After five years of the ban, the Japanese authorities say they are ready to allow fishermen to sell fish dishes caught in waters near the former nuclear power station in Fukushima.
On 2 September, 11 boats with dredges took off near the coast of the island of Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture for analysis. Sinners were able to capture five flatfish whose characteristics have proven to be not dangerous to human health which means that the Japanese government could be included in a list of products for sale in the nearest time.
Only specimens whose level of radioactivity is 4 times less severe standard set by the Japanese authorities (100 becquerels / kg) are placed on the market.
“This is an important step for fishing. We will recover step by step “, said the head of the association of fishermen from Iwaki, Akira Egawa.
China relies on imported breeding stock for production of white-feathered broiler chickens, the type used by fast-food chains, which account for more than half the country’s chicken supply.
But Beijing banned poultry imports from the United States last year in response to a December 2014 bird flu outbreak. That, followed by a similar ban on imports from France late last year, has seen a sharp drop in the supply of white-feather “grandparent” stock.
Grandparent birds are the progeny of pedigree stock bred largely by three global companies, Aviagen, Cobb-Vantress and Groupe Grimaud. China has so far been unsuccessful in developing its own white-feather pedigree lines.
Imports of breeding chicks – shipped in lots of 168 – fell to 720,000 units last year, around half the levels of 2013, said Fujian Sunner Development Co, a chicken supplier to Yum Brands’ KFC.
Only 110,000 units have entered the market so far this year, it added in its first half-report, well below what is needed to produce enough broiler chickens for next year’s demand.
A NEW plan is afoot to ramp up Aussie bees’ resistance to the deadly Varroa mite.
Also known as Varroa destructor, the parasitic mite is the biggest threat to Australia’s honey bee industry, according to CSIRO researchers Saul Cunningham and Paul De Barro.
That’s why the Department of Agriculture wants to open the door to imports of drone bee semen, to bolster Australian bees’ resistance with genetics from colonies that have coped with Varroa mite for decades. “(Semen imports) would absolutely strengthen the genetics of our honey bees here in Australia,” said Australian Honey Bee Industry Council executive director Trevor Weatherhead, Raceview, Queensland. Drone bee semen is commonly traded globally, and domestically within Australia. Since 2012 an avenue has opened up to import bee genetics into Australia. Beekeepers can ship live queen bees through customs, but the price is high. “It can cost thousands to bring the queens in, but you can only get 50 per cent of the genetic material out of them to breed your own queens,” Mr Weatherhead said.
Chile’s salmon farmers are still struggling to recover from the outbreak of algal bloom, meaning prices could increase in 2017, SpareBank Markets said.
Even though smolt release statistics show year-on-year gains for June and July, releases are still 11% lower for the first seven months of the year, compared with the year earlier period, SpareBank analyst Tore Tonseth wrote in a research note. Smolt releases rose 15% in July, compared with the same month last year.
SpareBank estimates Chilean salmon farmers will harvest 472,000t of salmon in 2016, 19% less than the 580,000t harvested in 2015.
For 2017, Tonseth predicted a low base scenario of 473,000t, almost unchanged from this year, a middle-range estimate of 512,000t and a high estimate of 565,000t.
The impact of higher supply will have a limited effect on the Chilean market, because only about 4-6% of the European Union’s consumption of salmon comes from the South American nation, Torseth said.
Around 75% of Norway’s production goes to the EU market. Chile, the world’s second-largest salmon farmer after Norway, sells most of its produce within the Americas.
An outbreak of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) could not stop Norwegian farmer SalMar from doubling its second quarter operational earnings.
The outbreak occured at two sites in Froya, which fall under the company’s new ‘Fish Farming Central Norway’ region, and forced the early harvesting of 1.7 million fish, it said.
This impacted on production costs, and then its processing segment too.
Nevertheless, SalMar achieved operating revenue of NOK 2.29 billion ($278.5 million), up 27% year-on-year, and operational earnings before interest and tax (ebit) of NOK 731.8m, up 118%.
Profit before tax rose from NOK 257.2m to NOK 527.2m, with ebit per kilogram of harvested gross weight salmon rising from NOK 9.62/kg to NOK 22.74/kg.
Fish Farming Central Norway — which now includes its Salmar’s Rauma segment — harvested a total of 17,700 metric tons of salmon in the second quarter, compared with 24,300t in the corresponding period 2015.
However, substantially higher salmon prices contributed to higher operating revenues, which totalled NOK 1.1bn in the quarter, up from NOK 901.4m.
It may be the height of fishing season in Yellowstone but local businesses are no longer booming.
On Friday, local wildlife services closed down several areas along a 183-mile stretch of the Yellowstone River while biologists try to prevent the spread of a parasite believed to have killed tens of thousands of whitefish. The parasite causes fish to contract a fatal kidney disease and die. FWP spokeswoman Andrea Jones said the disease can have a mortality rate as high as 90 percent.
