Grimur Valdimarsson, Director of FAO’s Fish Products and Industries Division, speaks about international trade in fish products, the global seafood industry, and what they mean for developing countries and the environment. He said with rising consumption of seafood the opportunities for poor countries have comes up. He informed that FAO has number of activities supporting the seafood industry in developing countries.
He informed that FAO helps new seafood retailers of poor countries entering into international marketing channels. According to him developed countries accounted for 62 percent of all fish imports, looking at weight. This trade involves significant benefits for poor countries, their net export revenues from fish trade currently run around US$25 billion, which means jobs and income not only in the fishing and aquaculture sector but in fish preparation and processing, or supply and transport or other related sectors and is also a source of revenues for governments.
Commenting on overfishing Valdimarsson said that this has concerned the wild fish stocks. There should be ban on overfishing and harvesting of some stocks which is depleting now. He agree that increased demand for fish to supply international markets can sometimes result in excessive fishing pressure.
He further adds that FAO have a pretty good blueprint for it in its Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The organization wants countries to do more vigorously incorporate the tenets of the Code into their fishing and aquaculture practices. He opined that FAO is working on a set of technical guidelines for responsible fish trade, hoping to see countries endorse at the upcoming meeting of our COFI Sub-Committee in Fish Trade in June.
