News

US President Donald Trump has decided to suspend trade preferences for Thailand’s seafood industry following the country’s failure to improve worker rights amid allegations of the use of slave labour and trafficking among its migrant workforce.…

The European Commission has adopted a proposal offering support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to fishermen affected by the closure of the Eastern Baltic cod fishery to permanently decommission their fishing vessels. Cod fisheries is important in the Eastern Baltic Sea, but the stock is in very poor shape. At the Council meeting in mid-October, fisheries ministers agreed on a Commission proposal to reduce fishing possibilities in 2020 to almost zero. While this step is necessary to give the stock a chance to recover, it also means severe and unavoidable economic hardship for the fleets and fishing communities traditionally fishing this stock.

A new testing platform, developed by Norway-based Orivo in collaboration with BioMar, makes use of advanced DNA-technology. The test determines the species composition of marine ingredients with a high level of precision, able to detect the presence of even very small amounts of DNA. BioMar believes that DNA-testing of marine ingredients in the aquaculture industry is a natural answer to the demand from customers and stakeholders for improved transparency and traceability throughout the seafood value chain.

A social agenda for the artisanal fishing sector was presented by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SUBPESCA),…

To understand and interpret two distinct and opposing trends in global marine and inland fisheries FAO is organising a symposium on 18-21 November 2019 in Rome.…

Aquaculture in Spain 2019 is the latest edition of APROMAR’s annual report depicting the development of the aquaculture sector in Spain and Europe.…

The use of slave labor to catch fish is an epidemic whose severity needs no elucidation. New technology, however, may hold the key to fighting forced labour in the fishing industry. An estimated 21 million people are trapped in enslaved labor around the world. Many of these slaves are forced to work on fishing vessels, with illegal fishing practices generating over $23 billion each year. The tendency is for men who are seeking work to board ships willingly, but then once they are isolated at sea, their wages are withheld, and they are subjected to violent, bleak working conditions for years.

On some of European waterways a fleet of kayaks have been fitted with an unusual accessory: A trash can.…

International food processors and retailers were invited by Sealed Air to the company’s brand-new Milan Packforum in June this year for an update on how the market is changing from commodity to premium products and how industry players manage to do so while improving their green credentials. At the event, Rabobank – a leading international bank with a mission to promote greater sustainability in food production – showed that adding value to products and following convenience trends are key factors for retailers to succeed. Rabobank demonstrated this using the example of salmon, which now shows the highest consumption among all proteins thanks to products being innovative, convenient for consumers and packaged for premium positioning.