, Belgium, France and Germany. Anova is one of the few companies that has its own of-

fice and its own staff in Africa and this has paid off in times of crisis, such as in the recent past in Kenya. Despite the political unrest it was still possible to maintain market supplies.

Certificate for Lake Victoria perch

“During the last few years we reworked our whole product

Anova Food launches a new farmed fish called claresse

Range of sustainable productsAnova Food from ‘s-Hertogenbosch developed as an importer of Lake Victoria perch but is in the meantime also one of the leading trading companies for pangasius, tilapia, and tuna. They have now entered the aquaculture sector with the new farmed fish ‘claresse’ which is expected to be available on the German market as from autumn.

Hendrik Colpaert, Heiner Geurden, Willem Huisman:

“During the last few years we reworked our complete product range with regard to sustainability because demand for such products is getting higher and higher particularly among food retailers.”

nEthErlands

range with regard to sustain-ability because demand for such products is getting higher and higher particularly among food retailers”, explains Hendrick Colpaert. Their latest project is a co-operation with a fishermen’s organisation in Bukoba (Tan-zania) whose products are to be certified by ‘Naturland’. “Not only ecological aspects, but also socio-economic issues are im-portant. Education and health care of the fishermen’s organisa-tion are taken into account just as much as sustainable handling of the resource”, emphasizes Colpaert who is responsible for marketing and retail business at Anova. The company is current-ly involved in a pilot phase and hopes to launch the first certi-fied Lake Victoria perch onto the market in autumn.

New farmed fish claresse

Anova has further plans for au-tumn: the introduction of a new farmed fish that bears the name ‘claresse’. This freshwater fish (Heteroclarias spp) is a natural cross-breed of two fishes from the catfish family and it is farmed in Holland. “We have complete con-trol and traceability with regard to feed, farming conditions and processing”, says Heiner Geurden, the Anova sales manager for Ger-man-speaking countries. Farming is carried out in two locations in enclosed recirculation systems and plans already exist for three further potential farms which can be realised if market success ne-cessitates. “We need eight months from the egg to the slaughtering stage. The FCR is less than 1” ex-

plained manager Huisman. The feed conversion rate is stated in re-lation to the live weight of the fish. A value of less than 1 thus means that less than one kilogram of feed is required to produce one kilo-gram of live fish weight. The first

fishes should be ready for harvest-ing in autumn. The company plans to increase production to 10,000 tonnes within three years.

The research and selection proc-ess took four years to obtain a fish

Participant Stand location

A.C.V. B.V 1001-3

Bertus-Dekker Seafood B.V. 1015-2

Dayseaday Fresh – Dayseaday Frozen 1101-1

Dutch Fish Marketing Board 1001/1015/1101

Isolafish B.V. 1001-1

Koninklijke Prins & Dingemanse 1101-3

Neptunus B.V. 1001-5

Noordzee International B.V. 1101-2

Northseafood Holland B.V. 1015-1

Platvis Holland B.V. 1101-4

Visscher Seafood B.V. 1001-2

Surf to www.dutchfish.nl for more information on the Dutch participants at the ESE.

Dutch Fish Marketing BoardP.O. Box 72, 2280 AB Rijswijk, The NetherlandsTel. +31 70 336 96 55, Fax +31 70 395 29 50e-mail: [email protected]

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Anova supports the traditional artisanal fishery for yellowfin and albacore in Indonesia.


nEthErlands

that appeals to a broad public. The result is fish meat of a firm con-sistency and mild flavour with-out tasting too much of fish. In raw condition the meat has a fine structure and a pink-white col-our. It has a clear V-cut that arises when the bones are removed. The fish fillet is available in 100-200 g and 200-400 portions and can be fried, braised or cooked in the oven or grill. Small-scale sales to hotels, restaurants and the retail trade are already underway in Belgium and Holland to test con-sumer reactions.

Own standards for pangasius and tilapia

In order to gain control of the whole production chain from re-production to the fillet (as is the case for production of claresse) Anova developed two company-owned production standards for pangasius and tilapia: “Trace Panga” and “Trace Tilapia”. These standards stipulate feed composition, pond conditions, stock density, medication, and numerous other parameters. Apart from that, whenever fish-

Anova plans to introduce a new farmed fish called ‘claresse’ in autumn. This freshwater fish (Heteroclarias spp) is a natural cross-breed of two fishes from the catfish family and it is farmed in Holland.

Under the umbrella brand Anova Gourmet the importer has developed a frozen range that is sold via the grocery sector.

Anova Food BVHambakenwetering 155231 DD `s-HertogenboschTel.: +31 73 75 02 000Fax: +31 73 75 02 001www.anovafood.com

Company locations and offices: Vietnam, Indonesia, USA, Kenya, France

Business: Import/ export, wholesale

Owners/ managers: Constant Mulder, Willem Huisman

Sales territory: EuropeMain fish species: Lake Victoria

perch, tilapia, pangasius, wild salmon, catfish, claresse, tuna

Brands: AnovaCustomers: Grocery, industry,

wholesalers, C&C markets, bulk users

Sales: 200 m EURExport share: 80 %Main export countries: Germany,

France, Spain, ItalyTrade volume: 50,000 t per yearNo. employees: 100

Anova Company Fact File

es from these programmes are processed, Anova staff mem-bers are present in the factories to monitor production. “Our Trace Panga standards are such that our programme is used as a basis for the development of the global GAP standards for the production of pangasius”, we were told – not without some pride. The farmed fish from Vi-etnam is so important to Anova today that they now run their own office in Ho Chi Minh City. Apart from that, they also have a plant in Holland in which up to 800 tonnes of frozen products are professionally defrosted per month whereby the products are microbiologically controlled and their shelf-life extended.

Support of sustainable tuna fishery

Anova has also given thought to the topic of sustainability in the tuna segment. They support the traditional artisanal fishery for yellowfin and albacore in Indo-nesia. “That means we have suc-ceeded in combining optimal quality with control of sustain-ability”, explained Hendrick Col-paert. As in other projects the

company had gladly co-oper-ated with NGOs and in this case had together with the WWF de-veloped a new hook that greatly reduced by-catches of turtles. According to Colpaert the fish-ery is now at the stage of MSC certification and the company expects to be able to offer MSC tuna in just a few months’ time.

New frozen range for the grocery sector

Under the umbrella brand Ano-va Gourmet the importer has developed a frozen food range that is sold via the grocery sec-tor. The products include fillets of tilapia, Lake Victoria perch, tuna, wild salmon, yellowfin sole and pangasius (kebabs, too) in 600-g bags. “Germany is an important market for Anova and accounts for 25% of total sales”, said Heiner Geurden. Anova is expecting demand for the new bag range to be good “because the big chains are today look-ing for suppliers that can offer socially and environmentally correct products“, says Manager Willem Huisman. “Our sustain-able product range meets this need.” nik

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A considerable ensemble of coldstores, production and administration build-

ings was erected in Schulpengat 9 in Urk over the past years. “Since we extended our cold storage de-pot by 1,700 square metres in 2006 we have been able to store a total of 2,000 pallets – that is more than one million kilograms of fish” says Lub Romkes, the sales manager for frozen products at Dayseaday. The company trades both fresh and frozen products but the share of frozen products is growing above average. “Three years ago

we were receiving one container per week but in the meantime we get four 40 foot containers with about 80 tonnes every week – over all the different species.” North Sea fish is important for the com-pany, too. This comes from differ-ent auctions – including the local auction in Urk which is less than 400 metres away.

Top quality under the brand ’Seataste’

Part of Dayseaday’s growth comes from the business seg-

ments for those species that are particularly popular: pangasius in different colours, glazings and packagings, tilapia, yellowfin sole and rock sole, shark, tuna and swordfish, surimi sticks and squid tubes. Niche products also play a role. The company has just sold ten tonnes of milkfish (Chanos chanos) from Indone-sia. This product is in demand in Indonesian supermarkets in The Netherlands and on ships that call at the port of Rotterdam. Keta salmon (chum) from the Sea of Okhotsk, which was for

Dayseaday opts for air transport and frozen fish

Day-fresh from the auction–non-drip onto the planeDayseaday, a wholesale company for fresh and frozen seafood, is a specialist for air transport of fresh fish – whether to Eastern Europe, Israel, Greece or North America. The frozen segment in particular is enjoying increasing sales volume: following the construction of a new cold storage depot there is now room for 2,000 pallets of products. The company holds MSC certification for both segments.

Lub Romkes and Jacob van Veen: ”In the European fish trade everyone does everything. We therefore specialise in additional fields – air freight, new customers in Eastern Europe, or a broad range of oysters.“

a long time only demanded on account of its caviar and mainly canned, is in the meantime of higher commercial significance and so is now in demand as a fro-zen product, too, and even used for sushi. In order to maintain a strong presence on the impor-tant sourcing market Asia, Day-seaday has its own office in Chi-na. Exotic species are purchased from the Dalian office where the freight and export documents are also prepared. A further of-fice is now to be opened in Vi-etnam. Dayseaday established its own brand “Seataste” for top qualities in 2005. “Seataste guar-antees that you get la crème de la crème!” is the wholesaler’s advertising slogan. The rest of the product range fulfils high quality standards, too, however. Jacob van Veen: “We only trade one hundred per cent natural products without any additives.”

Air export of fish to Eastern Europe,

Israel and USA

Dayseaday is specialising in-creasingly in the fresh fish seg-ment. “All the fish traders here in Europe do the same thing”, says Jacob van Veen, the sales manager for fresh fish, pinpoint-ing the situation. Dayseaday therefore focuses on air exports, especially to Eastern Europe: “There is almost more money in the capitals of Eastern European countries than there is here; numerous millionaires – and they want to eat sole, tuna and oysters.”

There are regular flights to the airports in Moscow, Kiev, St. Pe-tersburg, Almaty in Kazakhstan and Bucharest, but also to Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel, and to Boston and New York in the USA. During the summer Dayseaday flies goat-fishes (barbet rouge) three times a week to the Greek towns of Thessaloniki and Athens. “The local fishermen cannot supply

the amount of fish demanded by the numerous tourists during these months”, explains Jacob van Veen. The goatfishes are purchased at the Urk auction just 400 metres from the compa-ny in the morning and just one hour later they are already at the Amsterdam airport Schiphol. Dayseaday in the meantime dis-patches eight to ten tonnes of fresh fish per week as air freight.

Dayseaday established the brand “Seataste“ for top qualities in 2005. “Seataste guarantees that you get la crème de la crème!” The rest of the product range fulfils high quality standards, too, however.

Dayseaday fillets fresh fish for the whole of Europe: Muscovites want fresh sole, too, and goatfishes are flown to Thessaloniki or Athens in Greece during the summer months for tourists.

Dayseaday B.V.Schulpengat 9NL-8321 WC UrkP.O. Box 154NL-8320 AD UrkNetherlandsTel.: +31 527 – 68 46 84Fax: +31 527 – 68 59 53E-mail: [email protected]

Business: Wholesaler for fresh and frozen fish

Directors: Jelle and Henk van VeenFresh fish sales: Jacob van

Veen, Henk van Veen, Marnix Westerink, Jonathan Kramer

Frozen fish sales: Lub Romkes, K. W. Koffeman, Hendrik van Veen, Jelle van Veen

Product range: Over 100 kinds of fish, shellfish, crustaceans and molluscs (fresh and frozen)

Customers: C&C markets, wholesalers, restaurants

Export: WorldwideNo. employees: 40Founded: 1987Certificates: HACCP, BRC-B, IFS,

USA-FDA-recognition, MSC

Dayseaday Company Fact File

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Dayseaday also offers fish from sustainable fisheries: plaice from Urk fishermen who do not use the disputed beam trawls, or fish from MSC certified fisheries. The company has been certified since spring 2008.

Airfreight packaging made of cardboard,

polystyrene and plastic

Last year Dayseaday set up its own packing hall for the com-

pany’s airfreight. Because the fish is usually transported as additional freight on passenger flights, non-drip and odour-free packaging is an absolute must. “We use the packaging of

an English producer. It consists of an outer carton and an inner plastic and polystyrene packag-ing, and it is cooled using pads”, says Henk van Veen to describe the BEPX airfreight fishbox. At a

Dayseaday’s sales volume is rising particularly in the frozen fish segment. In the meantime four 40 foot containers arrive at the company every week. Since the completion of a new coldstore in 2006 there has been room for 2,000 pallets.

price of 2.50 €, the ten kilogram pack costs about twice as much as a conventional transport box would. Because the East-ern European customers want to buy all their products from one source – be it sole, mussels, tuna or mahi mahi – Dayseaday puts together fish from Nor-way, Scotland, France, Indone-sia and India in the air freight department.

MSC fish and plaice without using

beam trawls

Dayseaday will soon be ready to supply fish from sustainable fisheries, too. In spring 2008 both the fresh fish and the fro-zen department were awarded a Chain of Custody Certificate by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). “The first container with MSC products is already on its way from China and we expect to be able to begin trading some fresh MSC products very soon”, said Jacob van Veen. Plaice from local fishermen who do not use the disputed beam trawls is also on the Dayseaday product list. Although the MSC products are 10 to 15 per cent more expensive than conventional fish, custom-ers seem willing to pay the differ-ence. In the face of limited avail-ability of products from certified fisheries, Van Veen is still rather sceptical, however, about the ex-tent to which it will be possible to satisfy demand.

