potential

The European Parliament held a stakeholder meeting on the current challenges facing the aquaculture sector, with emphasis on production. The speakers included fish farmers representing marine aquaculture in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to pond farming in the Czech Republic, with additional experts from Hungary, Belgium, and Croatia. Dr. Halasi-Kovács of the NAIK Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Hungary underlined in his presentation, the potential of freshwater aquaculture. Presenting some general trends in the EU, he said, 85% of aquaculture production originates from marine sources while only 12 percent is from freshwater production. Production from pond aquaculture has not grown in the last decade within the EU, although globally freshwater aquaculture production constitutes 60 percent of total farmed fish production, while marine production contributes less than 30 percent.