December 11, 2012
Ireland's Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, has welcomed China's announcement that the country may now allow commercial imports of boarfish from Ireland.
"China is a key strategic trade partner for Ireland and has a strong demand for imports of high quality seafood, given the size of its population. Ireland is well placed to be a key supplier of seafood, meats, dairy products and beverages as well as other products and services to China. I am delighted that this announcement on boarfish imports, which was the subject of specific discussions on my mission last April, is yet another positive development from that trade mission," said Coveney.
In recent years, the Irish fishing fleet has developed a very important boarfish fishery for the production of fishmeal and fish oils and increasingly for the creation of human consumption seafood products, as a result of the species having become much more abundant off the south coast of Ireland.
Boarfish Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and National Quotas were introduced at EU level for the first time in 2011. Ireland negotiated a national fish quota, equating to 2/3 of the overall EU TAC. The quota for Ireland in 2012 was 56,666 tonnes, an increase of 155% over 2011, making this new fishery one of the country's largest commercial fisheries.
To date in 2012, thirty nine large Irish trawlers have caught over 53,000 tonnes of boarfish. The Irish government says the overall long term sustainability of this species is promising and a new quota for 2013 will be negotiated by Coveney at the upcoming Fisheries Council.
Following the trade mission to China in April, Ireland has been pursuing a co-ordinated strategy to realise the potential offered by the new boarfish fishery. Trial samples of over 70 tonnes were sent to Chinese Seafood companies this year and these have lead to orders for commercial scale exports.
The Irish Sea Fisheries Board (BIM) and Bord Bia have said they have been working to create new products from this new resource and to find new human consumption markets.
The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority have been working with their Chinese counterparts AQSIQ to ensure that commercial exports of boarfish will be allowed.