Traditional markets continue to be important to Dayseaday, too, among them Germany and France, and in Scandinavia Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The company also exports to England and Ireland, Italy and Spain, Austria and Switzerland. The subsidiary Veba-Transport takes care of deliveries to large areas of Europe. bm

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Not only in terms of space, but also with regard to other inputs such as water

and energy. For years the Dutch have been developing and refining production techniques that have made their greenhouses highly technical installations where every parameter – water, temperature, light, humidity, carbon dioxide, nutrients – is carefully calibrated and controlled by specially de-signed computers and software.

Seeking new ways of improving efficiency, a consortium of Dutch companies, Priva, Groen Agro Control, GreenQ and Aqua-Terra Nova, set up the EcoFutura project in January 2007 to explore the possibility of linking the cultiva-tion of tomatoes with the growing of fish, specifically, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). This is a warm water species, a native of Af-rica and widely cultivated in other parts of the world. By linking the cultivation of fish to that of plants and by recycling water, heat, and space the project aimed to ascer-tain whether fish cultivation could be made more sustainable than it would be as an isolated activity.

Growing fish and plants together is a field known as aquaponics. The word is a combination of aquacul-ture and hydroponics, the soil-less culture of plants. In hydroponic systems a single water system con-nects the fish and plants so that

nutrients from the growth of the fish, which would be toxic for the fish if allowed to accumulate are used as fertiliser for the plants. The water, now stripped of its mineral content, is reintroduced to the fish. The EcoFutura system, however, differs from typical aquaponic systems in that the water system that is used for the fish can be dis-connected from the vegetables. The quality of vegetables grown in greenhouses is very high and in the EcoFutura project the aim was to produce vegetables with-out compromising on the quality at all. It was therefore necessary to be able to separate the two types of cultivation from each other in case of situations that demanded the use of medicines or other products in either the fish or the tomatoes.

By detaching the systems in such cases the drugs or other product will be confined to the crop for which it was intended and will not have any impact on the other.

Apart from recycling the water the EcoFutura project also used the carbon dioxide produced by the fish to grow the plants. Usually the carbon dioxide produced by fish is released in to the atmosphere, but here it is captured and used by the plants conferring a double benefit. By using the carbon diox-ide to grow the plants the tomato crop benefits and because all the carbon dioxide generated by the fish is used up in this way the en-tire project is carbon neutral. The temperature in a greenhouse is also good for growing tropical fish, but new greenhouse designs cre-ate a heat surplus that can be used to warm the water for the fish, thus saving on energy. The project also showed that even space can be recycled. Space is at a premium in a greenhouse, where productivity is measured in value per square meter. In the EcoFutura project the tilapia were grown under the tomatoes thereby increasing the efficiency of the space used.

The EcoFutura project was a dem-onstration project to test new ideas and concepts. It had a two year life cycle and was limited to 600 square meters of space in to-tal. In December 2008 the project

was closed down after confirming that the concept was technically feasible. EcoFutura’s economic vi-ability will only be confirmed after the project is scaled up to a com-mercial level, but the indications are encouraging.

The researchers learnt that the main benefit accrued to the fish production which worked out some 10% cheaper than a fish production facility not linked to a greenhouse. However, farm-ing fish in recirculation systems in Europe is a highly competitive business and this was also what the project experienced. However the results were positive enough to attract to the concept another two ideas are currently being dis-cussed; one that combines aqua-culture with the growth of roses, and another that links fish grow-ing again with tomatoes. In addi-tion another project on a smaller scale is being implemented at the agricultural college in Zwolle which will be based on tilapia and daisys, an ornamental plant. For Priva, one of the partners in the consortium, the advantage of particpating in the EcoFutura project was to establish whether it was at all feasible to combine fish farming and horticulture. The les-sons that have been learned will enable the company to develop expertise in the aquacuture sector which is a relatively new field of business. Priva is primarily a de-veloper of automated climate and process control systems for the horticulture industry as well as for buildings and much experience in water treatment, an area that is of great significance to the recircu-lated aquaculture industry.

For more information contact:Willem KemmersPriva, Zijlweg 32678 LC De Lier, [email protected] +31 174 533 509

EcoFutura grows tomatoes with tilapia

Horticulture linked with aquacultureWith its high population density (484 inhabitants per square km), the Netherlands is one of the world’s most efficient growers of fruits and vegetables. Dutch exports of fruit and vegetables amounted to EUR8.2bn in 2005, and if all agricultural products are considered the Netherlands is the worlds second largest exporter after the US.

The EcoFutura project conclusively proved the technical feasibility of growing tomatoes together with tilapia. The fish production worked out to about 10% cheaper than in a standalone setup.

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Together the three fish com-panies operate five plants in The Netherlands: in

Spakenburg (2 plants), Urk, Kla-zienaveen and Enschede. Now they are pooling their resources to bring together expertise and pro-duction know-how in segments like buying and selling, logistics and product development. The aim of this co-operation is to be able to react more substantially than before to the fast changing requirements of the market.

“For us, future orientation means co-operating more closely and where possible searching for ways to offer our customers a better product and optimal service.“ This understanding of partnership is also expressed in our name”, says

Peter Frans Koelewijn, the man-ager of FishPartners. They were not only aiming at a partnership with the sister companies within the Kennemervis Group, how-ever, but also at partnership with suppliers and customers. “In a world in which not only the com-plete traceability of a product is vital but where aspects like health and convenience are becoming increasingly important, co-opera-tion within the chain is a prereq-uisite for success.

This pooling of resources will not lead to changes in the three named locations: the aim is to ensure the continuity of specific product and market know-how and to maintain the profes-sional competence of local staff.

With this approach FishPartners hopes to extend its customer base and deepen business relation-ships through new products and co-operation options.

Brief description of the companies concerned:

Gravis (Spakenburg) is active in international buying, selling and processing of many differ-ent kinds of fresh and frozen fish. In the sales sector the company mainly sells to mobile traders and wholesalers, as well as to fishmon-gers and the processing industry. Gravis also plays a major role in the matje herring market thanks to its connections with the sister company Werner Larsson in Den-mark. An important element of

the company is the ultra-modern smokehouse in Urk which is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment.

Muys (Spakenburg) is a relatively small but specialised supplier that mainly serves the retail trade. In addition to its function as a supplier of a wide variety of fish, Muys also has a plant in Klazien-aveen which produces high-qual-ity, hand-trimmed matje herring.

Eldoro (Enschede) has been ac-tive for many years on the German market with a range of fish prod-ucts that is particularly adapted to the expectations and taste of Ger-man consumers. The company has also made itself a name as a supplier of high-quality specially marinated products.

Three companies merge to create FishPartners

Kennemervis Group changes its structureThree Dutch fish companies – Gravis, Muys and Eldoro – have combined their individual strengths under the corporate umbrella “FishPartners”. Up to the end of 2008 the three firms had operated as independent units within the Kennemervis Group which comprises ten firms in six European countries.

Under the umbrella of the Dutch Kennemervis Group three previously independent companies have merged to form the new company FishPartners which also serves the German market.


The list of supply countries is long. Karel Hoeve imports fish and all kinds of sea-

food specialities from nearly 20 countries. The company chooses fresh products where possible and only accepts frozen fish if it is hardly available otherwise on the world market. The deliveries arrive in Ijmuiden on the west

coast of Holland by road or air (via Schiphol, Frankfurt and Liège). After control, filleting and order picking they are immediately dis-patched to the customer. Salmon, saithe and turbot are the three top products in the range. Other im-portant products are swordfish, tuna and fresh scallops. Chinese mitten crab is in the meantime

a speciality that has recently be-come more and more prolific in the Ijsselmeer.

Germany the main export country

In Holland, which accounts for about 50% of total sales (2007: 34 m EUR) , Hoeve mainly sells to

Cash&Carry markets, wholesal-ers and suppliers to hotels and restaurants. “We offer our com-plete range in Germany, too”, says Willem Hoeve, who manages the company in its second genera-tion. Sales to Germany, the most important export country, ac-count for 15 to 20 per cent of total business. Spain, Italy and France

Sea fish wholesaler Karel Hoeve celebrates silver jubilee

Fresh fish from all over the worldJanuary marked 25 years of business for the sea fish wholesaler Karel Hoeve from Ijmuiden in Holland. Founded as an import company it is today also an exporter with buyers in the German market, too. The business is expanding and over the past few years Hoeve regularly registered double-digit percentage increases in sales.

Willem Hoeve: ”We offer our complete product range in Germany, too.“

Turbot is one of the three most traded fish species. The company mainly sells fresh products, and frozen products are the exception.


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are also important for the export business.

Fransis Asselman and Dirk Grunstra are responsible for sales to the German market. Deliveries are mainly made to wholesalers close to the border in the conurba-tions of the Ruhr region which is about 400 km from Ijmuiden and receives deliveries from Ijmuiden up to four times per week. Karel Hoeve has their own fleet of trucks for these deliveries but uses ex-ternal carriers for supplies to the south of Germany (three times a week) due to the longer dis-tance. The minimum order level is 250 kg. “We are not the cheapest supplier but we don’t compromise on quality”, is how Hoeve describes the wholesaler’s philosophy. “Only the best is good enough” is also written on the packing crates. Products that do not come up to this requirement do not even start their journey to the customer. And this attitude has proved its worth. According to the owner, during the past few years the company grew at an average rate of between 15 and 17% per year and in the meantime employs 35 people. Hoeve sees the high product turnover – despite the broad spectrum and depth of the range – as an outstanding fea-ture of his company. nik

Fransis Asselman (l.) and Dirk Grunstra are responsible for sales to the German market.

The deliveries arrive in Ijmuiden by road. After control, filleting and order picking they are immediately dispatched to the customer.

Karel Hoeve Ijmuiden BVHalkade 161976 DC IjmuidenTel.: +31 255 54 60 60Fax: +31 255 51 32 60www.karalhoeve.nlE-mail: [email protected]

Business: Import/ export, wholesale

Owner/ manager: Willem HoeveSales territory: Holland, Germany,

Spain, Italy, France

Product range: Fresh fish, crustaceans, shellfish, molluscs, marinades, smoked fish

Customers: C&C markets, wholesalers, suppliers to hotels and restaurants

No. customers: 250-300Sales: 34 m EURExport share: 50%Main export countries: Germany,

Spain, ItalyFounded: 1983No. employees: 35

Karel Hoeve Company Fact File


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The trend towards concen-tration is visible throughout our industry. And Rodé Vis’

new salmon smokehouse is a reac-tion to customers recruited from wholesalers and national grocery chain stores whose number is diminishing but who are higher-volume buyers. “We have to dem-onstrate that we can serve the big customers, too – that is why we made this investment”, is the reason Manager Tjeerd Hoekstra gives for the company extension in Schulpengat in the industrial area of Urk. The new smokehouse took seven months to build and went into operation in July 2008. It is an attractive two-storey build-ing. The front is silver with bold red and blue demarcation lines. The ‘Zalmrokerij’ has its produc-tion area on the ground floor; the administration and social rooms are on the second floor. “The new building means we can easily cope with annual increases of 10 to 20 per cent. We ultimately want to double the 2007 result by 2010 or 2011”, outlined Hoekstra the devel-opment target. Daily production at the smokehouse is today about 15 tonnes of finished products.

Only 30 hours from the farm to production

The smokehouse is part of the Rodé Vis Group which is special-ised in salmon. Tjeerd Hoekstra

reckons that this fish species ac-counts for about 60 per cent of business. The salmon mainly come from Norway but also from Scot-land, Ireland, and recently Alaska, too. Whether fresh, smoked, proc-essed to ready-to-eat convenience products or frozen, about six Rodé Vis departments are mainly in-volved with processing salmon. 95 per cent of the raw materials come from cages owned by their Norwegian partner Bolak, a fam-ily business on the west coast of Norway. The close co-operation with Bolaks gives Rodé a freshness advantage over producers that buy via a trader and have their fish loaded in a collection centre. “If we load the salmon directly on the farm on a Monday evening it arrives here on Wednesday morn-ing – that means it takes only 30 hours to get to Holland.” Hoekstra rates the quality of the Bolaks fish highly: firm flesh, low fat content and an attractive dark colour. And the farmer is committed to envi-ronmental protection, too. Bolaks uses special cages during the last growth phase of their salmon, for example. Conventional round cages are always left in the water, and algal growth means that they have to be cleaned every two to three months using chemicals. Because the salmon only spend the last two or three months of the grow-out period in these cages the nets can be hauled out of the water

Rodé Vis starts work in new smokehouse

Salmon specialist increases product and packaging varietyRodé has reacted to the increasing concentration and rising demands of their customers with the construction of a new salmon smokehouse. In their location in the Dutch fishing port of Urk, Rodé can now fulfil additional wishes, be it for organic salmon, wild salmon from MSC fisheries, for MAP packaging or small units of up to 100 g in cardboard slipcases.

