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| Roy Palmer points to his presentation on GILLS at the SeaFex Seafood
Summit in Dubai earlier this week. He was chair for the two-day meeting, which was the first to be held in Dubai. |
From little things, big things grow: Day 1 of the SeaFex MENA Seafood Summi, Dubai
Sometimes you just get good feelings. You know there is journey still to be had but you get the strong feeling that the time involved will be worthwhile.
So it is with the SEAFEX MENA Seafood Summit.
This was the inaugural event, as part of SEAFEX Seafood Exhibition, which in itself was part of a massive program at the Dubai World Trade Centre – all of the activities were food related and covered World Hospitality Competitions through to various Trade Shows and meetings.
The Association of International Seafood Professionals (AISP) was engaged to put the Summit program together.
The opening of the Summit included a message from Carl-Christian Schmidt, Head of Fisheries Policies Division at OECD with a video which sets the scene for the challenges ahead for what they described as the “Green Growth” period.
One of the aims of the Summit was to bring many of the global seafood organisations together and introduce them to the MENA connections aiming to establishing a rapport.
Starting proceedings with a session ‘Corporate Ocean Responsibility: Regional Ocean Industry Collaboration’ was Paul Holthus from the World Ocean Council (WOC). Paul highlighted how complex and challenging it is when we are dealing with an ever increasingly crowded ocean with everyone demanding their needs should get priority.
Paul highlighted how little the fisheries and aquaculture sector is engaged in the important decision making process on marine planning. Bearing in mind the important economic value and livelihoods in fishing/aquaculture and the need of food security require critical sources of unpolluted water and space it is something that is a concern.
The WOC session brought together representatives from shipping, desalination and fisheries/aquaculture and much was learned about the challenges and opportunities in each sector. Personally I found it fascinating hearing about how much wastage there is in the system in the area of desalination in the area.
Dr Corrado Sommariva explained that as an example in the UAE, where they rely 99% on desalination for their potable water supplies, that the average daily consumption of water per person is in the region of 700 litres which is substantial when compared to the norms in western countries. Additionally he highlighted there is 30 kms of coastal desalination plants between Dubai and Abu Dubai and possibly the land could be better utilized as many of the plants were old, have poor efficiencies in energy and environmental areas and are likely polluting the ocean.
Captain Anshuman Singh, a legal expert in shipping matters, gave a great insight into many issues relating to his area of expertise. He explained that at the moment many shipping companies were economically challenged and this has seen many vessels simply left an anchor e.g. dumped. Captain Singh also spoke about water ballast issues and action plans in case of oil spillages – these can both have incredible impacts on fisheries/aquaculture.
Prathapchandra Shetty, Emirates Star Fisheries, commented that in addition to fisheries, aquaculture, shipping and desalination, these same waters host an increasing level of many other economic activities - oil and gas, ports, dredging, coastal development, tourism, and their ocean uses - which collectively create challenges to maintaining marine ecosystem health and productivity in the region.
Paul mentioned that a coordinated, multi-industry approach can result in business benefits, such as savings through collaborative research and monitoring, improved collection and sharing of data, accelerated development and sharing of best practices and science-based solutions, and reduced risk of costly, unplanned operational restrictions due to accidents or cumulative environmental impacts.
All this confirmed the need in my mind as to why these sectors need to begin cross-sectorial dialogue on industry leadership and collaboration to address marine ecosystem health, inter-industry conflicts and synergies, and industry’s role in ensuring responsible multiple-use of the marine environment.
This was WOC’s first sortie into this area and the clear impression was that there needs to be a regional group established building on the WOC experience and success in bringing together industries in other regions, e.g. the Arctic.
Felix Dent, FAO Globefish, gave an excellent presentation on ‘Status and Trends of Global Fisheries & Aquaculture’ and gave some basic information on FAO and Globefish roles. I am always amazed at how little people know about FAO.
‘Certification – Benefits beyond the Demands’ was a presentation by Peter Redmond, Global Aquaculture Alliance. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards, GAA has become the leading standards-setting organization for aquaculture seafood. GAA holds a conference each year GOAL and from that much information is gathered and made available and Peter highlighted some of issues that had come from GOAL in Paris last month.
It struck me that much is spoken about the cost of Certification but little about the benefits. Many buying organisations are insisting on certification more and more but instead of simply looking at certification as an impost perhaps we should be looking at how certification creates discipline through a business, enables specific training and focus internally, guides as to decision making processes, etc. and is about continuous improvement. Peter gave an overview on Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS), a pathogen that has been crippling many farms in the shrimp industry.
Trading seafood in MENA, especially the Middle East is an important activity that people do not know enough about. Sadaf Murad, an AISP member based in UAE, gave her views on Import, Consumption and Re-Export business. Sadaf highlighted that the area has become a large re-processing hub for the MENA area.
Sadaf gave information on Import patterns (species, sources and connections); the spectrum of seafood products (the top echelon, masses, bottom of the pyramid consumption, species and movements, etc); Inter trade and Cross Trade (re-processing, re-export, etc). The presentation created a taste for the next subject “Fishing & Aquaculture including Financing and Investing in the Arab Region” led by Izzat Feidi, Fisheries Consultant based in Egypt and a panel of people he had engaged.
The panel consisted Salih Salem Bahawini, Al-Qalzam (Sea Global Co, Saudi Arabia); Professor Jean-Yves Mevel, UAE University, UAE; Prathapchandra Shetty, Emirates Star Fisheries, Yemen/UAE and Max Goulden, MacAlister-Elliott Partners Ltd, UK.
We learnt that whilst the overall resources of the Arab region in general constitute a small part in the international fisheries scene they are considered a very important economic activity especially in the traditional, artisanal communities in these countries where it provides employment, food, and a source of income from the various activities associated with the fisheries industry.
“With this background, and in order to increase the benefits of a largely low level industry in terms of returns of the industry to the various national economies as well as to the various sectors of the industry including the fishermen communities, there is a significant need for more attention and prospective of development in the region in order to raise the potential of food security. Major investments will need to be injected in the sector to increase the future benefits of aquaculture in these countries of the region,” commented Izzat.
We learnt that Egypt is one of the largest producers of tilapia in the world; whilst Saudi Arabia has been suffering with some shrimp disease issues it has made large investment in aquaculture over the last decade and is now into sea-bass and sea-bream production; Kuwait is currently developing a grouper and bream hatchery; UAE is building what is considered the largest sturgeon farm and putting efforts into Aquaponics and Oman (probably has the best coastline for aquaculture development in the Middle East) is establishing strategies and financial platforms for aquaculture in the country.
I wrapped up a successful day one with a presentation on Aquaculture without Frontiers, highlighting the issues regarding the alleviation of hunger and poverty and the activities of the AwF.
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