July / August 2016 EM 4
Country profile: Croatia and Lithuania
Species: Northern Shrimp (Pandalus borealis) suffering under climate change –…
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In 1986, APROMAR was created as an association to defend the interests of the marine aquaculture sector. This year at the APROMAR General Assembly held on May 12, and opened by MAGRAMA Secretary General of Fisheries, D. Andrés Hermida, APROMAR celebrated 30 years of working for the aquaculture industry in Spain. The president of APROMAR, José Carlos Rendon, highlighted some of the issues of importance for the sector. These included the National Strategic Aquaculture Plan, where he felt greater efforts were needed to implement the plan and to create awareness among local authorities about the need to streamline administrative procedures. Mr Rendon also said that the long delay in making funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund available to the sector was another important issue. While acknowledging the importance of mussel production, he pointed out that production growth is possible in many other species too. Mr Rendon reminded the audience that APROMAR, backed by more than 60% of European producers of seabass and seabream, had filed a complaint with the European Commission against the government of Turkey for the subsidy that it pays to farmers for these species. If Turkey does not withdraw its subsidies, the European Commission should impose a duty on these products, he demanded. The final decision will be known in mid-September.
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Seafood Expo Global (SEG), the world’s biggest and most international seafood event, showcased the latest from seafood processors,…
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The fisheries sector in Latvia is multifaceted and is represented by fishing, processing, trading, and fish farming. The fishing segment relies on the Latvian coastline that has a length of 500 km along the Gulf of Riga and the Baltic Sea as well as 2,400 sq. km of inland waters.
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A number of fish species are produced by the fish farming sector in Latvia, but of the species where data is publicly available only three or four are produced in significant quantities. These include carp, sturgeon and rainbow trout. The volumes produced of other species, including tench, crucian carp, and pike, are between 10 and 15 tonnes a year. Rainbow trout production jumped in 2014, the last year for which data is available, by a factor of 9 from the year before, from 4 tonnes to 35 tonnes. The huge increase in production is all the more impressive if one considers that average annual production for the 10 years to 2013 was 4.3 tonnes.
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The Latvian seafood processing sector produces a wide variety of products based on locally sourced as well as imported raw materials. Although per capita consumption of fish and seafood at 16 kg per capita is below the EU average (23 kg/capita), local supermarkets offer an impressive range of products – canned, smoked, salted, marinated, and fresh using many different species.
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Aquaculture in Latvia consists primarily of the production of common carp farmed in earthen ponds. The volume of fish produced has remained broadly stable for the last decade at about 500 tonnes. Although carp production still dominates the total output from the aquaculture sector, its relative importance has gradually decreased over the last decade, from about nine tenths of the total production to about three fourths. The reason is the gradual increase in the production of other species including rainbow trout, sturgeon, crucian carp and pike. Production of these species has led to 26% increase in the total farmed fish production in the decade to 2014 to 680 tonnes.
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The Latvian fleet is active in the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Riga, coastal waters, and also in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of western Africa. In the Baltic Sea the main catch in terms of volumes is of sprat followed by herring, cod, and flounder. In the Gulf of Riga on the other hand, Baltic herring is the primary catch followed by European smelt, while the coastal fishery targets mostly herring and flounder.
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Although fish and seafood products have a positive image in Germany and are generally perceived as contributing towards a healthy diet per capita consumption has for years remained about a quarter behind the global average. One reason for this is the concern that many consumers have with regard to overfishing of the seas or unsustainable aquaculture methods. Internet portals are now to enlighten the public by providing objective information which could dispel such prejudices.
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As the global consumption of fish increases resources that were previously used for the production of fishmeal and fish oil are increasingly being considered for use by humans. Many of these fish are small in size and processing them involves a lot of manual labour. Some companies have however sensed an opportunity and are producing machinery that can relieve workers of this drudgery. One such company, Seac AB from Sweden, specialises in machines to process small pelagic fish ranging from sardinella/mackerel in the range of 2-8 fish per kg to European anchovy or vendace which ranges from 60 to 110 fish per kg.