Rodé Vis manager and sales manager Tjeerd Hoekstra: “We have to demonstrate that we can serve the big customers, too. That is why we invested.“

Rodé Vis B.V.Schulpengat 108321 WC UrkP.O. Box 548320 AB UrkNetherlandsTel.: +31 527 – 68 53 57Fax: +31 527 – 68 54 57E-mail: [email protected]

Business: Producer of fish and fish products

Subsidiaries: Rodé Vis Fresh, Royal Frozen Seafood, Royal Convenience Seafood, Rodé Retail, Holmefjord Lakseproduk-ter AS

Managers: Albert Dekens (Buying), Tjeerd Hoekstra (Sales)

Sales: Elias Bosma, Teunis KramerProduct range: Salmon products

(fresh, frozen, smoked, grilled, fried), MSC fish (Alaska pollack, wild Alaska salmon, Pacific hali-but, deepwater Cape hake, New Zealand hoki), sea fish, freshwa-ter fish (pike-perch, perch)

Brand: Rodé VisCustomers: Wholesalers, food

retailers, C&CMain export countries: Benelux,

Germany, Great BritainProduction volume: 15 t/ day

(finished product)Founded: 1988

Rodé Vis Company Fact File


and rolled onto a drum after har-vesting so that there is no chance for algae to settle on them.

The preliminary stages for the smoking process are carried out at Rodé Vis Fresh: here the salmon is filleted and subse-quently hand salted. Then, de-pending on the thickness and fat content of the fillet the fish is left to mature for between 24 and 36 hours before it is cold-smoked at Rodé Vis Smokery. It is then carefully trimmed. The smoke skin is removed very finely by a

machine for the Dutch market, for example.

New: MAP pack and cardboard slipcase

The smoked product range of Rodé Vis in the meantime com-prises the broad spectrum that can be considered a must in the business sector with the afore-mentioned big customers. Organ-ic salmon, wild sockeye salmon from MSC-certified fisheries and Scottish salmon are now available in addition to the classic Norwe-

gian salmon in pack sizes of 100 to 500 g and sides of Irish salmon in presentation boxes. Rodé Vis has also invested on a large scale in the packaging sector. MAP packs (200 and 500 g) score higher than vacuum packed products where flavour is concerned and guaran-tee easier separation of the indi-vidual salmon slices. This month Rodé will begin offering salmon in cardboard slipcases, also in small package sizes of 50 or 100 g.

Rodé Vis is more than just the smokehouse, however. Rodé Vis

Fresh processes a wide range of fresh fish species such as plaice and sole, which are mainly pur-chased at the auction in Urk. The subsidiary Royal Convenience Seafood fries, grills or braises salmon portions, for example, for other producers to use as components in ready meals. The target group for these products is company canteens and airline caterers but also food retailers. Royal Frozen Seafood, on the other hand, owns a freezer tunnel for iqf freezing and can store up to 360 tonnes of frozen products. Rodé Retail specialises in fresh-water fish – particularly pike-perch and perch from Ijsselmeer and Markermeer.

Daily routes to Benelux and Germany

The producer mainly takes care of distribution logistics itself, too. Five refrigerated trucks deliver products every day from all the different company sections to customers in the Benelux countries and Germany – frozen, fresh, and smoked. Smaller quantities of up to a pallet are delivered by a local carrier. bm

Tjeerd Hoekstra rates the quality of salmon from the Norwegian producer Bolaks highly: firm flesh, low fat content, and an attractive dark colour.

Rodé Vis has also made large-scale investments in the packaging segment. They now offer MAP packaging and salmon in cardboard slipcases, also in small sizes of 50 or 100 g.

Rodé Vis buys its Norwegian salmon from one of the pioneers of salmon farming, the Norwegian farming and processing enterprise Bolaks. Three brothers, Egil, Reidar und Trygve Holmefjord, founded the farming company at the end of 1975 and it has remained a family business up to this day. Trained as fishermen, they had already started the farm with the first 50 fishes in 1973. In 1976 they got their first production licence for salmon, trout and rainbow trout, and ten years later Bolaks was producing about one quarter of the roe in

Norway. Today Bolaks holds eight production and one fry licence. The smolts come from Sævareid Fiskeanlegg, one of the biggest hatcheries in Nor-way with a capacity of five million smolts. Bolaks holds a share in this hatchery.

The cages at seven of the currently operating farming locations in the region of Fusa – about 74 kilometres south east of Bergen – hold 16,380 tonnes of Atlantic salmon. Each salmon genera-tion is kept in a different fjord. The fish is proc-

essed and packaged at a company-owned plant in Eikelandsosen so that Bolaks controls produc-tion from the egg to export and can guarantee complete traceability. 6,900 tonnes of fish were filleted in 2005. The production target is in the meantime 10,000 tonnes. Marketing in Norway itself is carried out in co-operation with Holmef-jord Lakseprodukt. The products are exported to worldwide destinations. Under the management of Bjørg Mette Holmefjord Antonsen Bolaks today employs 18 people.

Bolaks – Norwegian salmon supplier to Rodé VisA pioneer of Norwegian salmon farming

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The situation in the Dutch flatfish industry has for nearly a decade been char-

acterised by falling quotas, lower export volume, and increasing concentration of suppliers. In Urk, the industry’s major location, even one of the biggest processors in the industry got into difficul-ties at the end of last year. In this environment the company Varia Vis has consistently succeeded in expanding strongly and has in the meantime reached an average sales level of 20 tonnes of filleted fish per week. “Our priority is top quality”, says Sales Manager Frans Lucas Brouwer in explanation of the company’s continued expan-sion over the past years. In con-trast to a lot of its competitors Var-ia Vis concentrated on uniting all the elements that are of relevance to ultimate product quality under one umbrella. Buying, processing, sales, and sometimes even trans-port are fully in Varia Vis’ hands, something which cannot be taken for granted in Urk’s flatfish indus-try whose organisation is largely organised on a division of labour basis.

Hand work instead of machines

According to Sales Manager Frans Lucas Brouwer Varia Vis is one of the few remaining processors in Urk that still fillets flatfish by hand. In Brouwer’s opinion, what was the norm just ten years ago has in the meantime almost be-come a thing of the past due to cost pressure. Most companies started using processing lines long ago. As Varia Vis sees it, however, the fillets which emerge

Varia Vis mainly serves the export market

Fresh hand cut plaice filletsThe Dutch processor Varia Vis has specialised in the production of plaice fillets but also offers other fish species from the North Sea and Ijsselmeer. Customers mainly consist of wholesalers and Cash & Carry markets in Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, France and Switzerland.

About 20 tonnes of fillet are produced and dispatched to customers every week, 90% of it fresh beneath ice.

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from them cannot be compared with the quality of hand cut fish. Varia Vis only fillets to order and not for stock.

Buyer Brouwer links up to nearly two dozen auctions in Holland, Denmark and Belgium via two different Internet platforms. This enables him to gain an overview of the situation on the plaice market. In addition to price, he is mainly interested in the fishing ground and fishing vessels, since the quality of the raw materials is for Brouwer decisively dependent on origin and on-board handling.

Germany is main export country

Plaice, sole, turbot, and halibut are the top sellers on the Varia Vis

product list but the company also offers cod and haddock, angler-fish and redfish, salmon and vari-ous other fish species. On request,

Brouwer assures us, the company could in principle offer all fish species because nearly all the lo-cal and imported seafood variants

were available in the location Urk. Germany is by far the most im-portant sales market for Varia Vis and accounts for over 50 per cent of the company’s total sales of five million euros.

Other important export coun-tries are Belgium and Austria, as well as Spain and Italy. Varia Vis mainly supplies to wholesalers in the north and south of Germany and the Ruhr region. The prod-ucts are packed in accordance with customer requirements, with a wide range of packaging variants between 500 g trays and boxes with 10 kg fish. A certain amount of raw materials is kept permanently available so that customers who order by 13.00 h still get their fish on the following day.

Frans Lucas Brouwer is equally responsible for buying and selling. Varia Vis is one of the few remaining processors that still process flatfish by hand. The company fillets to order, not for stock.

Varia VisVliestroom 48321 EG UrkTel.: +31 527-26 00 30Fax: +31 527-26 04 06E-mail: [email protected]

Business: Fresh fish wholesalerOwners: Arie Radewalt, Jacob

Strampel, Frans Lucas BrouwerSales: Frans Lucas Brouwer,

Mobile: +31 6 53 29 15 56Sales territory: Germany, Belgium,

Holland, Great Britain

Product range: Plaice, sole, turbot, halibut, cod, redfish, anglerfish, salmon, etc.

Customers: Wholesalers, cash & carry markets

No. of customers: c. 100Sales: ca. 5 m EURExport share: 80%Main export countries:

Germany, Great Britain, France, Switzerland

Trade volume: 20 tonnes of fillet per week

Founded: 2001No. of employees: 15

Varia Vis Company Fact File

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During the past 200 years lobster made a remark-able career on the east

coast of North America. Up to the start of the 19th century lob-sters were not very highly valued by the settlers there. Lobster was considered an inferior food which might be eaten during hard times but not otherwise. Lobsters were fed to poultry and pigs, used for

fertilising the fields, or as bait for fishing. Only poor fishermen ate lobster frequently because the fish they caught was too valuable to eat themselves. Members of “better” society would never have thought of eating lobster volun-tarily. The price asked for lobster was just as low as its image. This low esteem can also be seen in the fact that rogues and rascals were

called “lobsters” at that time. Dur-ing the wars of independence the British Red Coats were also derid-ingly called “lobsters”.

The fundamental change in the lobster’s image did not come about until after 1800 when the towns on the east coast blos-somed and an affluent middle class developed which set more

store by high-quality nutrition. As demand grew and the sales op-portunities for lobsters improved, fishermen naturally became more interested in catching lobsters. Today this magnificent crusta-cean is on the same level as other high-value seafood products such as caviar or oysters.

European lobster market stagnant

The two Atlantic lobster spe-cies Homarus gammarus and H. americanus are enjoyed in over 50 different countries as an exquisite seafood product. A lot

The size of a lobster plays a crucial role in its marketing. Since lobsters are mostly served whole in the live-lobster segment, the animals need to be serving size (as the one on the left). This makes larger animals more difficult to sell almost everywhere.

Part 6 – Lobster from Canada

Markets, marketing and consumptionA lobster is the crowning glory of every festive table – not only a culinary highlight but an eye-catcher, too, thanks to the fact that its shell turns bright red on heating. Lobster is suited not only to boiling but also to poaching, steaming, sautéing, grilling, frying or baking. Animal rights organisations have for years been fighting against the practice of boiling lobsters. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) even claims that eating lobster can cause health problems.


[ lobstEr from canada ]

of Europeans believe that Eu-ropean lobster has a better fla-vour although this claim would probably not stand up to serious examination. The dispute as to which is best is probably futile anyway because at 4,000 tonnes per year in 2006, landings of Eu-ropean lobsters are by no means sufficient to cover demand in Eu-ropean countries. Spanish lobster imports alone were more 4,500 tonnes in 2006. Altogether Eu-rope imported about 18,500 t of lobster in all forms from the USA and Canada in 2006.

Fresh live, or better frozen?

Particularly in Europe a lot of people believe that boiling is the only way to prepare lobster. In fact, there are many more ways of using this crustacean species in the kitchen. Similar to shrimps, lobster can for example be grilled, poached, sautéed or baked. Lob-ster tails can be cut into medail-lons and used as garnishing or served as hors-d’œuvre. Cut into strips, lobster meat can be used in fish soups, and the shell is a good base for soups, stock or lobster butter. Lobster can even be used for culinary trend dishes such as tempura or fondue chinoise.

If lobsters are to be kept live it is important to remember that they are marine creatures and as such not suited to freshwater. Be-fore the lobsters are placed into the tank they should be dipped briefly in salt water. This rinses off any dirt that may be attached to their bodies and reduces the am-monia concentration in the gill cavity which will have risen dur-ing transport. These excrements would only pollute the water un-necessarily. Any lobsters that lack vitality and whose tail and claws hang limply should be prepared first because they have the lowest

chance of survival. If there is no possibility for storing the lobsters in a tank they can also be kept for a short time in the refrigera-tor (preferably in a shallow dish and covered with a damp cloth or paper). Under the right condi-tions (a cool, damp environment) healthy lobsters can survive about 36 hours out of water. Only live lobsters should be used.

Frozen lobster products are prac-tical and mean less work. Their shelf-life is between 9 and 24 months, depending on the prod-uct type. Frozen products should never be thawed in warm water or at room temperature because this leads to dehydration and re-duces product quality. The frozen lobster should be placed in a dish of cold water and thawed in the refrigerator (defrosting time is about one hour per 250 g product weight). Thawed products must not be refrozen.

