Saving Seafood

UK fishing industry faces ‘grave’ threat from new EU policy

January 2, 2019 — The United Kingdom’s fishing industry faces a “grave” threat from a new European Union policy due to be introduced on Tuesday, a House of Lords committee warned after hearing evidence on how fishing quotas will be enforced.

The new rules alter how discarded fish affect the quotas for each species. In the past, fish that were discarded would not count towards the total haul by crews. The new regulations mean that fishers must bring back their total haul, in a measure designed to reduce waste caused by dumping dead but unwanted fish.

Barrie Deas, the chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, described the rules, which will be phased in over a four year period, as “badly designed.”

According to evidence presented to the House of Lords EU Energy and Environment sub-committee, crews could reach their quotas for each year much earlier than before. That would mean they would have to stop their fishing until quotas were renewed.

Read the full story at Yahoo

The top seafood M&A stories of 2018

December 28, 2018 — Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a topic that we’ve really developed our coverage of in the past couple of years, having seen the strong interest from our readers in the developing deals in what is surely one of the world’s most dynamic sectors.

Through the creation of our seafood M&A report in 2017 we developed a number of excellent sources, thanks to whom our coverage has come on leaps and bounds, as can be seen from the stories below, which were among our most-read of the year.

As mentioned in my rundown of our most-read retail and foodservice stories of 2018, two of the biggest stories of the year concerned M&A; one rumored, and one done deal.

In July, multiple sources told our Matilde Mereghetti that US broadline distributor Sysco Corporation was eyeing a deal for Italy’s largest seafood importer, MARR. The deal, if it goes ahead, would add a strong southern European component to Sysco’s business, sources said.

Sysco, based in Houston, Texas, moved into Europe in 2016, announcing a $3.1 billion acquisition for UK-based Brake Bros, which had previously snapped up France’s Davigel.

Sysco representatives had even visited Rimini-based MARR earlier in the year, according to Undercurrent News sources. The sources were not sure whether negotiations were going ahead or, if so, at what stage they were at. This may be one to keep an eye out for in 2019. MARR, however, recently denied there is a plan to sell.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Marine life worse off inside ‘protected’ areas, analysis reveals

December 27, 2018 — Destructive trawling is more intense inside official marine sanctuaries, while endangered fish are more common outside them, a startling analysis of Europe’s seas has revealed.

It shows that far from conserving sealife, many legal marine protected areas (MPAs) are being damaged by industrial fishing. The work has exposed “the big lie” behind European marine conservation, experts say, with most MPAs completely open to trawling.

The researchers were able to assess the activity of fishing vessels in great detail thanks to satellite tracking equipment that is now compulsory on ships. They compared this with scientific data on the health of sea areas and looked at more than 700 MPAs, covering 16% of Europe’s territorial waters. In total, MPAs cover 29% of Europe’s waters.

This revealed that commercial trawling activity was on average almost 40% higher inside MPAs than in unprotected areas. Furthermore, endangered and critically endangered fish species such as sharks and rays were five times more abundant outside the MPAs.

“It should be the reverse,” said Prof Boris Worm, at Dalhousie University in Canada, who led the research. “When something is called a protected area, it actually needs to be protected. We know that when areas are actually protected they deliver: species recover, biodiversity increases and fisheries benefit as well, as fish become more abundant and spill outside these areas.

Read the full story at The Guardian

Why the battle to fix Europe’s fisheries policy isn’t over yet

December 20, 2018 — Overfishing in EU waters, and the wasteful practice of discarding edible fish at sea, should come to an end from next year, as reforms to the common fisheries policy (CFP) are implemented after seven years of wrangling.

But disputes among member states over rights to dwindling fish stocks mean that key aspects of the plans to improve management of European fisheries are floundering.

From January, the landing obligation should mean that all fish netted are brought to shore instead of thrown away if they exceed a vessel’s quota. By 2020, all stocks should be subject to quotas based on scientific judgments of the maximum sustainable yield, not annual horse-trading among politicians.

However, as fisheries ministers met in Brussels for quota negotiations on Wednesday, it was clear these long-promised reforms would not be implemented in the way campaigners had hoped. Also, there were signs that the UK would face more difficult negotiations after Brexit, as shared waters make up most of the productive seas fished by UK fleets.

The European commission is struggling to insist on the discard ban, against the wishes of some member states. A spokesman said: “The commission has put forward concrete solutions to advance on sustainable fishing and to ease the implementation of the landing obligation, but we cannot do it without the support of the member states.”

Read the full story at The Guardian

NGO finds EU countries could catch 56% more fish if ministers stop Atlantic overfishing

December 19, 2018 — Research undertaken by the NGO Oceana shows Denmark, France and the UK would ultimately register the highest increases in catch volume if EU ministers follow scientific advice when they meet to set the new 2019 quotas on Dec. 18.

The EU could increase the volume of fish landings from the North-Eastern Atlantic and the North Sea by 56%, up to more than 5 million metric tons, according to a study by Oceana.

The organization found that the recovery would take less than ten years, and that Denmark, France, the UK, Netherlands and Spain would benefit the most if scientific advice was followed. Ministers are under pressure in the approach to 2020, whereby under the common fisheries policy, all total allowable catches must be set sustainably.

Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana Europe, implored EU ministers to think of the longer-term benefits over short-term gains.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

EU announces new tariff quotas for 2019-20, raises limit for Alaska pollock to 320,000t

December 17, 2018 — The European Council has announced the new autonomous tariff quotas (ATQs) for 2019-20 on Dec. 11, providing reduced or duty-free import rates for certain products from outside the EU.

