Betting on more sustainable ingredients in animal feed and creating tax incentives for the adoption of greener resources and compliant companies. A group of actors linked to aquaculture met, on the 26th of May, at the world cafe “Aquaculture for the Future We Want”, to discuss and propose actions that boost the sustainability, competitiveness and diversification of the sector.
The meeting, held at the Setúbal Hospitality School, was attended by representatives of companies, research and development centers and various key actors linked to the sector.
The main objective of the World Café, part of the XXIII Congress of the Portuguese Association of Aquaculturists (APA), was to identify and discuss the necessary transformations to boost the industry, as well as propose concrete actions that contribute to its development.
In total, there were five round tables and five questions in the areas of sustainability and animal welfare; licensing; competitiveness and investment; communication; and science and innovation.
The debate resulted in the presentation of around 60 concrete actions for the transformation of national aquaculture.
In the end, the most important actions were chosen by the participants, in five themes: Sustainability, environmental and economic performance, health and animal welfare; Licensing, land use planning and regulatory and administrative framework; Competitiveness, investment, diversification, certification and added value; Communication and social acceptance; and Science and Innovation (see full list below.
«The results reflect the commitment of the various actors in the Portuguese aquaculture sector to boost sustainability and competitiveness and will be integrated into a more comprehensive document on the current situation of the sector, not only from the perspective of producers, but also with the perception of government officials. , consumers, the general public, the scientific community and environmental associations», according to the organizers of the event.
The World Café “Aquaculture for the Future We Want” involved for the first time all the Collaborative Laboratories linked to the blue economy, namely +ATLANTIC, B2E CoLAB, GreenColab, S2Aqua and even Fórum Oceano.
Stocks that received the most votes:
Sustainability, environmental and economic performance, animal health and welfare:
– Create tax incentives for the adoption of greener resources and tax incentives for compliant companies;
– Communicate widely to various audiences about production methods and the origin of the product;
– Investing in more sustainable, local and functional ingredients in animal feed.
Licensing, land use planning and regulatory and administrative framework:
– Create an interlocutory body that facilitates, accompanies and supports companies;
– Review and order the territory in order to ensure a better characterization of the production areas in relation to the size of the investment, potential species to be produced, environmental carrying capacity and accessibility;
– Train the human/technical resources of the public entities responsible for licensing.
Competitiveness, investment, diversification, certification and added value:
– Invest in processing (filleting, packaging, presentation);
– Invest in differentiating the national offer through quality seals;
– Invest in market studies.
Communication and social acceptance:
– Place didactic content on aquaculture in a school environment;
– Create labels for products with more information beyond the country of production;
– Betting on media communication.
Science and Innovation:
– Create a database that encourages partnerships between R&D institutions and industry;
– Conduct technical visits by researchers to aquaculture facilities;
– Hold a seminar/congress to disseminate the results to academia, R&D institutions and industry.
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