This article featured in EUROFISH Magazine 2 2020.
Dña. Alicia Villauriz Iglesias, the Secretary General for Fisheries, has a long history at top levels of the administration of the Spanish agriculture, fisheries, and food sectors with experience both from within Spain and outside. She outlines here some of the issues facing the Spanish fisheries sector and the measures her administration is taking to address them.

Pond farming should be better acknowledged

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 1 / 2020

Modern pond aquaculture production originates in the Danube basin, and in the European Union about 60% of it is still connected with this catchment area. The biogeographic features of pond aquaculture production define the spectrum of produced species and applied technologies.

Fishpond production dominates Hungarian aquaculture with an output of 81% of the total in 2018, according to the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI). Fishponds are defined as artificial structures which can be fully filled and drained through their monks. The average fish pond is 30-40 ha in Hungary and there are mainly two types: barrage ponds in hilly areas and paddy ponds mainly on the plains.

Ambitious strategy charts out aquaculture development

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 1/2020

Fish production in the Republic of Uzbekistan comes primarily from inland capture fishing and fish farming. The latter is mainly the extensive pond production of silver carp and common carp, but plans are afoot to expand this to other species using water-conserving technologies.

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country situated in the middle of Central Asia and has an area of about 450,000 km². The country has a typical inland climate with marked seasonal temperature fluctuations, i.e. hot summers and cold winters. The average temperature in summer is about 27 ^оС often rising to more than 40 ^оС in the daytime, while the average temperature in February is -6 to -8 ^оС.

Better care of water resources would increase sector potential

Putting fish back on the menu

Featured in EUROFISH Magazine 1/2020

Seafood is declining in popularity in Norway, a country with one of the world’s highest figures for per capita consumption. Falling interest in seafood is prompting the authorities and institutions to find out the reasons behind this development and devise ways to counter it.

Norway is the world’s largest exporter of fish and seafood in terms of value after China. The country is however not only an impressive exporter but is also an avid consumer of fish and seafood products. Within Europe, it is only the Icelandics and the Portuguese who eat more seafood than the Norwegians. However, as in many countries, even those with a long tradition of eating seafood, consumption in Norway is declining. Seafood is associated with a number of health benefits both in children and adults. Falling fish consumption therefore can have repercussions on public health, so a number of initiatives backed by a network of public and private institutions have been put in place to reverse this trend.

Among these is the Norwegian Directorate of Health, a body with a mandate to improve the general level of health among Norwegians. A recent report from the directorate analyses developments in the Norwegian diet. What people eat is among the factors closely related to the risks of developing illnesses and of premature death and the directorate’s recommendations regarding diet, nutrition, and physical activity are intended to reduce these risks. The sustainability of a diet is also an aspect that is taken into consideration when making national recommendations today and a healthy diet, meaning one with a high content of fruit, vegetables, and whole grain products and a low content of red and processed meats, is generally more sustainable. The report finds that the development in Norwegian eating habits between 2008 and 2018 has been mixed. Sugar and milk consumption declined, that of vegetables increased, consumption of meat decreased slightly, while that of fish fell considerably. In 2018, Norwegians ate 2.6 times more meat than fish, a figure that was 2.2 in 2008.

The fishery and aquaculture sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) includes artisanal and recreational fisheries on marine and inland waters. The main types of aquaculture production systems are pond, tank and cage cultures. Farmed production is predominantly fish, with only a small cultivation of molluscs.

Three Danish harbours on the west coast of Jutland have entered into a collaboration that brings together all the main actors – fishermen, auctions, buyers, processors, and service providers – in an alliance that seeks to expand the opportunities offered by the high quality fresh fish that is landed and traded each day. Called Konsumfisk, the collaboration ultimately hopes to attract more boats, higher volumes of fish, increase value addition, and draw more jobs and people to the area.

Dybvad Stål Industri makes plate freezers for the production of frozen blocks that are used by fish, and other food, processing companies. The company designs and manufactures manual or automatic vertical and horizontal freezers that it supplies to processing plants on land as well as on board fishing vessels in countries round the world.

AquaPri is one of the few companies in Europe to successfully farm pike-perch in a closed recirculation system. While other attempts to rear this species both in Denmark and abroad have floundered for one reason or another, the company is currently completing a large new facility to replace its existing on-growing tanks for the fish.

The Thorupstrand Kystfiskerlaug (Thorupstrand coastal fishers’ guild) was established in 2006 in response to the restructuring in the Danish fishing sector which introduced transferable quotas and resulted in a degree of consolidation in the fleet.

A group of associations from the aquaculture, fisheries, and related sectors have been tasked by the government to formulate a strategy for the growth and development of their industries as part of the government’s overall growth plan. The team has made concrete suggestions that can help remove barriers to growth, where they exist, as well as promote innovation and creative thinking to increase the competitiveness of the sectors.