By far the biggest beneficiary of the ATQs is Alaskan pollock, which has been granted an extra 20,000 metric tons of tariff-free imports by the new ATQs. This brings the total annual tariff-free import quota of the species to 320,000t.

Undercurrent News understands that the additional quota was provided so that a quirk in legislation could be avoided. Under official EU rules, importers must begin paying a duty on additional volume once 80% of the quota is reached. While this fee is eventually returned, importers see it as an administrative hassle.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Scottish minister calls for removal of link between seafood trade and access to waters

December 12, 2018 — Scotland Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing has written to the U.K. government raising serious concerns about the current Brexit Withdrawal Agreement’s failure to ensure tariff-free access to European markets for Scotland’s seafood exports.

Ewing warned Environment Secretary Michael Gove that non-tariff barriers like customs delays at ports could be catastrophic for an industry that relies on frictionless passage across borders, particularly for fresh and live products.

Ewing wrote that despite the Prime Minister Theresa May’s claims, a direct link between seafood trade and access to waters has been conceded, allowing for exclusion of fisheries and aquaculture from tariff-free access through a temporary customs union, if a fisheries agreement acceptable to the European Union cannot be achieved.

“Worse still, aquaculture has been included in this linkage despite having no connection to access to waters or quota,” Ewing wrote. “Salmon farming alone was the [United Kingdom’s] largest food export in 2017. Its inclusion is profoundly disturbing, risking the imposition of tariffs, which will inevitably increase the cost of exports, and perhaps even more importantly the spectre of non-tariff barriers hangs over Scottish seafood exports, which absolutely rely on frictionless passage across borders.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

European industry targets doubling of aquaculture production by 2030

December 5, 2018 — The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) has set a production target of 4.5 million metric tons in seafood from EU aquaculture by 2030; nearly double the current volume of 2.3m metric tons.

Speaking at the FEAP conference in Brussels on Nov. 29, president Marco Gilmozzi said that a boost in global aquaculture production will be necessary to meet the growing demand for sustainably-sourced protein within Europe.

“We need to be ambitious,” Gilmozzi said. “Aquaculture, if well-managed, is a fully-sustainable, globally competitive sector.”

With the global population set to rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, and many of the world’s fisheries already at maximum sustainable yield, FEAP predicts that farmed seafood will grow to represent more than two-thirds of the world’s consumed seafood by this date.

According to Gilmozzi, who is also the general manager of COSA fish farm in Tuscany, Italy, this means there are opportunities for European aquaculture to significantly grow its market share, as it currently only accounts for 25% of all European seafood production.

“To achieve our targets, we just need institutions to reduce bureaucracy and licensing times, and to realize a fair level playing field,” the FEAP president said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NGOs: Chance for EU to hit 2020 overfishing targets lost for deep sea quotas

November 21, 2018 — The EU Council has agreed on the total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for certain deep-sea stocks in the EU and international waters in the North-East Atlantic, for 2019 and 2020.

The fish stocks concerned are deep sea sharks, black scabbardfish, alfonsino, roundnose grenadier, and red seabream.

“In view of the vulnerability of deep-sea species to human activity, and in order to prevent their over-exploitation, the Council decided to raise the TACs for the two stocks and to reduce the TACs for ten stocks as proposed by the Commission.”

It said it had decided to make cuts to fishing opportunities to protect the maritime environment and help the industry in the longer term.

It confirmed the Commission proposal to increase quotas for red seabream around the Azores and roundnose grenadier in South Western waters over the next two years, “in line with positive scientific advice”.

“Given the small number of fish being caught and in line with the scientific advice, the TAC management system for greater forkbeard in the North-East Atlantic, roundnose grenadier in the North Sea and black scabbardfish in the North Sea and Skagerrak was canceled. Fishing for orange roughy remains prohibited.”

Following finalization by the legal/linguistic experts, the agreement will be submitted for final adoption without discussion at a forthcoming Council meeting. The regulation will apply as from Jan. 1, 2019.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

EU fishing deal ‘far from acceptable’ to Scottish industry

November 20, 2018 — The industry had expected the UK to withdraw from the Common Fisheries Policy on the day of leaving the EU.

But the UK government has now agreed to be “consulted” on arrangements with the EU continuing to set quotas.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation said it falls “far short of an acceptable deal”.

The UK government has denied betraying its promise to “take back control” of the UK’s fishing waters after Brexit.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said: “We have secured specific safeguards on behalf of British fishermen.”

He said the deal specified that in 2019 “there is a commitment that the UK’s share of the total catch cannot be changed”.

The spokesman added that, from 2020, “we’ll be negotiating as an independent coastal state and we’ll decide who can access our waters and on what terms”.

The UK and the EU said they had agreed on a “large part” of the deal that will lead to the “orderly withdrawal” of the UK.

Brexit negotiators Michel Barnier and David Davis said they had agreed terms for a transition period, calling the announcement a “decisive step”.

The transitional period is set to last from 29 March 2019 to December 2020, and is intended to smooth the path to a future permanent relationship.

Both the UK and the EU hope the terms of an agreement on the transitional period can be signed off by Prime Minister Theresa May’s fellow leaders at the EU summit this week.

Bertie Armstrong, of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said the Scottish industry did not trust the EU to look after its interests.

Read the full story at BBC News