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May / June 2013 EM 3 Country profiles: Romania Aquaculture: Promising candidates for aquacultureTechnology: Thermal cooking in industrial fish processing  …

Although work on the development of an artificial starter feed for fish and shrimp larvae has made considerable progress live feed continues to be indispensable in a lot of areas of aquaculture. Marine fish larvae, in particular, often have very high dietary requirements and during the first days of their lives have to be fed on Artemia larvae, rotifers or the even smaller ciliates. Producing this live feed is by no means easy.

When a female shrimp that had been caught in the wild spawned for the first time in a test facility in Florida in 1973 the farming of Whiteleg Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), usually known simply as white shrimp, began. It has been an unprecedented success story, for today this species is the most produced shrimp in the world’s shrimp farms.

The purchase of refurbished equipment for the start-up of a new seafood processing business or the expansion of an existing one can help keep costs under control. Still, it is a substantial investment, and a wrong decision can have serious consequences.

The Polish fish processing industry is highly dynamic producing between 360 and 380 thousand tonnes of product annually valued at EUR1.5tr (in comparison Germany with twice the population produced just over 490 thousand tonnes of processed products). About 60% of the volume is exported to countries within and outside Europe, among them Germany, the UK, France, and Denmark.

When people talk about halibut in Europe they usually mean Reinhardtius hippoglossoides: Greenland halibut or black halibut. The name halibut is derived from haly (holy) and butt (flat fish) due to its popularity on Catholic holy days.

November / December 2013 EM 2 Country profiles: Lithuania and the Netherlands Aquaculture: Dry feed still not a substitute for Artemia and rotifersResearch: Increasing the number of products enriched with omega-3s  …

Campaigns to increase seafood consumption in Peru, Brazil and Chile are expected to have a positive effect on artisanal fishermen and local communities who make a living from catching bivalve molluscs and in small-scale aquaculture and fisheries. They will also benefit aquaculture producers who are facing declining exports to the EU market.

The European fish processing industry is heavily reliant on raw materials imported from third countries. Almost two thirds of the total supply of fish to the EU is imported and for whitefish this figure is estimated to be close to 90%, according to the latest edition of the Finfish Study* produced by AIPCE-CEP, the European Fish Processors and Traders Association. The study analyses the importance of imported seafood for the European processing industry, showing how supply trends reflect increasing demand for value-added seafood in the EU.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other bodies have recently launched a campaign to reduce the estimated 1.3bn tonnes of food that is lost or wasted each year around the globe. The campaign Think.Eat.Save. Reduce your Foodprint. seeks to reduce waste all along the food production and consumption chain.