Cliff White

The International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations, has partnered with the government of Thailand to combat labor rights violations in that country’s seafood industry.

The 42-month project will be funded by the European Union and the ILO and aims to address “working conditions that deny fundamental principles and rights at work in the Thai fishing and seafood processing industry,” according to a press release from the

The South American country of Guyana became the 23rd country to ratify the Port State Measures Agreement, the international accord designed to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The announcement Wednesday, 23 March brought the PSMA closer to taking effect, which will occur once 25 countries have ratified the treaty.

Originally adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2009, the PSMA stipulates

Senior Marine Harvest executives cashed out more than 500,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at more than NOK 60 million (USD 7.08 million, EUR 6.33 million).

The Norwegian seafood company is the world’s largest producer of Atlantic salmon and employees 11,700 workers, according to its website. Its stock is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.

The transactions, which took place 21 March, and involved the

The Swedish government has asked the European Union to label North American lobsters as “invasive species,” a move that could lead to a ban on the import from the U.S. and Canada into the E.U. of cold-water lobster species, Homarus americanus, which Sweden calls “Maine lobsters.”
The move comes after 32 Maine lobsters were trapped in Swedish waters, all with their claws still bound with rubber bands containing the logos of U.S. and

Blue Harvest Fisheries and owner Bregal Partners announced their second acquisition in two days, with Bregal’s managing partner Scott Perekslis confirming a deal for Hygrade Ocean Products on Tuesday, 22 March.

Hygrade is registered to process cod, flounder, scallop, swordfish and tuna at its 33,000-square-foot facility in New Bedford, Mass., according to its website. Perekslis declined to provide the terms of either deal.

“We signed

Diversified Communications, which operates Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global, the seafood trade show scheduled to take place in Brussels, Belgium from 26 to 28 April, announced it “is taking all necessary measures” to maximize the safety of the expo’s attendees following attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, 22 March.

Diversified Communications group vice president Liz Plizga expressed the company’s sorrow for the victims of the

An effort by Costa Rica’s president to overturn a ban on shrimp trawling has been abandoned after meeting disapproval in the country’s Assembly.

Trawl fishing was banned in Costa Rica in 2013 by the country’s Constitutional Court, which declared that it violated the country’s laws on environmental preservation. President Luis Guillermo Solís, who took power in 2015, introduced Bill 19.838, the Bill for the Development and Sustainable

Blue Harvest Fisheries, a harvester, processor and distributor of sea scallops and other seafood products, has acquired Massachusetts-based fishing company Harbor Blue, which fishes for scallop, swordfish, tuna, crab, lobster and surf clam.

Blue Harvest Fisheries owner Bregal Partners made the announcement Monday, 21 March. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal includes Harbor Blue’s seven scallop vessels, mostly based out of New

Frigoríficas Ferrer, a distributor of fresh and frozen seafood based in Vic, Spain, has announced the opening of a new office in Valencia, its first outside of Catalonia.

The company, which posted 8 percent sales growth in 2015 to total a turnover of EUR 64 million (USD 72.1 million), already has offices in Mercabarna, Manresa, Lleida, Figueres, Girona and Tarragona.

Frigoríficas Ferrer’s Valencia office opened 1 January and was created

Seafood giant Thai Union Group has bought into partner Avanti Feeds’ new frozen foods business by acquiring a INR 1.25 billion (USD 18.8 million, ERU 16.6 million) stake in the unit, according to Indian media website VCCircle.com. The investment will give Thai Union a 40 percent stake in the venture.

Avanti Feeds, founded in 1993, is a shrimp processor and exporter and produces prawn and fish feeds. Thai Union was an early investor in the