H2020 project PrimeFish connects scientists and stakeholders during its first year of work

The meeting contributed towards achieving the Blue Growth goals by spreading the project’s outcomes among industry leaders and receiving their advice to ensure the knowledge transfer and application of the research results.

© PrimeFish

From 12 to 14 April 2016, 46 scientists and 15 high-level representatives from the European seafood industry worked together in the First Annual Meeting of the PrimeFish project. Amongst the attendees were, Aurora de Blas, Deputy Director of the General Secretary of Fisheries; Javier Ojeda, APROMAR and member of the Spanish Economic and Social Council; Ross Butler, CEO of Cooke Seafood USA and Wanchese Fish Company; Marco Gilmozzi, CEO of Cosa Acquacoltura and vice-president of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) and Yannis Pelekanakis, General Manager of the Federation of Greek Maricultures (FGM).

The project's activities has focused on the analysis of the competitiveness of the fisheries sector (cod and herring) and aquaculture (trout, salmon, bream, sea bass and panga), the relations in the value chains of these species, consumer trends, and the interaction with European industry. During the first year, PrimeFish has held 20 meetings with company representatives from Spain, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom and Iceland. These interactions have served to identify the main concerns of the fishing industry: the variability of prices, the adaptation of fishery products to the market, the high costs of feed in aquaculture and the strong impact of the Russian embargo on European exports.

The PrimeFish project is developing a web application that will lead to an improvement in the competitiveness of fisheries and aquaculture companies. A consortium of 14 research centres within the European Economic Area, along with two centres based in Canada and Vietnam have boosted this initiative with the support of the European Horizon 2020 programme.

This year the project has participated in CONXEMAR, at the World Seafood Congress and in Aquaculture Europe, amongst others. PrimeFish began its activities in March 2016 and will end in February 2019.

Keywords

BlueGrowth, H2020, Fisheries, aquaculture, sustainability, software

Countries

Canada, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Faroes, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Viet Nam