Correct preparation of lobster

Cooking time depends on the size of the lobster. Bring well salted wa-ter (about one tablespoon per litre of water) to the boil and plunge the lobster into the water when it is bubbling. Cooking time starts as from the moment the water begins to boil again after the lobster has been inserted. In North America lobsters are usually well boiled, in Europe slightly less so. Recent recommendations are even to boil lobster until “glassy”. Surpris-ingly these preferences do not correspond to the cooking times that are stated on both sides of the Atlantic. The American Sea-food Institute, for example, names cooking time for a 454 g lobster as 10 minutes (and for every further 113 g 3 minutes more). In Canada cooking time is given as 6-10 min-utes for 450 g lobsters and for every additional 450 g 2-3 minutes

more. On no account should lob-sters be boiled for longer than 20 minutes, however. Based on Ca-nadian recommendations a 1-kg lobster would thus require 14 to 15 minutes. The European magazine Top Hotel calculates twelve min-utes as from insertion of the lob-ster for the first 500 g and then a further ten minutes for the second 500 g and a further five minutes for additional 500 g. Based on this recommendation a 1-kg lobster would have to boil for about 22 minutes. The cooking times stated on the website www.Lebensmit-tellexikon.de are similar.

Lobster is cooked correctly when the feelers or a leg segment can be plucked off the body easily. Anoth-er way to test whether the lobster is cooked is to try and straighten the tail (which is tucked beneath the body). If it is elastic and bounces back the lobster is ready. It should then be immediately

When keeping live lobsters it should be noted that these are marine animals which aren’t suitable to be kept in freshwater. Before the lobsters are set in the tanks they should be dipped shortly in saltwater.



removed from the hot water and cooled under running cold water (ice water is even better) because otherwise the cooking process will continue in the lobster’s interior. After it is cut apart it is possible to see from the abdominal cavity of females whether the lobster has been cooked correctly. If it has, the roe will have taken on a red colouring. If it was not boiled for long enough the roe is still a black, slightly oily mass.

In Canada, the USA and other countries it is not unusual to halve the lobster or cut it into parts and then grill or fry these. To do this the lobster is first killed by prick-ing it in the head region with a sharp knife (there is a cross on the carapax at this point). This is not allowed, however, in Germany. The regulations there state that lobsters have to be killed first in boiling water (the head should be inserted first) before they can be processed further in any other way. Once the lobsters are dead they can be removed from the wa-ter and then poached, cut along their length and grilled, or baked.

Lobsters should be killed quickly

and humanely

In this context, the question natu-rally arises as to whether boiling lobsters constitutes cruelty to animals and might even be in-humane, as environmental and animal rights organisations, and above all PETA, repeatedly claim. We neither want, nor are we able, to address this problem exhaus-tively here, particularly because not even scientists all agree on the issue of whether lobsters can feel pain. The nervous system of crustaceans is relatively underde-veloped. Although it has a small brain-like structure in the head region most of the nerve cells are in ganglia along the nerve tracts

which are spread throughout the whole length of the body (abdomi-nal marrow). This rather strange form of central nervous system (also called rope-ladder nervous system) can also be found in a sim-ilar form in common flies and in earthworms. It is sometimes rather superficially claimed that because lobsters do not have a typical brain they cannot feel pain. (“No brain, no pain”). On the other hand, peo-ple who oppose this view are of the opinion that the very fact that lobsters do not have a brain means that they do not have the ability to go into shock when plunged into

boiling water and so the sensory cells in fact remain sensitive up to the point of physical destruction. So far, however, the objectors have been unable to supply conclusive evidence for this theory. The be-haviour of lobsters when they lose limbs or suffer injury is sooner an indication of the fact that they have no sense of pain. Their reactions in boiling water match the typical flight behaviour of lobsters in the sea (sudden flexing of the tail to enable escape backwards).

Independent of this, however, it is important to ensure humane

treatment of the lobsters and to make sure they are killed as quick-ly as possible with as little pain as possible. A lot of scientists be-lieve that killing lobsters in boil-ing water meets these demands. There have been a number of ex-periments in which lobsters were stunned before boiling. The use of carbon monoxide – as used for fishes – was not very effective, however (it takes a long time for it to take effect, and the lobsters display strong flight reactions). The use of narcotics involves risks because it cannot be ruled out that the substances penetrate the meat (lobsters have an open “blood circulation system”). The effectiveness of some methods such as holding the lobsters’ heads down or rubbing their shells firmly is rather question-able. But it is possible to place the lobsters in the freezer for several minutes before boiling. This retards the vital functions so that the lobsters are quasi anaes-thetized when they are put into the boiling water. In this con-text, however, it must be pointed out that people give much less thought to frying a chop or grill-ing a steak – although the slaugh-tering of a mammal, a cow or a pig is a much more complex and difficult procedure than killing a lobster.

Humane killing of lobsters

with Crustastun

Already in 1997 researchers from the University of Bristol with the support of the British Humane Slaughter Association and the Fund for Animal Welfare began developing a device for the hu-mane killing of crustaceans. Due to the biological peculiarities of crustaceans (no brain, thick shell) this was a real challenge. The outcome of their efforts was the ‘Crustastun’, a small box in which

After cooking the lobster, it should immediately be put under cold running water (even better is ice water) to be cooled to prevent the meat from continued cooking.



lobsters, shrimps and other crus-taceans can be killed or at least stunned for a few minutes using low-voltage current of about 3.5 amps. They are stunned for long enough to guarantee insensitivity to pain when cut apart, boiled or placed on the grill. The lobsters allegedly do not shed their legs and claws under the influence of current, and the meat quality is not affected.

Product features of lobsters

In contrast to contrary asser-tions lobster is very low-fat (the fat more often comes from the melted butter which consumers like to pour over lobster meat in North America). Lobster contains 20 times less saturated fats than beef and 13 times less than chick-en breast without the skin. The cholesterol content is also lower than in beef and poultry. Lobster

contains a lot of vitamin A, B12 and E as well as a lot of calcium, zinc and phosphorus.

When planning a meal with lob-ster it is best to calculate 450 to 675 g lobster per person (male lobsters have larger claws and so contain slightly more meat).

Although portion-size lobsters are currently fashionable it is bet-ter to use larger lobsters because – in relation to their weight – they contain a higher proportion of meat:

- A 450 g lobster has a meat yield of up to 140 g (31%)

- A 675 g lobster has a meat yield of up to 230 g (34%)

Nutritional analysis based on 100 g cooked lobster meat

ValueEnergy 389 kJ (93 kcal)Protein 15.2-21 gFat 0.6-1 gCholesterol 72-93 mgSodium 380-590 mgPotassium 150-352 mg

In contrast to mussels, consump-tion of lobster does not bear any risk from red tide toxins. The diges-tive system of the lobster allegedly works like a filter that effectively withholds toxins. However, this at-tribute reduces the enjoyment of the liver pancreas organ: the liver, which is easy to recognise due to its greenish colour should only be eat-en if one can be absolutely certain that it does not contain any toxins.

How to crack a lobster

1.Break the large claws from the lower joint with a slight twist. Hold on to the large claw piece with one hand and with the other hand pull the small claw piece outwards in a smooth movement. This will also pull out the bit of cartilage that is inside the meat of the claw.

2. Use nut-crackers, a hammer or another suita-ble instrument (e.g. the back of a heavy knife) to crack open the large claw piece. To do this place the claw upright on the work surface (the small, already broken off claw half should face upwards). Hit the thick end of the claw with the stable knife blade so that a crack appears in the shell. Break off the piece that was hit and pull the claw meat out of the shell

with a smooth movement. To get the meat out of the knuckle pull on the two ends of the joint with medium force.

3. To remove the tail, bend the lobster back-wards until there is a slight crack and then separate the tail from the head/ chest piece with a strong twist.

4. Using a fork push the tail meat forwards in one piece or using kitchen scissors cut the shell on the lower side along the outer edges. Remove and throw away the unpal-atable black intestine (also incorrectly called “vein”) which runs along the whole length of the tail.

5. Take the carapace off the body (the shell pieces of the carcass can be used for making delicious lobster butter or lobster sauce).

6. Open the remaining body and remove the gristly stomach (which is to be found directly behind the eyes). Very tender muscle meat is to be found at the points at which the legs are attached. The thin legs only contain small pieces of meat but they are tender and tasty. Separate the legs from the body with a twist and, using the back of a knife, press lightly until the shell breaks but the meat is not squashed. Pull out the meat using a lobster fork (it is also possible to simply suck the meat out of the legs).

The lobster provides a variety of different frozen and chilled convenience products.


Even if there isn’t a billion tonnes, krill biomass in the Antarctic Ocean is still im-

mense. Recent estimates reckon that there are between 60 and 155 million tonnes of krill in the icy waters of the South Polar Sea. Large swarms can extend over an area of 450 square kilometres (equal to the area of the Pyrenean state Andorra) and have a biomass of two million tonnes. In these swarms the crustaceans crowd tightly together, sometimes with several thousand krill grouped to-gether on the sea’s surface in just one cubic metre so that the water looks red from above. And the krill concentrations lower down are also often so dense that they reflect the echo of acoustic detec-tors. The distribution area of Ant-arctic krill alone covers an area of more than 35 million square kilometres. Krill biomass in the world’s oceans is probably bigger than that of any other multi-cellu-lar animal species on earth.

The name krill is used for about 85 crustacean species, most of which measure between 8 and 70 mm and weigh up to 2 grams. They live for a maximum of six years. Most krill species have about a dozen light organs in the eye stalks and on their bodies. These irradiate an intensive blue-green light (biolu-minescence) which helps to keep

the krill together in the swarm. They are classified in the family Eu-phausiidae whose most frequent and best-known members are the species Euphausia superba and E. crystallorophias. The huge krill swarms found in Antarctic waters mainly contain E. superba. They are about 6 cm long and mainly feed on phytoplankton, microscopically small suspended algae that often develop immense blooms during the Polar summers when the sun shines for 24 hours a day. With the help of its feather-like legs Superba can filter these microalgae very efficiently out of the water. Krill spend most of the day in deeper water layers, usually between 500 and 1,000 m, only rising to the sur-face at night to eat plankton. This daily rhythm of vertical migrations between different water depths is also known from marine fish spe-cies such as herring.

Superba does not only feed by filtering, however. During the Antarctic winters the krill swarms withdraw beneath the Antarc-tic ice pack, on the one hand for reasons of protection for they can hide there from predators in the hollows, crevices and cran-nies, and on the other hand to feed on the algae that grow on the underside of the ice. Superba is also equipped to eat periphyton particles. This nutritional flex-

ibility is probably one of the rea-sons behind the tiny crustaceans’ endurance. Due to the species’ mass development krill is an im-portant part of the food network in Antarctic waters. Krill does not only serve as a source of food for the fishes and birds that live there but also as a high-energy food for baleen whales. Already the Nor-wegian name “krill” points to the immense significance of these tiny crustaceans: it translates as “whale feed”. In the Antarctic, krill plays a similar role to that of her-ring in northern waters because there is otherwise no swarm-forming mass fish species in the Antarctic.

Decline of Antarctic ice sheet impacts krill stock

Krill does not only have an ecolog-ical function in the Antarctic food chain. According to recent studies it could also be of significance for global climate. Krill carries large quantities of carbon that is con-tained in the phytoplankton on the water surface into the depths of the ocean and thereby sepa-rates the material cycle between the atmosphere and the sea. On their nightly trips to the surface for feeding, the tiny crustaceans still their hunger and then glide back down into the depths of the ocean like a parachute. And it is

there that they excrete their diges-tive residues with the result that the combined carbon sinks to the sea bed. If bacteria decomposed the microalgae in the upper water layers the carbon could enter the atmosphere again. Because krill parachutes to the bottom prior to excreting, the carbon is sunk reli-ably in the depths of the ocean. The total quantity of carbon that is disposed of in this way is thought to be of significance to world cli-mate: according to researchers’ calculations it is about equal to the CO

2 emissions of 35 million cars.

On the other hand, long-term changes such as global warming or ozone depletion could also have a detrimental effect on krill. The ice belt in the Antarctic is de-cisive for the survival of a lot of crustaceans during the winter. The further the ice extends the larger is the area on which feed can grow and the more opportunities there are for the crustaceans to hide. A maximum ice area thus creates the best conditions for the krill’s successful reproduction during the Antarctic summer. Through the rise in surface temperature of the sea the total area of the polar ice belt is reduced and this could prove to be a disadvantage for krill stocks in the long term. Added to this is the increasing size of the “ozone hole” at both poles which diminishes the natural protection against UV rays. Particularly the UV-B rays could be of harm to krill in the upper water layers and may increase their mortality rate.

Hardly any commercial krill fishery at present

International interest in a com-mercial utilisation of krill is rela-tively low and has fallen strongly compared to the 1980s. At the beginning of the 80s between 450,000 and 530,000 tonnes of krill were fished annually in the

Antarctic krill

Small crustaceans with big potentialThere were once great hopes for krill, the tiny shrimp-like marine crustaceans. Their biomass in the world’s oceans was estimated at over one billion tonnes. That would have enabled commercial utilisation on a large scale. Today, we know that these estimates were exaggerated. And krill will have to be used carefully because the tiny crustaceans play a key role in the ecosystems of the Antarctic.

