SUSTAINABLE FARM MANAGEMENT - INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS

The European freshwater aquaculture sector faces growing competition from countries with lower production costs, increasing consumer demand for product quality and traceability, and stringent requirements from European and national legislation with regard to product quality, environment and health. SustainAqua aims to improve the image of European farmers and to make them competitive by training them in producing tasty, high quality and sustainably-farmed products. The sustainable farming strategies investigated within SustainAqua result in:

Diversification of economically valuable products and by-products

Increased product quality

Improved production methods

For a more thorough description of the objectives please click here .

SUSTAINAQUA ACTIVITIES

5 CASE STUDIES  - APPLIED RESEARCH

In five different case studies in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland, the project consortium is developing and researching different options for upgrading existing aquaculture farms in the direction of product diversification, quality improvement, and optimisation of production processes. Each study represents one of Europe’s most relevant freshwater aquaculture fish species.

The consortium intends to transfer the highly effective nutrient management principles of natural systems into competitive aquaculture farm strategies. One example: alongside the fish production, organic material will be exploited as far as possible for the production of marketable products like macroinvertebrates, algae, or plants for different industrial applications. This optimised nutrient chain reduces waste to nearly zero, avoids the implementation of expensive wastewater treatment and filter technologies, and reduces costs. These principles are tested in different extensive, semi-intensive, and intensive aquaculture systems.

As „health“ and „taste“ are important consumer determinants, the consortium will prove by professional sensory and analytical tests whether the foreseen optimisation steps will have an influence on the quality of the fish products.
The evaluation of the research results’ transferability to other European freshwater aquaculture farms will prove the practical application and overall potential of SustainAqua.

TRAINING EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE FARMERS

The consortium intends to train more than 10,000 aquaculture farmers via workshops and E-learning seminars. Special training material will be developed in ten different languages.

Also different dissemination activities will be carried out:
•    A practical guide for implementation of sustainable farm management.
•    Regional advisory platforms for aquaculture farmers, operated by aquaculture associations.
•    Articles in relevant fish magazines.

SUSTAINABLE FARM MANAGEMENT - INDICATORS AND CRITERIA

The consortium will develop a practical oriented indicator and criteria system for sustainable freshwater aquaculture management, taking into account already existing indicator systems. Based on those systems, the team intends to scientifically contribute to the development of Europe-wide discussions about sustainable quality standards and to give recommendations for further research activities and co-operations.

IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY

The sustainability of aquaculture is crucial if the industry is not to follow the path of the fisheries sector. About 75 percent of the world‘s most valuable marine fish stocks are either fished to the limits or over-fished. At the same time world fish consumption has increased from 45 million tonnes in 1973 to more than 130 million in 2000 and the FAO estimates an additional 40 million tonnes of aquatic food will be required by 2030 just to maintain current levels of consumption.

In order to serve this increasing demand in the long run, sustainable alternatives have to be strengthened. The most promising one is the aquaculture industry. With a growth rate of 8% per year since the 80’s, aquaculture is probably the fastest growing food-production industry, that today accounts for almost 40% of the fish produced globally. In Europe the sector is dominated by SMEs (90%) and provides more than 60,000 jobs, including upstream and downstream activities.