They came to meet, network and hear seventy expert speakers, which included CEO’s of major international companies, scientists, financiers, political advisors and marketing gurus. Presenters were asked to look ahead to 2015, when a number of major structural changes to the Common Fisheries Policy, resource issues and changing consumer demand will have their impacts on the seafood business.
After conference Chair Guus Pastoor opened – with a broad overview of the EU perspective, a huge market, CFP reform to be tackled, successes in tightening IUU regulation – Danish Ministerial policy adviser Mogens Schou homed in on what he feels can and should be done about the long-running disaster that has been the CFP. Discards and mortality are running at twice the actual landings, a scandalous waste. Denmark is pushing for a switch to Total Allowable Landings, where all fish caught must be brought ashore and all catches recorded, with CCTV monitoring the whole fishing operation. There are many benefits in moving to Catch Quota Management, said Schou. Fishermen have a strong incentive to fish efficiently and use selective gear (they should choose it, not bureaucrats), scientists get a wealth of accurate data, coastal fisheries benefit. Trials are underway on boats in Denmark and Scotland, with promising results.
The North Atlantic Seafood Industry Perspective
The conference then heard from ex-skipper Mike Park, who now heads the Scottish Fishermens’ Organisation and reminded us that fishing is still the most dangerous occupation. “Our economic resilience is very low, apart from a small but booming pelagic sector.” He echoed the feeling that the CFP has failed, being too top–down, and management must be devolved to fishermen. “Discarding dead fish is the single most inefficient act in any industry – the real wealth of our industry is what we leave behind in the sea.” Park believes that in ten years discards will not be tolerated, and in five, every fish caught must be recorded.
Seafood Scotland’s CEO Libby Woodhatch talked about the sometimes conflicting views of NGO’s and the industry, when incorrect perceptions about species at risk (such as ‘the monkfish debacle’) have to be talked through and put straight. The UK Seafish organisation’s Responsible Fishing Scheme now has 130 boats certified, and Scotland has four MSC-certified fisheries with more in assessment. She also pointed out some MSC ‘negatives’; expensive, does not return a price premium, but “The only show in town.” To underline that Scottish fishing is listening to, and acting on environmental concerns, she cited a ‘fishing for litter’ scheme to reduce impact of lost gear, and the 144 ‘real-time’ closures last year to protect stocks.
The conference then heard from Nordea Bank analyst Giskeodegaard the currently happy story of the salmon industry – record prices and volumes, with prices expected to stay high through 2011, largely due to Chile’s problems . “Buy salmon shares” was his advice. The grave human impact of the recent earthquake was put into sharp focus by Cermaq’s Geir Isaksen. Luckily they lost no staff, and the farms were not seriously affected, but their Ewos feed plant was stormed by 3000 desperate people, who simply wanted the wheat flour used to make salmon feed. While harvesting will resume in a few days, said Isaksen, he sees the future constrained by a shortage of good eggs and smolt, but recovering back to 2006 levels. “At least the lower biomass means less disease”.
Moving on to the whitefish sector, Espersen’s CEO Klaus Nielsen reported a strong recovery in his company’s fortunes. He is bullish about the forward view. “There will be more consumers, they are liking fish more, and eating it for longer as life expectancy increases – the EU average life expectancy is expected to be 84 by 2050” . With plants in China and Vietnam, he has to keep an eye on ethical issues such as child labour. Nielsen also has a goal of pushing turnover to 400 m. euros by 2015, and his final sally on behalf of whitefish (as obesity becomes a bigger issue in the West): “It’s lower in fat than salmon!”
Seafood Industry Captains – the view from the bridge
After a coffee break in the ‘Seafood Village’ of company presentations the ‘Seafood Industry Captains’ session played to a packed hall. The theme was ‘A View from the Bridge’ and leading seafood bosses lined up to forecast where their own ship (or, in the case of Marine Harvest, tanker) is heading. MH Managing Director Marit Solberg was first on stage, and confirmed that all is indeed now rosy in the salmon business. “We have recovered from the disastrous period, are back in profit, prices are at an all-time high, and we are reaching the total allowable biomass limit in Norway”. Notable advances include a big jump in fillet production, US imports have doubled to 50,000 tonnes, and there are cost savings in not transporting the whole fish. MH has built a specialised salmon terminal at the Oslo airport, and its plants in Miami and Los Angeles can 30,000 tonnes a year. “We see a good market for the next two years, and demand in the recession remains strong”.