[ fishEriEs ]


Antarctic region, mainly by the Soviet Union where the krill fish-ery was strongly subsidized at that time. But already by the mid-90s the catch volume had “returned to normal” at 95,000 to 120,000 tonnes per year. It has remained at that level up to this day. There are various reasons for this drop in interest in krill. One decisive factor is the withdrawal of sub-sidies. The krill fishery is an ex-treme and long-distance fishery and it is accordingly expensive. It is carried out in one of the most remote regions of the world and is only profitable under certain con-ditions. A major problem from the early years of krill fishing (in 1973 Japan reported for the first time a catch volume of 59 t) seems in the meantime to have been solved. Due to the fishing method which used narrow-mesh nets a lot of krill were squashed and damaged when they arrived on board and were thus not suitable for use. Krill is very rich in protein and even in-tact ones decompose rapidly and have to be processed within just a few hours of the catch. In the meantime there are more care-ful fishing methods and highly efficient fishing and processing vessels that have the technologies and capacities to process the krill quickly and in a high quality. This increases the danger that the krill fishing fleets could now expand to make more intensive used of the last big resource that the world’s oceans has to offer.

Already now the Euphausia su-perba fishery is one of the biggest crustacean fisheries worldwide with the following main partici-pants: South Korea (2006: 43,031 t), Japan (32,711 t), Ukraine (15,206 t), Norway (9,228 t) and Poland (5,332 t. At present only a rela-tively small share of the krill catch is used for human consumption, mostly in the form of frozen tail meat. To produce this, raw or

cooked krill tails are machine peeled on board the fishing ves-sel and subsequently block fro-zen. Krill meat is very nutritious, has a mild flavour rather like that of lobster, and is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. The pure meat is suitable for al-most any foods that are based on raw materials in small pieces, e.g. salads, soups, starters and wraps, as well as in finger food recipes. In the past it was possible to get krill meat in cans in Japan but these are presumably no longer pro-

duced today. To make up, “Ant-arctic Krill Concentrate” is now available on the Japanese market. This food supplement is made of peeled, freezer dried krill meat.

Krill for foods, pharmaceuticals

and aquaculture feed

For the future, there seem to be particularly good chances for krill in the field of pharmaceuti-cal products. For example, krill contain highly active proteolytic enzymes which offer numerous possibilities for pharmaceutical applications. The spectrum rang-es from the treatment of interver-tebral disk disease to the healing of necrotic wounds. Krill oil is said to be capable of performing al-most miracles! It contains consid-erable amounts of cell protective antioxidants, anti-inflammatory

Omega 3 fatty acids, and phos-pholipids which are indispensa-ble for the formation and function of the brain. If we are to believe the advertising brochures of vari-ous drug producers, krill oil can be of help in arthritic disorders, knee and back pain, menopause symptoms, high cholesterol levels, depression, burn-out syndrome, and many other diseases besides. Apparently some of these positive effects have even been proved in clinical studies. There are also lu-crative markets for products like

chitin and chitosan which are pro-duced from the crustacean shells. These are used in the cosmetics industry, in metallurgy and phar-macy, for example. Chitosan can be used to build up people’s re-sistance and regulate cholesterol level. Apart from that it also has an antibacterial effect which ac-celerates cell renewal and slows down aging processes.

Even if demand for these kinds of side products is still not all that high, it still serves to make the krill fishery more profitable. Some-thing which is much more promis-ing at present, however, is the use of Antarctic krill for the production of feed for the aquaculture indus-try, particularly salmon farming. Fish production in aquaculture has been growing rapidly for years, with the result that demand for high-quality feed has risen, too.

Fishmeal and fish oil production has remained constant for years, however, so that it is necessary to search for suitable alternatives. Krill would definitely be an excel-lent source of feed for fish and crustaceans for it is energy-rich and contains a lot of highly digest-ible proteins and essential amino acids. Apart from that, krill has high concentrations of Omega 3 fatty acids and natural pigments which are very important particularly in salmon farming. Something that makes krill even more interesting is its low level of heavy metals and toxins. In contrast to a lot of other regions of the world’s oceans the Antarctic waters are still largely free from harmful substances such as PCB, dioxin, etc. Krill would thus be an almost ideal raw mate-rial for aquafeed. Demand for krill could thus increase in the near fu-ture and with it the pressure from fisheries on the Antarctic stocks.

International agreement on krill stock management

The krill catch is still well below its potential, however. Experts presume that about 10% of the available biomass could be re-moved without harming other krill consumers such as whales, penguins and sea birds. With an assumed biomass of 60 to 155 million tonnes of krill that would be 6 to 15.5 million tonnes. With annual catches currently rang-ing between 95,000 and 120,000 tonnes we are still a long way from that, however. In spite of this, warnings are already audible that local ecosystems are threatened: The fishery mainly concentrated on regions in which krill forms particularly dense swarms which also attract whales and other krill predators. This would have to be taken more strongly into account in krill fishery management than has so far been the case.

By carrying carbon from the surface of the Antarctic ocean into its depths krill could play a significant role in global climate. Fisheries for krill need therefore to proceed with caution.

[ antarctic krill ]


Caviar, the unfertilised roe of sturgeon, has long been con-sidered a delicacy in many

parts of the world. Sturgeon are native to countries in Central Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and North America and in many of these coun-tries the production and trade of roe and sturgeon meat was a thriving industry providing jobs and security to many. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 brought much social and economic turmoil not only to Russia, but to all the republics that used to constitute the Soviet Union and many of the management and control structures that existed be-fore were no longer enforced.

As a result sturgeons were no longer protected and fell prey to rampant poaching that decimated stocks particularly in what used to be the most productive area for the fish, the Caspian Basin. As it became apparent that sturgeon stocks were seriously endangered the international community placed global trade in all species of stur-

geon under the control of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in 1998.

With trade in wild caviar and stur-geon meat strictly restricted com-panies in many countries embarked on programmes to farm the stur-geon and extract the roe. In 2002 a Russian Latvian joint venture called Mottra was established near Riga on an old trout farm with a to-

tal volume of 4,200 cubic meters. This volume is spread over differ-ent tanks that vary in size from 0.2 to 330 cubic meters. Mottra started out as a producer of fish – tilapia, catfish, and sturgeon. The water for the system is pumped from 150 m down in the ground guaranteeing a very pure water. However the water is further purified when it arrives at the surface to eliminate even the slightest risk to the stock. As a re-sult, by the time the water is put to

use it is as clean as mineral water. During the first three years the old farm was modernised and the first fish were sold on the local market. In 2008 the company moved into the production of caviar.

Caviar from two kinds of sturgeon

Due to the Russian component of the joint venture the company sought expertise in Astrakhan bringing back the some experts and technology to ensure the high-est quality of the caviar. The owners were also keen that the production should be completely scientific and as far as possible environmentally sustainable. Mottra farms two kinds of sturgeon, sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) and osetra (Acipenser baerii). The sterlet grows to a maxi-mum length of 125 cm and has a maximum recorded weight of 16.5 kg, while the osetra can grow up to 235 cm and has been known to weigh 115 kg.

For the caviar production the sterlet needs to be 7 years old and osetra 15 years old in nature before they are mature enough to produce a good quantity of roe. Osetra caviar has a 2 mm grain with a colour that varies from light grey brown to deepest black. The typical fla-vour is nutty. Although all the caviar comes from the same species some manufacturers select the biggest grains of caviar and sell them as a premium product. Albino sturgeon produce a golden caviar that was once upon a time was reserved ex-clusively for the Shah of Iran, and was therefore also called Shah or Imperial caviar. Mottra also stocks a few of these albino fish.

Mottra

Caviar farmed in Latvia with Russian expertise

The total volume on the farm is 4,200 cubic meters spread over tanks that vary from 0.2 to 330 cubic meters.

Mottra’s pure natural caviar is sold in jars of 28 g, 56 g and 90 g

processing / technology


technology

Pure natural product

Sturgeon roe can grow extremely large and weigh up to 12 percent of the body weight. However for the best quality the eggs need to be removed before they reach their full maturity. The time at which the eggs are removed also influences the colour of the caviar.

The closer to maturity the darker the colour. At Mottra the fish are moved into special tanks where they are prepared for the strip-ing. During this period the fish are checked regularly with ultrasound to make sure they are progressing as they should.

Once they are judged ready to spawn they are removed to a room where the roe is massaged out of the fish. The caviar is then washed in water, mixed with the correct proportion of salt and then packed in jars and refrigerated. Nothing else is added to the product, nor is anything, but high quality fish feed from reputed suppliers given to the fish.

In 2008/2009 global export quo-tas of caviar from wild Acipenser gueldenstaedtii caviar amount to 32.5 tonnes and for wild Acipenser ruthenus to just 300 kg. FAO fig-ures state that global production of caviar in 2006 amounted to just 76 tonnes of which Iran was responsi-ble for 32 tonnes. As long as such small quantities of the delicacy are produced Mottra should have no trouble charging up to EUR1,000 per kg for their product.

For futher information please contact:

Laminas, Katlakalns, Kekavas pag., Rigas raj., LatviaTel.: +371 67148023 [email protected] www.mottra.lv

The product lines “Classic Line” and “Industrial” from Bayha & Strackbein offer food proces-

sors economical and environmentally friendly systems specially designed for fish processing in small- and large-scale enterprises.

Bastramat universal cooking and smoking plants offer a large number of functions in one installation there-by enabling versatile and economi-cal usage in many production proc-esses. The plants can be operated using any of three smoke generation methods: smoke from wood chips, friction smoke or liquid smoke. They are all enclosed systems that do not release any noteworthy emissions during the smoking phase.

The chambers are self-supporting stainless steel constructions with fully automatic smoke and air flap control, electronic ambient and core temperature regulation, moisture regulation, and automatic fresh air inlet. The smoking process is con-trolled by multi-stage air circulation via specially designed high-perform-ance fan wheels and even transfer of the smoke through nozzles. The size of the fan wheels ensures good, even air circulation within the cham-ber with a low number of revolutions per minute.

The systems have corrugated steel pipework connecting all additional and accessory facilities, e.g. for cleaning and moisturising. The in-terior of the one- and two-trolley chamber is steam-tight and fully insulated all round. This insulation makes a substantial contribution to reducing heating energy consump-tion. The smoking chambers are

barrier-free so that the trolleys can easily be pushed in.

There is a range of available options to enable individual design of the installations, e.g. cooling facilities for cold smoking and maturing proc-esses, horizontal alternate air circu-lation for lying products, a catalytic exhaust air cleaner, or an automatic door opener using air cylinders. Depending on which model is cho-sen there are also various different heating methods available: electric-ity, gas, oil, low- and high-pressure steam heating.

The programme controls were spe-cially developed for Bastra installations and are characterised by user-friendly handling and flexibility. Digital technol-ogy ensures precision and exact ad-herence to set values. Up to 99 differ-ent programmes can be created and stored. The automatic programme start and a documentation option in accord-ance with HACCP, including all the nec-essary software, guarantee round the clock operation. Touch screen controls allow the display of all programme functions on the monitor screen. The individual processing stages are en-tered via a touch screen, too.

Bastra

Gish smoking technology for small trade and industry

There is a wide choice of options for modification of the plants to individual requirements.


technology

A homogenous mixture of a brine or freshwater with millions of ice crystals is a superior cool-

ing and preservation medium, says Dr. Ming-Jian Wang, Technical Sales Manager at Sunwell, the Canadian company that pioneered the devel-opment of this technology. Called Deepchill (a registered trademark) it has been successfully used for fish chilling, storage and transportation of different fish products onboard the fishing vessel, the barge, at the farm, or inside the processing plant around the world. Studies of effi-cacy of this product when used with various fish species such as shrimp, mussel, salmon, tuna and yellowtail reveal that it maintains the freshness of the fish throughout the cold chain, ensures premium quality product, long shelf life and high yields.

Salinity can be automatically controlled

In the Hiketa Fish Processing Cen-tre of the Kagawa Fishery Union in Japan as much as 1,000 mt of fresh

farmed fish, such as yellow tail, amberjack and red sea bream is processed. The ice slurry in various consistencies is incorporated into its entire process to keep product consistently cold and fresh. In the system that makes the slurry from seawater, the salinity of the prod-uct can be automatically control-led, so there is no danger of sub-cooled temperatures damaging the product.

At the plant live fish from the farms are quick-killed then rapidly pre-chilled in large bags, using an ice and water mixture with a lower ice fraction to maintain their freshness prior to processing. These bags are delivered to the primary processing room where the fish are gutted, cut and cleaned.

The fish are then conveyed to the secondary processing room, where they fall into a bag containing a slurry to maintain their temperature prior to filleting. The fillets are dried with a cold air blast then conveyed

to the packing room. In the pack-ing room, the fillets are vacuum-bagged, checked by a metal de-tector, weighed, boxed and finally packed with a higher ice fraction slurry or dry crystals to keep the product cold and fresh until it reaches the customers.

