Take a look at this week’s can’t-miss SeafoodSource news stories and commentaries:
• Clearly the story of the week — and perhaps the story of the month — was the headache Iceland’s temperamental Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused seafood importers and exporters from Europe to North America to Asia. The volcano brought air traffic to a standstill across northern Europe for nearly week. SeafoodSource’s coverage of the volcano’s impact on the seafood-supply chain kicked off on Monday with two reports, one on stranded seafood shipments and one on the potential for increased airfreight costs. It continued on Thursday with two more reports, one from the United States and one from Spain. Though it’s still erupting, the volcano is spewing far less ash, and travel is gradually returning to “normal” in Europe. Despite the chaos this week, the three-day European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Belgium, is still scheduled to open on Tuesday.
• Selonda Group’s announcement that market prices and profitability of Mediterranean-raised sea bass and sea bream are increasing couldn’t have been better timed — this industry has been in the doldrums since the turn of the millennium, with many producers blaming large harvests and the subsequent poor farm-gate prices for their dismal financial performances, wrote SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Jason Holland in his commentary “Is bass, bream aquaculture turning the corner?” The Greek fish farmer’s strong 2009 results were just the shot in the arm that this industry needed, said Holland.
• Earth Day celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, and, on Capitol Hill, a U.S. Senate committee heard testimony on ocean acidification. In his commentary “It’s your movement,” SeaFood Business Associate Editor James Wright called on seafood professionals to join the likes of Donny Waters, a Pensacola, Fla., red snapper and king mackerel fisherman, and be part of the solution. Waters was among the many people who submitted testimony to the committee.
• Oysters are big business in France — 95 percent of the country’s oyster production, which totals about 130,000 metric tons annually, is consumed domestically. But it’s been a tough year so far the French oyster industry. SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Lindsey Partos talked to Joulven Brest, a Brittany oyster producer and three-time president of France’s shellfish organization, Comite National de La Conchyliculture, about the industry’s short-term outlook, including production, market prices and selling trends.
• An Indonesian fish farmer is gearing up for an expansion that would make it the world’s largest producer of ocean-reared barramundi. SeafoodSource Assistant Editor April Forristall took an in-depth look at the future of Fega Marikultura, located on Jukung Island in the Thousand Island Archipelago. The company recently announced that it plans to boost its annual barramundi production tenfold, to 30,000 to 40,000 metric tons, by 2013.
