Irish co-ops join seafood exposition

A RANGE of high-quality seafood products is being showcased to the European market by five fishermen’s co-ops from Ireland.

They are taking part for the first time at the European Seafood Exposition, which concludes in Brussels today. More than 17,000 buyers from across the globe attended the seafood marketing and processing event last year.

Galway and Aran Fishermen’s Co-op, Dunmore East Fishermen’s Co-op, Union Hall Fishermen’s Company, Clogherhead Fishermen’s Co-op, and Foyle Fishermen’s Co-op will exhibit.

They were brought together under BIM Fisheries Development’s Onshore Quality Programme, which aims to assist co-ops in the areas of quality, provenance and responsible fishing.

The five co-ops represent sales of €50 million and a fleet size of 82 large whitefish vessels with a number of smaller weather dependent vessels. This figure represents about 30% of the Irish whitefish fleet.

BIM manager Michael Keatinge said its aim is to help the co-ops get a higher return on their product by adding value to certain species and by diversifying their volume into added-value products.

“We are delighted with the response of the industry to the programme which is just one year in operation.”

He said provenance is an issue of growing importance in the seafood industry. There has been a trend in the food industry generally of consumers wanting to know the origin of the product they are buying.

“Indeed, people are now expressing pronounced preferences for products from certain areas. Seafood is no different and there is a great opportunity for the Irish industry to market fish caught off the Irish coast.

“The co-ops are in position to deliver fresh, chilled quality produce with a high level of provenance and traceability back to vessel.

“This can be a very powerful marketing tool, particularly in the high end and niche food service sectors.”