Mr Ikuhiro Hattori, Chief Adminis-tration Officer of Kagawa Fishery Union, “Using slurry ice with its superior cooling effect and stable ice storage temperature, we can deliver the fresh and delicious taste of the production region to consum-ers.” Mr Masayoshi Yoneda, General Manager of the Centre, comments further, ‘We’ve been satisfied with the operating result of the Deepchill system not only in chilling perform-ance but also in saving time and manpower for processing.”

Liquid ice penetrates every nook and corner

Mussel processing and packing is another application that relies on

the ice slurry from Sunwell. Prince Edward Aqua Farms Inc. on Prince Edward Island, Canada incorporat-ed an ice-slurry production system into its existing processing facilities in late 2005. The system produces as much as five tons of dry ice, or almost 10 tons of slurry ice per day. The ice mixture with an ice fraction of 50-60% is automatically pumped to four separate locations at the facility.

At the first two locations the slurry is discharged into 1-ton bulk con-tainers holding 800-900lbs of mus-sels packed in the mesh bags. The slurry ice is used to pack these mussels and ship them fresh to markets across North America. Jerry Bidgood, General Manager of the company, says, “The flake ice system required a lot of manual labour; ice had to be shoveled into every box and vat.

Ice on the bottom, middle and top. This was OK but it melted quickly and didn’t cool all the product quickly. The new system gave us an automatic method for icing that got in between every mussel in every bag, ensuring fast cooling of the entire product.” The mus-sels are cooled down to just above 0°C. “The slurry is sprayed into each container and penetrates to

Sunwell’s Deepchill ice is in use around the world

Liquid ice cools rapidly, evenly and effectively

Yellowtail preserved in a liquid slurry that maintains the freshness and quality of the fish prior to filleting.

Fresh salmon preserved in a slurry before being further processed.


The new generation of traysealers from Multivac as represented by the T 700 brings

with it an unprecedented degree of food safety and hygiene. The machine was conceived to conform to the strict hygiene requirements as laid down in DIN EN 1672-2 and ISO 14159 and the related requirements

of US standard NSF/ANSI/3-A 14159. Key requirements set by these standards include the ability to clean down to a microbiological level, easy access for inspection, maintenance and cleaning, the avoidance of dead spaces, and design measures to prevent the accumulation of liquids. These standards necessitated a largely new design in this new generation of traysealers that addressed both the exterior as well as the interior

of the machine. This has meant that surfaces slope to allow run off, hoses and tubes are dispensed with as far as possible, or, where indispensable, have been routed through frames or separated by spacers. Spaces that allow the accumulation of grime or liquids have been minimised both outside and inside the machine

and removable panels and belts enable the machine to be washed down thoroughly. In addition to the emphasis on hygiene the machine is also designed to minimise energy consumption for example by using efficient motors and optimising the consumption of compressed air. The entire packaging process uses state of the art technology so that the machine can be used for a variety of applications including very delicate products or even liquids.

technology

the bottom of the container, cool-ing all the individual mussels very quickly”, says Bidgood. “Comments from our customers are extremely positive, and they don’t wish to go back with flake ice.”

A third discharge location is found in a chill room and is used for pack-ing mussels in waxed boxes of 50, 25 or 10-pound configurations. Mesh bags of mussels are placed into the boxes and Deepchill is dis-charged over and around the bags. Again, the Deepchill flows into every space and crevice to provide ultimate contact cooling. The final discharge station is also located in the chill room, over 45 m away from where the slurry is generated. It is used for packing both, the bulk containers and the waxed boxes, as well as supplying a re-icing sta-tion to maintain mussels that are packed on non-shipping days.

Customers satisfied with the product

This ice lasts longer as it can be packed more densely in mussel boxes and containers. Bidgood notes, “Our customers tell us they can get 10 to 12 days shelf life with our mussels in Deepchill ice. The consistently superior quality prod-uct helps gaining repeat orders. As a result of growing business, the company purchased another ice generator in 2008.

The ice has seen service in the salmon industry in Norway, Chile, Canada and Australia. For exam-ple, Patagonia Salmon Farming SA of Chile implemented total quality control process based on the ice. Live salmon is shipped from the harvesting plants to the processing factory and deposited in receiving ponds. The fish are then pumped directly to the factory, into a pre-chilling tank approximately 28m3 in size, containing Deepchill slurry with a low ice fraction. In this tank,

the fish rapidly cools from 14 °C down- to approximately 2 to 3 °C, but remains alive. Using liquid ice as a replacement for CO2 results in little stress on the fish.

The salmon are removed from this tank, cut and then placed into a bleed-out tank. This tank also con-tains Deepchill to continue cooling and preserving the fish as it passes through this part of the process. The final stage is the gutting and filleting of the fish. The salmon is kept in bags full of slurry ice until it can be filleted, thereby maintain-ing the freshest, highest-quality salmon possible. Managing direc-tor Hans Kossmann acknowledges, “Integrating this icing system into our entire process at the plant has improved our quality significantly.”

Latest ice systems can be controlled over the Internet

Continuous innovation allows Sunwell to stay ahead of it’s com-petition in the fish farming and processing industries. One of its latest variable-state ice systems delivered to a salmon processor in Australia includes a sophisticated computer based automatic moni-toring and diagnostic package. A dedicated human-machine-inter-face with a touch panel allows op-erators to easily monitor and record the operating parameters of the ice system, while office personnel can easily track the status of the sys-tem’s operations online, and even change the system settings.

For more information, contact:Dr. Ming-Jian WangTechnical Sales ManagerSunwell Technologies Inc.180 Caster AvenueWoodbridge, OntarioCanada L4L 5Y7Tel: +1 905 856-0400Fax: +1 905 [email protected]

Multivac’s T700 control features include a swiveling TFT touch display, interfaces for the line connection and external communication, and full traceability of packaging processes.

New generation of traysealers emphasise sanitary design

Multivac


technology

Handtmann engineering has set itself the challenge to support producers in adapting

to the ever changing market condi-tions. This company creates indi-vidual technological solutions that producers can use to penetrate new market segments with innovative products, while promising the same degree of cost efficiency as standard processing equipment. Handtmann know-how translates into attractive

and contemporary style products that at the same time ensures diver-sity in texture and appearance of the product range. Fish sticks, sausages, balls, burgers, paté, delicatessen salads are only some of the products that can be manufactured through Handtmann machinery.

Handtmann has specialized over-time in filling, portioning, separating, dosing and forming technologies. Handtmann filling technology lays the foundations for maximum productiv-ity. One of its star equipment, the

VF 600 vacuum fillers are superior central control elements in complex system solutions and highly com-patible basic modules in automated production processes. They enable constant filling pressure and precise portioning accuracy which are abso-lute prerequisites for uniformly high product quality. The company will be demonstrating how they go about these challenges at the 2009 ESE/SPE in Brussels. At their stand spe-

cialists from the industry will be able to view some of the process solutions they have recently developed, such as fish cakes and burgers production lines demonstrated by a VF 600 with forming device and flattening belt. Visitors will also be able to examine, taste or simply be inspired by numer-ous different fish products that have been manufactured on Handtmann production lines. Transformation of in-dividual product ideas into a profitable reality,– this is how Handtmann wants to help the industry. More at the SPE Brussels in Hall 4, Stand 6251!

The Danish equipment manufacturer Kroma A/S, well known for its gutting

machines, will launch a filleting machine for round fish at Seafood Processing Europe in Brussels at the end of April. The machine is currently designed for trout but will also fillet seabass and sea bream in the future. The machine can process fish from 150 g to 1,500 g in size with a simple series of

adjustments and is equipped with a heading unit which will remove the head and the tail of the fish before it enters the filleting machine. There is provision for two operators to introduce the fish into the heading unit and the machine operates at a speed of up to 150 fish per minute depending on the size of the fish.

The filleting machine is equipped with a suction device that will vacuum the guts out of the fish once the abdominal cavity has been slit open. Any stones or other hard objects that could damage the filleting knives are also removed by the suction device. Brushes remove any kidney blood before the fish reaches the filleting knives to prevent contamination of the fillet. The leftovers from the filleting

operation including heads, tails, and the fish bone are also removed by vacuum from the machine keeping the processing area clear of waste material. The filleting knife can be easily adjusted or replaced with another knife if necessary and the machine can be fitted with knives of different sizes.

Creative fish products for sustained success

Handtmann

The new filleting machine from Kroma can fillet round fish at a speed of up to 150 fish per minute.

New filleting machine

Kroma

The VF600, one of Handtmanns recent developments in the production of fish burgers and cakes, will be on display at the SPE in Brussels this year.


trade + markets

The price of yellowfin round thus reached EUR 1 300/tonne in Spain and skipjack

seemed to bottom at EUR 850/

tonnes in that important market. Loin prices were also lower. By the beginning of January the price of skipjack in the benchmark Bang-

kok market had bottomed out at below USD 800/tonnes and then rebounded to USD 900/tonnes. The price of skipjack in Ecuador

declined reaching USD 1 100/tonne at the end of December 2008.

Meanwhile the catch of tuna in all major oceans continued below average. Tuna purse seiner own-ers are discussing a possible 30 day stop of fishing sometime dur-ing the first quarter of 2009 in or-der to reduce supply and to help the market to recover. This would be in addition to the restrictions on fishing being imposed by the Western and Central Pacific Tuna Commission commencing July 2009.

New IUU regulations for EU

On 29 September the EU Council of Ministers passed the new regu-lation to control illegal, unregu-lated and unrecorded fishing, and to prevent IUU products from be-ing sold on the EU market. From 1 January 2010, imports of fishery products from outside the EC (except freshwater and aquacul-ture products, and some bivalves) should be accompanied by a catch document which certifies that the consignment was caught in compliance with the laws of the flag state of the catching vessel. Flag states will be obliged to make arrangements for verification of catch certificates, and ensure that consignments are traceable to the vessel of origin through tranship-ment and processing. The impact of this measure on tuna trade will be significant, and still a lot of ad-ministrative problems have to be sorted out before the beginning of 2010.

Tuna is considered a staple food in EU countries, and an item to buy

Glut lowers prices in December

Tuna prices slowly recoveringThe price of tuna reached new lows in December. Buyers disappeared as they waited for signs that the market has stabilized. Other buyers reneged on confirmed purchase contracts sighting inability to open letters of credit or simply lack of funds. Cargoes diverted from confirmed sales artificially increased the available supply in an already oversupplied market.

New EU regulations designed to prevent IUU fishing that enter in force from 2010 will have significant impact on tuna trade.


trade + markets

in moments of financial turmoil. Prices of canned tuna have gone up strongly in recent months, but consumer interest seems not

to have influenced by these price hikes. As consumers look more carefully at their food bill in gen-eral, more supermarkets’ labels

will be bought at the expense of traditional trade brands.

Canned tuna imports into the EU were more or less stable in 2008, with some ups and downs experienced by single countries. Thailand experienced a signifi-cant decline in the export of its canned tuna products to the EU. Imports of Thai canned tuna declined by 42% on the German market, 22% on the UK market and 12% on the French market. This decline was caused by high prices of the Thai product com-pared to countries which are able to sell under zero tariffs to the EU market. In fact, countries such as Ecuador, Ghana, and Seychelles performed positively during the 2008 period. In addition to the duty advantage, these countries had access to lower priced raw material than Thailand in the course of 2008.

UK is by far the main canned tuna importing country in the EU, with over 130 000 tonnes imported every year. In 2008, imports continued to grow and reached 103 000 tonnes in the first nine months of the year, some 5% ahead of the corresponding 2007 figure. While Mauritius was able to maintain its top position, Gha-na and the Philippines showed impressive growth in the period

under review. Total imports in 2008 are likely to exceed 135 000 tonnes.

French canned tuna imports con-tinued to decline. In the first nine months of 2008, some 10% less canned tuna was imported than in the same period of 2007. While Côte d’Ivoire managed to keep its canned tuna exports stable, helped by relatively low raw ma-terial prices, other main exporters reported substantial cuts in their shipments.

Outlook bleak

Landings have been less than av-erage in all major fishing areas. Therefore the rapid decline in the market price has been attributed to lack of confidence on the part of the buyers. At the moment, there seems to prevail the idea of higher prices in view of extreme-ly low landings. However, the present financial crisis does not leave much margins for upward price adjustments.

Canned tuna prices which had soared during the first half of 2008, moved downwards in the second half of 2008. However, they are still quite high on the ten years average as the price graph shows.

