Aquaculture Committee of Andalusia. (Photo: Junta de Andalucía)
Committee to promote aquaculture improvement in Andalusia
SPAIN
Tuesday, November 21, 2017, 23:30 (GMT + 9)
The Undersecretariat of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of the autonomous government of Andalusia has set up the Aquaculture Committee of Andalusia, a consultative and advisory body for the promotion, boost and improvement of the activity, in which there will be representations of the sector and state as well as autonomous administrations with competence in the authorization of marine cultures.
In addition to informing the regulatory projects that affect the activity, the committee, attached to the Undersecretariat, will also be responsible for establishing strategies to expedite the issuance of mandatory reports necessary to obtain the corresponding licenses and permits.
The general director of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Margarita Pérez, in Seville presided over the first meeting of this entity, made up of a presidency, a vice-presidency, a secretariat and eighteen memberships, which addressed, among other issues, the creation of different working groups to analyze the issues from a more technical and concrete approach.
In fact, five groups have been set up to analyze port activities; the occupation of the public domain and the areas of aquaculture interest; exotic species and R&D+i initiatives; the use of concessions and authorizations; and marketing as well as animal health.
Also, during the meeting, the general director informed the sector of the actions carried out within the framework of the Andalusian Strategy for the Development of Marine Aquaculture in Andalusia, among which the recent publication of the decree that regulates this activity in Andalusia stands out.
According to the general director, "one of the main objectives of the strategy is to double the annual production, until reaching 20,000 tonnes, through the start-up of the facilities that are not currently being produced (25 per cent of the facilities in 2016), and putting new projects into operation in the open sea, such as those currently being processed for farming mussel species."
The draft decree that will regulate the commercialization of aquaculture products as well as the modification of the Regulation, Promotion and Control of Maritime Fishing and of Marine Aquaculture Act in relation to concession terms of terrestrial maritime public domain and to the nature of the perceptual reports were other issues that were discussed.
Another one of the analyzed subjects was the situation of the previous characterization work of the means for the declaration of Aquaculture Interest Zones (AIZ), like the design of the plans of their use. In this sense, it has been agreed with the committee to continue with this work and to develop several pilot studies in the Mediterranean with the objective of thoroughly defining the methodology to be used in this process.
Andalusia contributes 20 per cent of marine aquaculture production in Spain. The sector is currently composed of 95 small and medium-sized private companies and 160 authorized establishments (138 on land and 22 on the open sea) that employ more than 750 people.
In 2016, Andalusian marine aquaculture marketed around 10,000 tonnes of products, generating an economic volume of EUR 63.5 million.
To this production generated in the fattening phase, another 9.07 million units produced in the 'hatchery' phase have to be added, which have not been marketed when incorporated in full into the productive cycle of the companies, and the 39.07 million units produced in the 'nursery' phase, of which 79.4 per cent has been commercialized, which have generated an economic value of EUR 7.21 million.
Therefore, the economic value generated by the Andalusian marine aquaculture as a whole was EUR 70.71 million, of which 90 per cent comes from the fattening production and the remaining 10 per cent, from pre-fattening.
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