Although Norway- based the NASF is committed to covering the whole North Atlantic Resource area, and so there was much interest in the presentation by Cooke Aquaculture of Canada. Cooke’s Len Stewart described a billion-dollar Canadian industry that export 85% of production, and employs 16,000 workers. Moving East from Atlantic Canada to Iceland, HB Grandi CEO Eggert Gudmundsson reminded us that the last time he spoke in Oslo, there were some jokes made about bankers. “Not today, though.” Fishing is Iceland’s lifeline at present, making up 42% of the economy. For the future, he sees growth as limited, feels that the politicians are fiddling with the management system: “The Government is just cutting the cake when they should be baking it.” He wants to see more and better fisheries research, not just for individual species, but on their interaction.
Seafood Industry Captains – the European Outlook
Poland is an important and fast-growing market for seafood, and home to the world’s biggest salmon smoker, Morpol. John-Paul McGinley explained that they import 80,000 tonnes annually, 15% of all Norway’s exports to the EU – and this has been achieved in just twelve years. Unusually, Morpol designs and builds all its own processing machinery, with a team of 200 engineers, and is finding more and more ways of presenting smoked salmon to the consumer. “Value-added is more than just cutting fish”.
The UK’s Findus Group is a giant, and 70% of its sales are seafood products. New CEO Chris Britton is a branding expert, his mantra is “The Consumer is King”, and on taking up post he rapidly commissioned a consumer attitude survey – with some surprising results. Health benefits are now widely understood, but 95% of those polled thought that fish is better value then chicken or meat. Frozen and chilled is gaining market share on fresh, good news for Findus, but in the recession per capita consumption is decreasing in Ireland, Portugal and Spain. He believes that big producers should be pro-active in pushing for more MSC-certified fisheries.
Peter Dill of Deutsche See is passionate about ending the ‘immoral’ EU discard policy, and again drove home his message from the podium – that EU Governments must act, and fast fast. “Why must they take three or four years to achieve zero discards? It’s crazy”. Dill thinks that consumers should have maximum information, even having specific catch areas on labelling, and has set up a database which others can share.
Opening the final panel discussion, Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund gave a sobering warning that sustainability is going to be vital, and compulsory. He predicts that by 2050 farmed fish will overtake poultry, because it takes half the feed to produce the same amount of meat.
World Seafood Markets – trends and outlook
On Day two, the conference turned to marketing and consumer themes, with speakers from the UK, Spain, France, the USA, Russia, China and the Ukraine. Delegates were deluged with high-quality information – one said: The range and quality of information on tap here is just amazing – it would cost me a fortune to commission a just fraction of this.” The afternoon session moved to key issues of the resource base and sustainability.
From MareLife – innovation session to Finance
While the plenary hall heard from an impressive array of speakers, the parallel ‘MareLife’ session got under way, focusing on technical innovation. The NASF is designed as an ‘A La Carte’ conference, with sessions to suit every interest area, and delegates can move at will fro the plenary hall to the MareLife sessions and mini-exhibition to hear case studies of cutting-edge research and applied technology, or (on day two) the Seafood Finance Seminar, where CEO’s and CFO’s get their heads together with their bankers on challenges and opportunities.
So, as always at the North Atlantic Seafood Forum, expert information was transmitted and received, useful contacts and friendships were made and renewed, ideas and challenges were launched, practices and policies challenged, the future looked into. NASF Director Jorgen Lund: “It’s always a challenge to top the last NASF, and I hope we have succeeded again. We are pleased and proud that, in a tough economic climate, so many and from so many nations, again put us on their agendas. We are full of ideas for next year, and look forward to welcoming our international friends back in 2011”.
The next NASF will be held in Oslo on 2 – 3 March 2011.
