Saving Seafood

US squid catchers turn to innovation, MSC in push to boost consumption

May 13, 2019 — The US’ two largest squid catchers and suppliers are taking a similar tack when it comes to plans to boost consumption of their species: product innovation at home targeted at millennials, and the recent Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of their fisheries to open up new markets, particularly in Europe.

The companies –Narragansett, Rhode Island-based The Town Dock and Cape May, New Jersey-based Lund’s Fisheries — recently teamed up to receive MSC approval for the US Northwest northern shortfin squid (Illex Illecebrosus) fishery. This comes nearly a year after obtaining the MSC’s stamp for the US Northeast longfin inshore squid (Loligo pealeii) bottom trawl fishery last year, the world’s first MSC certification for a squid species. The two firms also catch California market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) and harvest or procure a wide range of other squid and fish species.

Americans don’t consume a lot of squids — in 2015, the average US consumer ate around four ounces per year, roughly equivalent to a serving of fried calamari rings. That’s where the opportunity lies, Jeff Reichle, Lund’s president, told Undercurrent News.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Europe’s USD 20 billion tariff countermeasure proposal puts US seafood in the firing line

April 18, 2019 — A public consultation on a preliminary list of products from the United States on which the European Union may take countermeasures, in the context of the ongoing Boeing dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has been published by the European Commission (EC).

The proposed tariffs are in response to the long-running dispute over subsidies paid by the United States to airplane-maker Boeing and by Europe to Airbus.

A range of U.S. exports into the E.U. are covered by Brussels’ list – from aircrafts to chemicals and agri-foods. In total, these goods are estimated at around USD 20 billion (EUR 17.7 billion).

In terms of seafood, the many products currently listed for additional import duties if they are originating in the United States include frozen Atlantic, Danube, and Pacific salmon, frozen albacore and yellowfin tuna, frozen cod and Alaska pollock, frozen and live lobster, frozen coldwater shrimp, scallops, and squid.

In a statement, E.U. Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said that European companies must be able to compete on fair and equal terms.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New online tool launched for UK seafood trade, tariff data

March 28, 2019 — Seafood importers and exporters in the United Kingdom now have instant access to seafood trade data back through 2010 and current tariff rates, following the delivery of the new online Seafish Trade and Tariff tool.

Launched at the Scottish Seafood Summit in Aberdeen by Arina Motova, interim chief economist at Seafish, the system has been designed through industry consultation to be user-friendly and interactive. Available through the trade body’s website, it allows users to drill down into trade by product and country, giving businesses a better understanding of the U.K. seafood market.

“Having the data just a few clicks away within a self-service tool means businesses can access whatever information they want in their own time and their own way – from enquiries as specific as the volume and value of import and tariff on frozen warmwater shrimp imported to U.K. from India, for example, to obtaining a more general background picture on export and markets they might be considering entering,” Motova said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

European Commission investigating potential price-fixing in European farmed salmon sector

February 19, 2019 — The European Commission has confirmed it carried out unannounced inspections on the morning of Tuesday, 19 February at the premises of several companies involved in the farmed Atlantic salmon sector in Europe.

In a statement, the E.C. said it “has concerns that the inspected companies may have violated E.U. antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices.”

The E.C. did not say what sparked its investigation, nor did it identify which companies are being investigated or which sites its investigators visited. However, Mowi (formerly Marine Harvest) and Greig Seafood confirmed to SeafoodSource their facilities were among those visited on Tuesday. Additionally, a Scottish Sea Farms facility jointly owned by SalMar and Leroy Seafood was also inspected, SalMar CEO Olav-Andreas Ervik confirmed to Reuters.

“We have been informed that The European Commission DG (Director General) Competition is exploring potential anti-competitive behavior in the salmon industry. They have performed an inspection today at Grieg Seafood Shetland,” Grieg Seafood Global Communications Manager Kristina Furnes told SeafoodSource in an email. “The salmon market is very competitive and we are not aware of any anti-competitive behavior. We are co-operating with the European Commission DG Competition’s investigation.”

Furne referred further questions about the investigation to the European Commission DG Competition.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Marine Stewardship Council aims to “improve confidence that the MSC Fisheries Standard is being applied consistently”

February 5, 2019 — The Marine Stewardship Council, one of the largest seafood-focused eco-labeling schemes in the world, is reviewing its standards and processes with the dual aims of increasing its effectiveness and addressing perceptions of inadequacies in how its system works.

The London, United Kingdom-based organization currently certifies more than 300 fisheries with a combined annual seafood production of 12 million metric tons, representing 15 percent of global marine catch. Its formal Fisheries Standard Review takes place every five years; the most recent review began in 2018 and will run through 2021. The MSC reviews its standards to “improve confidence that the MSC Fisheries Standard is being applied consistently,” according to the organization.

Last week, the MSC Board of Directors released a list of 16 topics it will include it’s the second stage of the review. Those topics include MSC’s requirements for ghost gear, low trophic species, shark-finning, endangered threatened and protected species, and the accessibility of the MSC program to small-scale, squid, crab, and octopus fisheries.

“The next stage in the MSC Fisheries Standard Review will be an in-depth analysis of all topics agreed for review,” MSC CEO Rupert Howes said. “Over the next year, the MSC will work alongside stakeholders to harness their expertise and experience to identify potential updates to the standard.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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. 

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