Saving Seafood

Fears Grow of New ‘Cod Wars’ Under No-Deal Brexit

January 14, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fishermen worry that without terms of exit, European boats will test UK’s resolve to take back its territorial waters.

Newlyn, Cornwall – James Hellewell, a picture-book image of a bearded fisherman, contemplates what could happen in the high seas off the English peninsula Cornwall on the first day after a “hard Brexit”.

“Someone’s going to die,” Hellewell warns. “If a trawler has got its beams out and a Frenchman goes and hits it under the beam, he can turn that boat turtle.”

Hellewell, like many others in the fishing community of Newlyn in southwest Cornwall, fears European boats will test Britain’s resolve to take back control of its territorial waters if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without an exit agreement on March 29.

The waters are currently shared by European fishermen under the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, but once outside the EU, Britain will regain full control of fishing stocks unless its government reaches a deal with Brussels over the terms of its withdrawal.

Although many fishermen in Cornwall support Brexit, they want conditions put in place that will protect their livelihood and interests.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

28,000-Strong Survey Reveals Europeans’ Fish and Seafood Preferences

January 8, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Most Europeans prefer buying fish and seafood frozen but consumers in Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Spain prefer fresh, according to a 28,000-strong European Commission survey.

The EU is one of the world’s largest markets for fish and seafood.

While per capita spending on fishery and aquaculture products is one-third of that of Japan, the world leader, it is more than three times as much as in the United States.

A recently published study commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, therefore aimed to shed light on what Europeans look for in fish and seafood, where they buy it and which information they would like to see on-pack.

The survey questioned almost 28,000 individuals from each member state in face-to-face interviews that were conducted at home in their native language.

“It aims at improving understanding of the EU internal market for fishery and aquaculture products to allow operators to be more competitive and to support new strategies that can stimulate growth, strengthen economic activities in the internal market and lead to job creation,” the report said.

Overall, seven in ten respondents (70%) eat fishery or aquaculture products at home ‘at least once a month’.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest consumers of fish and seafood products are from countries with a tradition of fishing and eating fish. Spain led the way, with 92% of respondents saying they eat fish at least once a month, followed by Portugal and Sweden (both 87%), Estonia (85%), Finland (84%) and Denmark and Greece with 83%.

As with the previous 2016 survey , Hungary stood out for having the lowest proportion, with just over one quarter (28%) of individuals eating fish at home at least once a month. However, price may be a deterring factor for consumers in the land-locked country: 90% of Hungarians said they would buy or eat more fishery and aquaculture products if the prices were not so high.

Supermarkets are the preferred purchase point

Over three-quarters of these respondents (77%) buy fishery or aquaculture products at the grocery store, supermarket or hypermarket. However, a majority of Italians (64%), Greeks (65%) and Maltese respondents (74%) were more likely to buy fish or seafood directly from a fishmonger, a fishmonger’s stall in a market hall, or at a specialist store.

Almost no country seemed to favour online shopping for fish products with one exception: Denmark, with 6%.

The most popular format was frozen. A total of 68% of all respondents who buy fish and seafood purchase frozen products either from time to time or often, with Portugal, Austria and Sweden the top countries for frozen fish purchases. Greece, Spain and Portugal, on the other hand, came out top for fresh fish and seafood products.

Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Cyprus and Croatia preferred to buy whole products.

Respondents were more likely to express a preference for wild products (35%) over farmed products (9%), but nearly as many said that they did not have a preference (32%).

“The most commonly mentioned reasons to buy or eat fishery and aquaculture products are because they are healthy (74%) and because they taste good (59%),” the report said.

Label information

“More than half mention the product’s appearance (59%) and the cost of the product (52%) as important aspects when buying fishery and aquaculture products. The third most frequently mentioned aspect is the origin of the product, with more than four in ten respondents (41%) considering this important. More than a fifth (23%) of respondents consider the brand or quality labels (e.g. PGI, PDO) and how easy and quick it is to prepare as important. Finally, the environmental, social or ethical impact is least mentioned as important (17%).

After date of catch and production, the second piece of information consumers would most like to see on-pack was environmental information, which nearly four in ten (39%) thought should be on labels.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

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