Spain’s region of Galicia is seeking to harness the increasing popularity of its cuisine and ingredients to drive seafood sales in Asia. Dishes like black rice and cuttlefish, and peppers stuffed with seaweed have become global gastronomic hits, while hitherto unglamorous fish species like the sanmartino fish have been given a new sense of purpose and popularity by Galician chefs around the world.
To that end, the provincial government organzsed an eye-catching booth at the 2018 Seafood Expo Asia event in Hong Kong, where Antonio Rodríguez Fernández, deputy director general for fish and fish marketing at the regional government of Galicia, spoke to SeafoodSource about the marketing strategy of the Atlantic-facing region, home to Europe’s key fishing port, Vigo.
SeafoodSource: Why does Galicia have such a large presence at Seafood Expo Asia 2018?
Rodríguez Fernández: We came to Hong Kong with two objectives: One, to consolidate existing clients; and two, to seek new clients. We want to emphasize the quality of our products, which may be somewhat exotic for China. We also want to showcase how our region’s cuisine has become famous across the world thanks to our seafood, but also our wine and agricultural products.
We have a full circle of production. We not only have fishing but we also have processors and we have an expanding aquaculture sector. Galicia is home to 4,500 vessels, of which 4,000 are focused on domestic waters. We have 40 ports. There are 4,000 jobs in shellfish production and the frozen fisheries business is worth EUR 2 billion (USD 2.3 billion) per year.
We’d like to expand our octopus [Octopus vulgaris] aquaculture production to a large scale. Our main fish species is turbot, which is also in demand in China.
SeafoodSource: What are the key wild-caught species in Galicia?
Rodríguez Fernández: The most abundant species is hake. We also have large quantities of horse mackerel and pilchard [Gardenia pilchardus]. Some of the high value species are European spider crab [Maja brchydactyla] and goose barnacle [Pollicipes pollicipes]. We also have bonito tuna.
We are the number-one player in Europe in mussels and we are a leader in haddock, [and] we are seeing rising demand for sea urchins.
SeafoodSource: Can you discuss some of the labels that have been introduced in recent years by Galician authorities?
Rodríguez Fernández: Pesca de Rias is for inshore products. The Pesca de Rias label was introduced to reassure consumers that the product is from Galicia.
Then we have a Mejillon de Galicia mark for the mussels. Also, the Galicia Calidade [Galician Quality] label distinguishes hake landed and marketed at Celeiro port. Galicia has also introduced a “Bonito del Norte” green label for bonito tuna caught in the Cantabrian Sea in the season, which runs from June to October every year.
Photo courtesy of Córdoba Sabe
