Aquaculture in Europe – Sustainable Seafood for the Future

Fish is among the most environmentally efficient sources of animal protein on the planet. Increased aquaculture production in Europe and globally is a sustainable way of providing animal protein to some of the 8.5bn people expected to populate Earth by 2030.

Eurofish organised an international aquaculture conference in Bucharest in cooperation with the National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture (NAFA), an institution under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania. With 175 delegates from 37 countries, the knowledge exchange and contact creation is very fruitful and naturally leads to several future collaborations and developments across Europe.
The conference featured sessions on freshwater aquaculture, saltwater aquaculture, and markets and certification with presentations from international and local experts.

Very inspiring to take part in leading research and practical examples from the entire European fishing industry.
We also had the privilege of visiting a research facility for breeding several different freshwater species. An impressive flora of different species.

It is this type of international exchange that leads development forward and by showing good examples, the entire industry develops towards sustainable production. Very valuable to take part in everything from how in different countries development is accelerated through political decisions and changed regulations and legislation, to how technological development creates conditions for more sustainable production. Not least, presentations of opportunities to make use of by-products that can be further refined into valuable products are worth paying attention to for the continued development of circular production models and a circular bioeconomy.

More and more companies are identifying and getting involved in industrial symbiosis – sharing their resources, perhaps what was previously classified as waste and was a cost, thus contributing to a circular bioeconomy and sustainable development.
Due to the many projects that are in the starting pits in Sweden, small and large scale, as well as the many innovative and competent Swedish technology companies, I am convinced that we in Sweden have the potential to be among the leaders in this sector.