Countries

More Aquaculture is a producer and exporter of seabass, seabream, meagre and trout. The company has its own production of seabass and seabream and a network of suppliers that provide the company with the trout that it requires to meet its commitments. More has been in the aquaculture business for the last 13 years and is owned by the AKG Group, a conglomerate with interests in building materials and tourism apart from fish.

While Turkey is now well known for its seabass and seabream farming operations, production from which exceeds even that of Greece, the country also has a huge trout industry. Annual volumes of trout dwarf those of seabass and seabream and amount to almost three fifths of total EU trout production.

Camli is part of the Yasar Group, a holding company with interests in a variety of industries including food and beverages, agriculture, paints, and paper. Within the group Camli is responsible for agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and feed. The company farms seabass, seabream and small quantities of meagre, which are mainly exported to markets in the EU.

Although a career academic, Professor Edmond Panariti, is no stranger to politics having served in the Tirana municipality before becoming first Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2012 and a year later Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Resources, a position he has held since. As the person ultimately responsible for the administration of the fisheries sector in Albania, Professor Panariti has several ideas to increase productivity and efficiency.

The Albanian fisheries and aquaculture sector is diverse. It comprises a marine fishery, an inland fishery, freshwater aquaculture and marine aquaculture. In addition, there is a processing industry that uses domestic raw materials as well as imports to supply local and overseas markets.

The company Rives was established by Spiro Fuqi, a chemical engineer by training, some two decades ago. Located on the outskirts of Pogradec, a city on the shore of the Lake Ohrid and a few kilometres from the border with Macedonia, Rives specialises in completely natural products created from the fish caught in the lake.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Environment at the Agricultural University of Tirana has a laboratory for aquaculture and fishery. The laboratory is based in Durres and is led by Dr Jerina Kolitari, a specialist in fish otoliths.

Lina Kujalyte, Vice Minister in the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture has been responsible for aspects of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy that are only now being implemented, for example, the landing obligation, which in the Baltic Sea came into force at the start of the year. Lithuania also held the chair of BALTFISH, an organisation that brings stakeholders from EU countries around the Baltic Sea together to work out common positions on policies concerning the Baltic. Ms Kujalyte is also a strong proponent of aquaculture, a sector which will receive the largest chunk of funding from Lithuania’s allocation from the EMFF. Here she discusses some of her priorities for the fisheries sector in the country.

The Lithuanian fisheries sector has a long historical traditions and is a part of the national heritage in the Baltic Sea coast area. The segment comprises a high seas fleet, a Baltic Sea fleet, and a coastal fleet. There is also a small freshwater fishery in the Curonian lagoon. The aquaculture industry in Lithuania is dynamic and the production of farmed fish has been increasing in terms of both value and volume.

Fisheries plays an important role in the economies of coastal regions throughout Europe. It is therefore vital to exploit the oceans’ aquatic resources sustainably to avoid the depletion of fish stocks, a rusting fishing fleet, unemployed fishermen and seafood shortages.