Helga Josupeit, FAO Globefish

Canned tuna importsGermany in 1,000 tonnes

Jan-Dec Jan-Sep2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 2008

Ecuador 13,7 14,6 15,8 22,0 14,2 19,7Philippines 19,1 20,3 23,4 24,1 19,8 13,8Thailand 5,5 11,5 18,1 11,9 10,9 6,3Indonesia 3,4 7,0 6,0 8,1 6,8 5,2Seychelles 0,3 6,6 6,7 2,1 1,1 4,0Papua NG 8,4 9,6 4,4 5,7 5,1 1,1France 8,1 5,7 2,2 1,1 0,8 0,7Netherlands 0,3 3,5 0,2 0,4 0,2 0,1Ghana 0,2 0,4 1,4 1,3 1,1 0,1Mauritius 1,5 0,2 0,6 1,6 1,6 0,0Others 20,9 4,9 8,0 7,8 5,9 5,2Total 81,4 84,3 86,8 86,0 67,5 56,1

Source: Globefish

Canned tuna imports:France in 1,000 tonnes

Jan-Dec Jan-Sep2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 2008

Cote d’Ivoire 33,7 21,6 22,9 27,0 23,8 23,8Spain 18,6 21,8 22,2 19,9 16,8 15,2Seychelles 14,7 11,3 14,7 13,6 10,1 10,3Ecuador * 7,2 9,1 10,1 9,3 7,2Madagascar 12,9 14,7 15,4 10,9 8,9 6,8Thailand * * 8,9 6,1 5,6 4,4Ghana 5,1 6,5 5,1 5,2 4,0 4,2Italy 7,3 8,0 8,9 3,5 3,0 2,3Senegal 4,9 4,3 1,1 1,7 1,4 0,7Others 9,9 15,2 12,2 8,3 6,6 6,6Total 107,1 110,6 120,4 106,3 89,5 81,5

Source: Globefish AN 11030

Canned tuna importsUK in 1,000 tonnes

Jan-Dec Jan-Sep2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 2008

Mauritius 29,5 24,39 25,9 27,8 19,0 18,4Ghana 22,1 20,2 16,4 16,8 13,3 16,8Philippines 6,2 9,7 10,0 13,9 9,9 15,6Thailand 13,1 15,9 16,9 14,9 13,0 11,2Seychelles 29,5 28,8 32,0 23,9 17,9 9,4Indonesia 3,1 2,8 0,9 1,7 1,3 1,0Maldives 4,1 4,6 1,9 2,2 1,9 0,8Others 24,6 25,7 24,6 29,3 22,4 30,3Total 132,2 132,6 128,6 130,5 98,6 103,5

Source: Globefish AN 11050

Canned tuna importsItaly in 1,000 tonnes

Jan-Dec2004 2005 2006 2007

Spain 36,1 37,0 36,7 39,7Colombia 6,4 7,0 5,0 6,6Cote d’Ivoire 14,0 8,9 9,1 10,0Seychelles 4,6 7,0 6,9 3,9France 6,1 4,6 3,4 5,3Portugal 2,6 2,8 2,6 2,4Others 4,3 4,2 5,8 9,0Total 74,1 71,5 69,5 76,9

Source: Globefish


These forecasts should be reasonable, as new mar-kets such as Russia, the

Middle East and some Asian countries have demonstrated a growing demand for pangasius imported from Vietnam.

Russia is by far the main import-ing country of pangasius from Vietnam, representing alone some 20% of total exports. This country reported a 191% growth in imports of pangasius from Vietnam in the first ten months of 2008. Ukraine is second major outlet for Vietnamese pangasius, with 13% of total imports.

Ukraine imports of pangasius grew even stronger than the ones of Russia: from 20 000 tonnes in Jan-Oct 2007 to 70 000 tonnes in Jan-Oct 2008. Egypt also expand-ed as one of the main outlets for this commodity.

The EU is the main common market for pangasius from Viet-nam, with about one third of imports in both quantity and value terms. Spain is the biggest market, growing by 8%. Demand for pangasius from the European market usually increases every year starting at the end of Sep-tember.

Clouds on the horizon

Despite this phenomenal growth rates, there is also some critics to be heard. On the one hand, the Vietnamese industry suf-fers from missing storage space. At present, Vietnamese traders have to sell at whatever price, so they are unable to wait for higher prices. In order to increase the present coldstorage capacity to some 10 000 tonnes, 1.1-1.5 mil-lion EUR would be needed, dif-ficult to mobilize in the present difficult financial situation. In addition to upgrading infrastruc-ture, aquaculture companies have invested in widening their

material areas. They signed con-tracts with local farmers to sup-ply them with food and breeding fish to guarantee their supply.

Price cuts are to the expense of quality. Huge price competition result in an overuse of glazing and additives. This will result in de-clining quality and in the long in consumer dissatisfaction. As for all other major seafood items, im-porters will start to control more the quality offered, and establish good working relationships with trustworthy companies in Viet-nam. There will a shake out of the industry in the coming year. The Vietnamese government animates

pangasius producers to agree upon a floor price to avoid unfair com-petition, while ensuring hygienic practices. Recently, many aqua-culture processing companies in the Cuu Long Delta have invested in upgrading their infrastructure and expanding their production.

Imports of pangasius are up 90% into Germany in the first six months of 2008 compared to 2007. The species is being used in more ways by German compa-nies, including the organic range as well as introducing some high-end smoked products. In Octo-ber 2008, a consumer journal enquiry found several problems with pangasius products in Ger-man supermarkets. The impact of this study on German pangasius consumption has still to be seen.

The US catfish market is grow-ing quite impressively. In the first nine months of 2008, some 37 000 tonnes were imported, 25% more than in the same period of last year. Vietnam accounts for about half of this quantity, while China reported strong increase in its catfish supplies to the US market, after the tough controls enforced last year. At present China accounts for about 27% of total US catfish imports.

2009 year of change

Vietnamese pangasius produc-ers have to improve their quality and their business practices, in order to maintain their markets in Europe. Overall, 2009 will be an important year for the indus-try, moving from a booming in-dustry into a more mature phase. The occasional quality problems, as the ones listed by the German journal will lead to more con-sumer resistance. The low price alone will not be able to maintain the EU market.

Helga Josupeit, FAO Globefish

Pangasius exports from Vietnamin tonnes

Jan-Oct 2007 Jan-Oct 2008

EU 144,182 189,744

Russia 36,043 104,994

Ukraine 19,802 69,761

Asean 27,959 28,882

China & HK 15,347 15,408

USA 18,036 20,092

Mexico 11,033 20,058

Egypt 4,377 20,482

Others 38,447 80,649

Total 315,226 550,070

Vietnamese pangasius still growing stronglyVietnamexported nearly 550 000 tonnes of tra and basa pangasius (commonly called pangasius) in the first ten months of 2008, for a value of USD 1.24 billion. Pangasius exports increased by 53% in value and 75% in quantity over the same period of 2007. At these rates, pangasius recorded the highest growth rate of any aquaculture product exported by Vietnam. The country is earning average revenue of USD 150 million from pangasius exports a month and total 2008 exports are expected to be USD 1.5 billion.

Huge increase in exports to Russia and Ukraine


Fish Infonetwork News

Member Country News

Projects

Aina Afanasjeva joins Eurofish from a position in the European Commission, DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, where since 2005 she has been managing the implementation of EU structural funds programmes in the fisheries sector in different Member States. Before that, for nine years she was Deputy Director of the Latvian

fisheries administration. Among her major tasks were the negotiations on trade in fisheries products, preparation of Latvia’s accession to the EU, as well as representation of national interests in various EU institutions.

Aina Afanasjeva has a long record of international relations (WTO, FAO and the EU) and she was one of the key national representatives contributing to the FAO EASTFISH project and the establishment of its successor, Eurofish.

Aina Afanasjeva’s educational background is in commodities and trade in food products, the technology of fish products and she has a masters’ degree in food chemistry.

In Aina Afanasjeva’s view Eurofish, since its establishment in 2002, has become a well established regional organisation for the postharvest fisheries and aquaculture sectors, with twelve participating countries across eastern and western Europe, inside the European Community and outside. “One of the main challenges for Eurofish in the coming years,” she says, “is to take into consideration the interest of all Eurofish member countries and to meet the expectations of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the region with their different needs, especially in facilitating trade relations and ways to get better value for fisheries and aquaculture products, as well as promoting traditional and new fisheries products.”

Having experienced the process of bringing her home country into the EU, she sees a strong role for Eurofish in continuing the work in central and eastern European countries of promoting fish processing and fish farming, of identifying trade and market opportunities, and of assisting industry to adapt to international market, quality, and food safety standards. Aina Afanasjeva adds, “I am encouraged by the support of Eurofish member countries and also by the new countries that we look forward to welcoming soon in the Organisation.”

Aina Afanasjeva takes over as Director of EUROFISH from 1 May 2009

Infosa held its annual Technical Advisory Committee Meeting for 2009 from 23 to 25 February 2009 at the Infosa office in Windhoek. The committee meeting were at-tended by representatives from

Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The regional repre-sentative of the FAO was present for the opening session. The com-mittee took note of the various

activities implemented in 2008/09 and reviewed the workplan and budget for the financial year 2009/10. Development of aquac-ulture in southern Africa was an area of special focus and Infosa’s

workplan for 2009/10 reflect this concern. Infosa has already held courses for practitioners of small scale aquaculture in Nambia, and the organisation been called upon to develop a strategic plan for the development of small scale aqua-culture in Mozambique.

Infosa holds annual Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Meeting in Windhoek

Aina Afanasjeva

Representatives from the Infosa Technical Advisory Commeettee focused on the development of aquaculture in Southern Africa.

The Nordic-Baltic co-operation between the five Nordic and three Baltic countries was es-tablished in 2004 at the level of senior government officials. Eu-rofish plays a role in the develop-ment of closer contacts between

the countries in the region as its membership includes both Nor-dic and Baltic countries. This year, on behalf of the Nordic and the Baltic States - Committee of Senior Officials (NB8-CSO), Eurofish is developing a survey

Eurofish to identify Nordic Baltic co-operation opportunities within fisheries and aquaculture



The FIN consists of 7 independent partner organizations. They cover all aspects of postharvest fisheries and aquaculture. With more than 50 governments supporting the network, which also has strong links to the private sector, the activities are truly international. The FIN pages, which are a regular feature in the four network magazines – Infofish International, Infopesca Internacional, Eurofish Magazine, and Infosamak Magazine – present the FINwide spectrum of activities, showing actions and results. The FIN has more than 80 fulltime staff and works with more than one hundred international experts in all fields of fisheries. Through its link from FAO Globefish to the FAO Fisheries Department, it also has access to the latest information and knowledge on fisheries policy and management issues worldwide.

FIN executes donor projects, prepares market research for private companies, and organizes training courses on marketing and quality assurance. All seven services offer different possibilities for cooperation with the private sector, institutes, government offices and donors.

n GlobefishFishery Industries Division FAOViale delle Terme di Caracalla I 00100 Rome, Italy Tel.: (+39) 06 5705 6313/5059 Fax: (+39) 06 5705 5188 [email protected] www.globefish.orgPartners: Seafood Services Australia, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada; Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Denmark; European Commission (DG FISH); OFIMER, France; Norwegian Seafood Export Council; Ministero de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Spain; National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, USA; VASEP, Viet Nam

n InfopescaCasilla de Correo 7086Julio Herrea y Obes 1296 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay Tel.: (+598) 2 9028701/2 Fax: (+598) 2 9030501 [email protected] Member Countries: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Venezuela

n Infofish Menara Olympia, Level 28 Jalan Raja ChulanKuala Lumpur 50200, MalaysiaTel.: (+603) 20783466Fax: (+603) 2078 [email protected] Countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Maldives, Malaysia,Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand

n InfopecheTour C 19éme étage, Cité Administrative, Abidjan 01, Cote d‘Ivoire Tel.: (+225) 228980 / 215775Fax: (+225) 218054 [email protected]/index.php?id=1113

Member Countries: Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo

n InfosaSouthern African suboffice of InfopecheP.O. Box 23523, Kenya HouseRobert Mugabe Avenue, 4th FloorWindhoek, NamibiaTel: (+264) 61 279430Fax: (+264) 61 [email protected] www.infosa.org.naMember Countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

n EurofishH.C. Andersens Boulevard 44 46DK1553 Copenhagen V, DenmarkTel: (+45) 333 777 55Fax: (+45) 333 777 [email protected], www.eurofish.dkMember Countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Spain, Turkey,

n InfoyuRoom 203, Bldg 18, Maizidian Street, Chaoyang District Beijing 100026, P.R. China Tel.: (+86) 10 64195140 Fax: (+86) 10 64195141 [email protected] www.globefish.org/index.php?id=2074Member Countries: China

n Infosamak71 Boulevard Rahal Meskini B.P.16243 Casablanca, MoroccoTel.: (+212) 22540856 Fax: (+212) 22540855 [email protected] Countries: Algeria, Bahrain,Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Yemen

The Fish Infonetwork ( FIN )

The final workshop of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) project “Harmonising Quality and Traceability Stand-ards for Pecten Trade in Asia Pa-

cific Region” (FWG 04/2008) was held in Lima, Peru, 15 – 17 Decem-ber 2008. During the workshop, consultants presented the find-ings of their studies on scallop production and trade in various countries. The countries covered were: Canada, USA, Mexico, Peru and Chile (grouped under Zone 1); Australia, New Zealand, Pa-pua New Guinea, Indonesia and Singapore (Zone 2); PR China, Japan, Rep Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Russia (Zone 3); Viet-

nam, Brunei Darussalam, Thai-land, Malaysia and Philippines (Zone 4); and France, Spain, Italy, UK, Germany and Belgium (Zone 5).

