From 12th to 14th of April, 46 scientists and 15 high-level representatives from the European seafood industry will work together in the First Annual Meeting of the PrimeFish project. Among attendants, Aurora de Blas, Deputy Director of the General Secretary of Fisheries; Javier Ojeda, APROMAR and member of the Spanish Economic and Social Council; Ross Butler, CEO of Cooke Seafood USA and Wanchese Fish Company; Marco Gilmozzi, CEO of Cosa Acquacoltura and vice-president of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) or Yannis Pelekanakis, General Manager of the Federation of Greek Maricultures (FGM).

The meeting will contribute to achieve the Blue Growth goals by spreading the project’s outcomes among industry leaders and receiving their advice to ensure the knowledge transfer and application of the research results. This first annual meeting will count on the presence of 15 representatives from companies, associations and governments from Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, Iceland and USA in order to assess the work done by PrimeFish, provide their expertise and offer first-hand information on the objectives and problems of the sector.

The activity of the project has focused on the analysis of the competitiveness of the fisheries sector (cod and herring) and aquaculture (trout, salmon, sea bream, sea bass and panga), the relations in the value chains of these species, consumer trends, and the interaction with the European industry. During this first year, PrimeFish has held 20 meetings with representatives of companies from Spain, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom and Iceland. These interactions have served to identify the main concerns of the fishing industry: the variability of prices, the adaptation of fishery products to the market, the high costs of feed in aquaculture or the strong impact of the Russian embargo on European exports.

The European project PrimeFish is developing a web application that will allow the improvement of the competitiveness of fisheries and aquaculture companies. A consortium of 14 research centers of the European Economic Area together with 2 centers based in Canada and Viet Nam boosted this initiative with the support of the prestigious European research programme Horizon 2020. This year the project has participated in CONXEMAR, in the World Seafood Congress or in Aquaculture Europe, among others. PrimeFish began its activity in March 2015 and will end in February 2019.