POLAND
trout, Fario also packs imported products, mainly seabass and gilthead seabream for retail chains.
Kitchen-ready gutted MAP trout can be delivered with or without the gills depending on customer requirements.
hatchery and the processing plant. This means that Fario has control over nearly all the different stages of farming from hatching to processing. There are two exceptions, however, as Director Balcerzyk adds: “We do not strip the trout ourselves but buy the eggs from reliable suppliers. And we don’t have our own sales or marketing department, either. We sell the fish on request and to order. Orders mostly come from retail chains.” Already 24 hours after harvesting, the required trout products can be delivered to destinations anywhere in Poland. And customers in the Berlin area get their products just as quickly, too, Balcerzyk assures us.
Kitchen-ready trout is the main product The routine farming method practised by Fario includes the www.eurofishmagazine.com
company’s somewhat smaller trout farming facility in Nowin which is just a few kilometres away. After hatching, the fry first remain for a while in the shallow tanks of the hatchery which is supplied with ground water from 50 and 4 metres depth. The water from the different sources is mixed to render it suitable for the young trout with regard to temperature and iron content. When the fishes have reached a size of about 10 grams they are taken to the growout centre in Nowin which serves as a nursery. A few weeks later at a weight of 50 grams they are taken back to Zochowo where they reach their final weight within one year – mostly between 250 and 350 grams. Fario does not supply salmon trout at present. When the farm is full and everything is running smoothly about 3,000 kg of trout can be harvested in one working day.
The distance the fish have to be transported to the processing plant is short since Fario had the modernly equipped, EUapproved company built right next to the trout farm. That is why it only really takes a few minutes after harvesting for the trout to arrive there in optimum freshness. A small share of production is filleted, but at present Fario’s most important product is kitchen-ready gutted trout that are available with or without the gills, depending on customer requirements. “About half of the trout are delivered on ice in polystyrene boxes, the other half are packed under modified atmosphere for supermarket chains. The latter have a shelflife of 7 days”, says Grzegorz Balcerzyk to give us an idea of the product range. Because the company’s capacity is not fully exploited when processing only
Like a lot of the nearly 200 trout farming companies that currently exist in Poland, Fario too is noticing the growing pressure caused by cheap trout imports, stricter environmental requirements, rising production costs and restrictions on water usage. Added to this come exchange rate problems when buyers are based outside of Poland. Production and consumption of trout have risen considerably in Poland and are already on the same level as carp but Polish aquaculture is now stagnating. Trout producers who hardly sell more than 5 of their trout directly to final consumers are hit by these developments, too. They mainly sell their fishes via retail chains and catering establishments, with the put and take fishery playing a certain role, too. The food market in Poland is very price-sensitive and it is difficult to sell fish because meat is mostly a lot cheaper. Per capita consumption of fish among the 40 million Polish citizens is currently 12 kg/year, i.e. well below consumption in Germany. To increase it further there would have to be more product marketing, targeted advertising campaigns for fish, and more information on health aspects. Contact: Fario s.j. 76-230 Potegowo Zochowo 19/1 Tel. +48-59 846 35 89 biuro@fario.com.pl www.fario.com.pl Director Grzegorz Balcerzyk Mobile: +48 606 284 033 E-mail: gb@fario.com.pl
Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2014
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