A guideline proposal on harmo-nising quality and traceability standards for scallop trade in the Asia Pacific region was prepared at the end of the workshop. The workshop was chaired by Jorge Zuzunaga, Director General of Aquaculture, Peru and Project Overseer. INFOFISH, represented by Tarlochan Singh, Chief, Tech-nical Advisory Services, presented the findings for Zone 2 and also gave a presentation on the global trade in bivalves.

Workshop on harmonising quality and traceability standards for scallop trade

Group photo of participants at the workshop on quality and traceability standards for scallops, that was organised by INFOFISH in Lima, Peru.

that will explore opportuni-ties for Nordic Baltic co-opera-tion in the field of fisheries and aquaculture that are not already covered by existing EU or other programmes.

The survey aims firstly to iden-tify the areas within this field that would benefit from Nordic-

Baltic co-operation, secondly it will develop ideas on how this co-operation will be implement-ed, and finally it will also detail the benefits that would accrue to the Nordic and Baltic sides of the partnership. The results of the survey are expected to be analysed and written into a re-port by April 2009.



In the framework of FAO’s project TCP/RLA/3111 (Improvement of the domestic markets for fish and fishery products in Latin America

and the Caribbean) Infopesca or-ganised three workshops during the months of December and February in Uruguay, Mexico and Belize. The objective of this project is to promote the domes-

tic and regional consumption of fish and seafood, and to improve the marketing conditions to as-sure quality in the different stag-

es of the value chain. More than 100 people participated in these three events, which took place in Punta del Este (Uruguay), Méxi-co City (Mexico) and Belize City (Belize).

Workshops on domestic markets in Uruguay, Mexico, and Belize

A familiarisation programme on the compilation of the Fish Market Information System was organised by Infofish for seven fisheries officers, four from In-donesia and three from Thailand in Kuala Lumpur from 5-9 Janu-

ary 2009. The 5-day programme for the Indonesian officers was part of FAO’s project on Fish Market Information System for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Indonesia (GSP/INS/078/SPA) funded by the Spanish govern-ment. The training programme consisted of briefings, field visits and practical sessions

as well as group discussions. Apart from the briefings at In-fofish covering the activities of Infofishwith a focus on the fish marketing information system, the participants also visited other related agencies in Malay-

sia such as the Fisheries Devel-opment Authority of Malaysia (LKIM), the Malaysian External Trade Development (Matrade) Centre, and the Fishermen As-sociation of Perak. Field visits were conducted to the Kuala Lumpur wholesale fish market, retail markets, and the fishing port in Lumut, Perak.

Infofish programme for fisheries officers on fish marketing

Participants at the Infopesca – organized workshop to promote consumption of fish and seafood in Mexico.

Infofish introduces the fish market information system of fisheries officers from Indonesia and Thailand.

@www.fischmagazin.deistheplatformforfindingfish,fishproductsandtecnology-suppliers–worldwide.

Onthisplatformyou’llfindacompletedatabasewithmultipleoptionsforsearchingexactlywhatyou’relookingfor.Available24/7freeofcharge.

More than 9,000 companies listed !

Eurofish and FAO are organizing a regional workshop for Central and Eastern European countries with the title “The WTO and Fisheries. Impact of the WTO agreements and current WTO negotiations on the fisheries sector”. The workshop

will be held on 17-19 March 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria. About 35 represent-atives from 28 different countries in Central, Eastern and Western Europe are expected to participate. The speakers will be from the WTO, the FAO and Eurofish.

Regional WTO workshop for CEE countries

April24 April, 2009 Seoul Seafood ShowSeoul, KoreaTel.: +82260002800 Fax: +82260002805 [email protected] www.seoulseafood.com

1720 April, 2009Slow FishGenoa, ItalyTel.: +39 010 53911Fax :+39 010 [email protected]

2122 April, 2009Scottish Aquaculture: A sustainable futureEdinburgh, Scotland, UKTel.: +44(0)1350 727 484Fax: +44(0)1350 727 [email protected]

2124 April 2009Sinaval – EurofishingBilbao, SpainTel.: +34 94 404 00 00Fax: +34 94 404 00 [email protected]

27 April, 20092nd European Tuna ConferenceBrussels, BelgiumTel.: +31 162 430520 Fax: +31 162 430525 [email protected]. europeantunaconference.com

2830 April, 2009European Seafood Exposition 2009Brussels, BelgiumTel.: +1 207 842 5504

Fax: +1 207 842 [email protected]

May1416 May 2009Fisning’09Glasgow, UKTel.: +44 20 7650 1024 Fax: +44 20 7650 1050 [email protected]

2529 May 2009World Aquaculture 2009Veracruz, MexicoTel.: +1 760 751 5005Fax: +1 760 751 [email protected]

2729 May, 2009 Fish Expo Faroes Torshavn, Faroe Islands Tel.: +298 30 80 30 Fax: +298 30 80 31 [email protected]

June24 June 2009Seafood Russia 2009Moscow, RussiaTel.: +44 208 387 3200 Fax: +44 208 387 3201 jon.irwin@emeuk.com www.seafoodrussia.ru

1618 June 2009Polfish 2009Gdansk, PolandTel.: +48 58 554 9362Fax: +48 58 554 [email protected]

August1417 August, 2009Aquaculture Europe 2009

Trondheim, NorwayTel.: +32 59 323859Fax: +32 59 [email protected]

1821 August 2009Aqua Nor 2009Trondheim, NorwayTel.: +47 73 56 86 40mailbox@norfishing.no www.aquanor.com

September1518 September, 20093rd Joint Trans-Atlantic Fisheries Technology Conference (TAFT)Copenhagen, DenmarkTel.: +45 45 25 25 [email protected]

1518 September 2009World Food Moscow 2009Moscow, RussiaTel.: +7 495 935 7350Fax: +7 495 935 7351worldfood@iteexpo.ruwww.worldfood.ru

1721 September, 2009 World Fishing Exhibition Vigo 2009Vigo, SpainTel.: +34 986 447485Fax: +34 986 437689marcarneiro@worldfishingexhibition.com

1619 September, 2009Aqua Farming International Exhibition 2009Vigo, SpainTel.: +44 1329 820495 Mrybakrendell@worldtradeexhibitions.comwww.aquafarminginternational.com

October68 October, 2009ConxemarVigo, SpainTel.: +34 986 433 351Fax: +34 986 221 [email protected]

79 October 2009DanFish International 2009Aalborg, DenmarkTel.: +45 9935 5555Fax: +45 9935 [email protected]

1014 October 2009AnugaCologne, GermanyTel: +49 221 821 2214Fax: +49 221 821 3410www.anuga.com

1214 October 2009Dubai Internacional Seafood Expo 2009Dubai, United Arab EmiratesTel.: +971 4 298 7730Fax: +971 4 298 [email protected]

November1214 November, 2009Expo Pesca 2009Lima, PeruTel.: +511 344 4386Fax: +511 344 [email protected]/expopesca_new

Diary Dates

Add your event to www.eurofish.dk

ABSeac. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

AlbaFish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

AquaNor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

AtlanticGroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Bayha&Strackbein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Carnitech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Cretel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

EmperorAquatics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Fessmann. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Geoeye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

GewürzmühleNesse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

GriegSeafood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Handtmann,Albert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Backcover

HolländischesFischbüro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Illari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

InterFreshConcepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Kloosterboer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Laschinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Innercover

Maass+Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

MarineFoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Metalquimia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

MovinoxSRL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

O.W.Icebunker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/35

OscarSomme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Peruza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Polfish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Rahbekfisk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Salmco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

SeafoodConnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

SealaneColdStorage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

SiaSalasZivis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Stawiany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Sunwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Szegedfish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Vemag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BoundInsert19/20

W.vanderZwan&Zn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

WorldTradeFairs..................................43

List of AdvErtisErs

Name of Company Pageimprint

Publishing House FachpresseVerlagMichaelSteinertAnderAlster21D-20099HamburgGermanyPhone+49(0)40/248454-0Fax+49(0)40/2803788

Joint publishers & managing editors

MichaelSteinert,VictorHjort

Editorial office Copenhagen

BehnanThomas(bt)H.C.AndersensBoulevard44-46DK-1553CopenhagenVDenmarkPhone+4533377755behnan.thomas@eurofish.dk

Editorial office Hamburg

AndréNikolaus(nik)Phone+49(0)40/[email protected]

BjörnMarnau(bm)Phone+49(0)40/[email protected]

Editorial office Delbrück

Dr.ManfredKlinkhardt(mk)RedaktionsbüroDelbrückFranz-Stock-Straße23D-33129DelbrückGermanyPhone+49(0)5250/[email protected]

Editorial board GrimurValdimarsson,MartinGill,WolfgangKrone,MichaelNew,LahsenAbabouch

Layout SvenMohr-Eggert(responsible),LukasTarapataMatthiasHellmuth,NorbertLützow,SebastianKrebsE-Mail:[email protected]

Translation YvonneBulmer

Advertising EckhardPreußMarderstieg7D-21717FredenbeckGermanyPhone+49(0)4149/8020Fax+49(0)4149/[email protected]

AleksandraPetersenEurofishMagazineH.C.AndersensBoulevard44-46DK-1553CopenhagenVDenmarkPhone+4533377763Fax+4533377756aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk

Frequency 6issuesperyear

Subscription details Price:EUR85,–[email protected]

Unlessotherwisestated,thecopyrightforarticlesinthismagazineisvestedinthepublisher.Articlesmaynotbereproducedwithoutwrittenpermissionfromthecopyrightholders.

Advertisingratesanddataavailableonrequest.Thepublisherscannotbeheldresponsibleforthenonap-pearanceofthemagazineincasesbeyondtheircontrolsuchasstrikes,shortageofpaperorsimilarcircumstances.

ISSN1020-9956

Order your free trialFax: +45 333 777 56

E-mail: [email protected]

the Fish Publishing House

Eurofish Magazine FischMagazin www.eurofish.dk www.fischmagazin.de

D ie Fachze i t sch r i f t f ü r d i e gesamte F i schw i r t scha f t

Friedrich Wilhelm LübbertGeschäftsführung erweitert und verjüngt Seite 26

FischmagazinNeue Website www.fischmagazin.de 3 / 2009 C10152E

Magazin für TK-Seafood, Chi l led Food, Convenience

nnn

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pres

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TK-FischConvenience

FischMagazin

S p e z i a l

Noordzee International Türkische Zuchtware aus holländischer Veredelung Seite 10

Neue Website www.fischmagazin.de april 2009

Geert Kramer Frits de Munnik

Extra Heft

Sven Braasch Hans-Joachim Holtermann Birte Holtermann

ISSN 1020-9956 April 2 / 2009 C 44346

FISH INFOnetwork


Croatia




Crustaceans

n n n n n n n n n n SUpply SOUrCES n n n n n n n n n n

packaging

Salmon slicers

Smoked salmon

Styropor® ( polystyrene ) compressors

Wire ropes

TransportSALMCO Technik GmbHReinskamp 1D-22117 HamburgTel.: +49-40-713 14 72Fax : +49-40-712 98 70Internet: www.salmco.deE-Mail: [email protected]

SALMON SLICER... worldwideR. MAASS + PARTNER GMBH

Röntgenstrasse 12D-21493 SchwarzenbekTel.: +49 41 51 / 866 955Fax: +49 41 51 / 867 188www.maass-slicers.de

D-27472 CUXHAVENGrodener Chaussee 61Telefon 0 47 21 / 208-0

Telefax 0 47 21 /208-100

FRANKFURT / MAIN-AIRPORTGebäude 456 A, Raum Nr. 3435

Telefon 0 69 / 69 76 76-30Telefax 0 69 / 69 76 76-50

Can opening machines

Insulated Containers

Frozen seafood specialties

Hamburger Feinfrost GmbH - Frozen Quality ProductsGr. Elbstrasse 158 - 22767 Hamburg

Tel.: +49 (40) 39 92 92-0, Fax: +49 (40) 39 92 92 39E-Mail: [email protected] - www.hafro.de

The fastest way to advertise in Eurofish Magazine

ISSN 1020-9956

April 2 / 2009 C 44346

FISH INFOnetwork

Inching towards compliance

with EU regulations

Croatia


Krill: Small crustaceans with big potentialTechnology: Caviar farmed in Latvia with Russian expertise

Eckhard PreußMarderstieg 7, D-21717 Fredenbeck, Germany

Phone +49 (0) 41 49 / 80 20, Fax +49 (0) 41 49 / 72 92


Aleksandra Petersen, Eurofish MagazineH.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46, DK-1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark

Phone +45 333 777 63, Fax +45 333 777 56


Ristic AGAm Espen 15, D-90559 OberferriedenTel.: 0 91 83 / 40 90, Fax: 0 91 83 / 4 09 49Web: www.ristic.com, E-Mail: [email protected]

Visit us at the European Seafood Exposition

Hall 5 / Booth 639

28. – 30. April 2009, Brussels

ISSN 1020-9956 April 2 / 2009 C 44346

FISH INFOnetwork


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9

The Netherlands: Challenging times for marine fisheries



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Documents

Eurofish Magazine 2 2009