Eurofish News

EUROFISH, API co-organise freshwater aquaculture workshop at AQUAFARM

Workshop Aquafarm2019 The 3rd edition of the international conference and exhibition AQUAFARM was held on 13-14 February 2019 in Pordenone near Venice, Italy. The conference and trade show were dedicated to aquaculture, algaculture, shellfish farming and the fish industry within Europe, with the focus on the Italian aquaculture sector. Novel farm, an international conference and trade show for innovative growing systems, soilless and vertical farming, also took place in parallel.

This meeting of the Italian aquaculture sector also hosted a workshop “Central and Eastern Europe: A hub for freshwater aquaculture”, which was co-organised by the International Organisation for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Europe (EUROFISH) and the Italian Aquaculture Association (API).

Hungary feted as newest EUROFISH member at Governing Council

GC group2019 The EUROFISH Governing Council is an annual event attended by representatives from the organisation’s member countries and their embassies, from observer countries and their embassies, as well as from observer organisations. This year not only saw several senior officials attending the event but was also the first Governing Council to be attended by Hungary as a full member of EUROFISH. Hungary formally joined EUROFISH as of November 2018.

The attendees gather to review the organisation’s performance in the year that has passed and approve the programme of activities for the coming year. Member countries’ representatives make concrete proposals for activities that are of interest to the individual country, or perhaps, to several. This year, for example, the organisation will be co-organising a conference in Italy on aquaculture, that was originally initiated by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Tourism Policies and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) but will be of interest to several EUROFISH member countries.

EUROFISH Governing Council 2019

GC group The eighteenth session of the Eurofish Governing Council will be held on 31 January and 1 February 2019. Representatives from the 13 member countries of EUROFISH (Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey) will discuss the organisation’s activities during the course of 2018 as well as discuss and approve the work programme proposed for 2019. Representatives from several observer countries as well as from institutions with which EUROFISH closely cooperates are expected to attend the meeting too. This will be the first session of the Governing Council that Hungary will attend as a member following its ratification of the EUROFISH Establishment agreement last year.

The first day of the session will also include information about some of the FAO’s regional initiatives, climate change and microplastics and implications for food safety and trade, the implementation in Lithuania of the “Farmed in the EU” programme, as well as the future of cooperation in the field of aquaculture between countries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The second day will be devoted to administrative and financial matters.

Venue:
EUROFISH
HC Andersens Blvd 44-46
1553 Copenhagen V

Meeting times:
Thursday, 31 January 2019
Registration: 09.30, start 10.00
Close: 18.00

Friday, 1 February 2019
Start: 10.00
Close: 12.30

Contact: Brit Jensen, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +45 333 777 55, for more information.

Hungary ratifies Eurofish Agreement

Eurofish MemberMap HU Hungary, one of the first countries (along with Latvia and Estonia) to sign the Eurofish Agreement in 2000, has now ratified it, making Hungary the thirteenth member of the organisation. The other members are Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. Dated 14 November 2018, the ratification has been confirmed by the FAO, the depositary of the EUROFISH Establishment Agreement.

We are delighted to welcome Hungary to the organisation, said Mauro Colarossi (Italy), the chairperson of the EUROFISH Governing Council. Hungary’s ratification not only strengthens the organisation, but also sends a strong signal to other countries in the region about the value that membership of EUROFISH brings. Aina Afanasjeva, Director of EUROFISH, added that other member countries also stood to gain from Hungary’s reputation for cutting edge research and development within the field of freshwater aquaculture as well as its extensive expertise and international links in this area, and that she looked forward to collaborating with Hungary for the benefit of all EUROFISH member countries. Mr Gábor Klenovics, Director of Fisheries, Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, expressed his satisfaction with the ratification saying that he looked forward to working with EUROFISH and the other member countries to face some of the many challenges threatening the inland fish farming sector.

A landlocked country, Hungary, has historically focused on freshwater fish farming and is today the largest producer of African catfish in the EU and the third-largest (after Poland and the Czech Republic) producer of common carp, the most widely farmed freshwater fish in the EU. Intensive aquaculture systems are widely used to farm African catfish, and farmers are now looking at the potential of recirculation aquaculture systems to produce valuable native predatory species such as European catfish, pike, perch, and pike-perch.

For more information on Hungary's fisheries and aquaculture sector visit the Eurofish country profile on Hungary.

Conference on habitat restoration for inland fisheries

The FAO, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Waters and Forests in Romania, EUROFISH, DSTF, IAD, and EIFAAC arranged a conference in Bucharest, Romania on 13-15 November titled Regional Conference on River habitat restoration for inland fisheries in the Danube River basin and adjacent Black Sea areas. The event held sessions on valuing inland fisheries resources, conservation and management, regulatory framework, along with shared country experiences from the region. The event not only attracted participants from the involved countries but also representatives from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine participated. Speakers and presentations are available at the conference website: danube-conference.eurofish.dk.