Echoing the message "aquaculture feeds your health," this week's 12th National Congress of Aquaculture in Madrid, Spain, focused on the benefits of farmed seafood and its contributions to health and nutrition.
Kicking off the event, which runs through Thursday, Juan Carlos Martin Fragueiro, Spain's secretary general of the sea, reaffirmed the economic importance of the country's aquaculture industry, which produced upward of 265,000 metric tons of seafood in 2008.
The value of Spain's farmed seafood output surpassed EUR 400 million (USD 602 million) last year. Marine aquaculture represents 90 percent of the total, while land-based aquaculture, chiefly trout, accounts for the rest.
Increasing seafood consumption, coupled with the leveling off of wild fisheries production, has propelled demand for farmed seafood worldwide, with Spain among one of the world's top seafood consumers.
At the event, Fragueiro emphasized the need to provide consumers with a nutritious protein, generate income and create quality employment through the aquaculture industry. He also highlighted the importance of National Plans of Marine Cultivation in Galicia, Catalonia, Murcia, Canaries, Cantabria, Andalusia and the Valencian Community during the last 24 years as tools of scientific innovation in aquaculture.
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