Consumption of fish in Spain continues to decline, as reported by “La Alimentación en España 2015”, a study by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA). A trade association, AECOC/GS 1 Spain, is among those trying to do something about it.

The General Directorate for Fisheries Management in the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment is responsible among other things for inspection and control, structural, and market policies. Led by Carlos María Larrañaga, the directorate plays a key role in the fight against IUU fishing, the certification of fisheries as well as the organisation of the market.

The Spanish operational programme for fisheries and aquaculture envisages a three-fold increase in aquaculture activities by 2023 leading to higher production, but also increased employment and better protection of the environment. Andrés Hermida Trastoy, the General Secretary for Fisheries in the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment mentions here, among other points, some of the steps the ministry is taking to achieve this.

The Spanish fisheries sector is among the most highly advanced in the world with well-developed activities in capture, aquaculture, processing, and trade as well as a sophisticated research and development. capability.

The feature in the last edition of the Eurofish Magazine (December 2016) on the Blue Legasea project in Alesund, Norway, an undertaking that brings together companies interested in exploiting marine biomass to produce a range of sustainable, high-value, and healthful products, continues in this issue with brief profiles on three companies, Pharma Marine, Rimfrost, and Vedde (Triple Nine Group).

The Netherlands is an important hub in the international fish trade. One quarter of the raw materials that are processed or traded by Dutch seafood companies come from the country’s own fishery. The major share – fish and seafood worth about 2.2 billion euros – is imported. Only 20 per cent of the products produced in the Netherlands remain within the country. Most of them are exported, mainly to other European countries. The total value of Dutch seafood exports adds up to over 2.5 billion euros.

The company Noordzee farms seabass, seabream, and meagre in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, processing and exporting the fish to countries in Europe and to Russia. A planned expansion to its fish feed factory will contribute to the integration of operations enabling the company to maintain even closer control over all the production parameters.

Turkey produces more farmed trout than any other farmed species. Of the total farmed fish production, trout amounted to 45% in 2015 thanks to the almost 2,000 inland fish farms that exist across the country.

Pakyurek, based in Adana in the south of Turkey along the Mediterranean coast, produces a range of fish and seafood products for the domestic market and for export. However, one of the company’s most important items is land snails, which are exported to France.

A joint venture between the BioMar Group from Denmark and the Sagun Group of Turkey, BioMar-Sagun has established a greenfield fish feed factory in Söke, Turkey, that went on stream in the middle of 2016.