The river ban isn’t just relegated to fishing—but rafting, kayaking tubing and other river activities have been banned, too.
Now Yellowstone River-based businesses, like fly fishing outfitters and raft guides, that rely on summer tourists, are scrambling to deal with the potential ramifications of a months-long dry spell.
“Everybody is kind of in shock right now, and it’s hard because we don’t have any answers,” Robin Trotter, owner of Yellowstone Raft Company, told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
Groups lobbying to protect North America’s live lobster shipments to Europe have been having weekly phone calls and strategy sessions, says the Lobster Council of Canada.
“We have been advocating with governments. We’ve been encouraging Canadian exporters to advocate with their national governments,” said executive director Geoff Irvine.
Five months ago, Sweden called for a ban on all live lobster imports from North America after 32 American lobsters were captured in Swedish waters between 2008 and 2015.
Irvine said there are several theories as to how they got there.
“There’s speculation that they were released by environmental groups or religious groups, or that they escaped through regular commercial activity,” Irvine said.
Live lobster are sometimes stored in cages in the water, and some could have escaped.
The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management argues the American lobsters pose a risk as an invasive species, so as a precautionary measure it’s calling for the ban, but Irvine said science doesn’t back that up.
GLOBAL – News in the salmon sector for 2016 has so far been dominated by reports of a massive algal bloom in southern Chile that had killed some 27 million fish by 10 March. Compounded by an expected drop in production in Norway where growth is currently limited by sea lice issues, the supply shock has driven up previously depressed Chilean farmed salmon prices while already high Norwegian prices have been pushed even further upwards, reports FAO GlobeFish.
Norway
According to a recent Nordea market report, total Norwegian production of Atlantic salmon is forecast to fall by some 5 per cent in 2016, to approximately 1.18 million tonnes. A major factor behind the drop is the difficulties of the industry in controlling sea lice at farms, for which standard treatments are becoming less effective. Although the number of lice per fish is lower than it was previously, the cost of keeping these numbers down is higher and the Norwegian government is restricting licensing of new farms based on strict sea lice limits.
The recent events in Chile and the expected negative growth in Norway has inevitably seen prices jump to exceptionally high levels in early 2016, following the end-of-year spike due to already tightening supply in the latter half of 2015. As of week 9 of 2016, the NASDAQ salmon index was at NOK 61 per kg for fresh whole Atlantics, around NOK 24 higher compared with the same week of 2015. These near-record prices are being maintained by a now very limited supply of fish and strong demand in the EU and the USA, with the EU forced to pay more to compete with the USA’s recent currency advantage.
This price hike has seen the value of Norwegian salmon exports in the first two months of 2016 rise by 17 per cent year-on-year to NOK 8.4 billion (144 860 tonnes of fish, -2 per cent in quantity), which follows an already strong year of export performance in 2015. The EU market continues to absorb large volumes of salmon despite spiking prices, buying a total of 110 000 tonnes of fish worth NOK 6.2 billion in the first two months of the year, representing a 2 per cent drop in volume and a 19 per cent increase in value.
Hainan Tilapia Stocking Down about 40% From Last Year, But Farmers Disease Management Improves
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Shuichan News] Translated by Amy Zhong June 13, 2016
The stocking of large tilapias has declined by about 40% in Hainan and this May. Farmers have placed about 10 million brood.
Under the influence of continually rainy days this spring, most farmers have postponed their brood stocking and quite a number of them have just started their stocking.
Hainan farmers have stocked about 10 million brood this May. And the stocking rate is about 2 thousand to 2.5 thousand brood per Mu (1 Mu ≈ 666.7㎡) with a decrease of 500 brood/Mu from that of the same period last year in Wenchang, Hainan’s main production area.
The examination of tilapias’ drug residues have been strengthened last year and lowering the stock density can help reduce tilapias’ incidence of diseases, according to some loca
Vietnam exports about $7 billion worth of seafood each year, mostly from waters off its southern coast, and the industry has started to feel the impact of the worst drought and saltwater intrusion in almost a century.
The southernmost province of Ca Mau, which accounts for 25 percent of the country’s shrimp production, will fall short of export targets this year.
The prolonged drought and salinity have affected more than 53,000 hectares of shrimp farms in Ca Mau and cost the province a total of VND260 billion ($11.6 million). The province has subsequently been forced to develop an emergency response plan for the local aquatic farms.
The province took the same action earlier this year after harsh weather conditions had destroyed more than 49,000 hectares of its rice crops.
Official statistics released by the local government show the total output of farmed shrimps in the first five months of this year has reached 134,000 tons and the output for the first six months is estimated to edge down three percent from the same time last year to 159,000 tons.