TURKEY
Gümüsdoga focuses on reliability, quality
Over-production can expand market Gümüsdoga is among the biggest producers and exporters of farmed seafood in Turkey with produced volumes amounting to about 16,000 tonnes, of which 9,000 tonnes is seabass and seabream and 7,000 tonnes is trout.
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ümüsdoga is well known producer of seabass, seabream and trout in Turkey as well as of fish feed. The feed is produced at a modern feeding mill and is used for the company’s production of seabass, seabream and trout as well as for sale on the market. The feed is produced at the company’s plant in Milas and is tested at every stage to ensure that the final product meets the required standard. The main raw materials for the fish feed are fishmeal and fish oil. These commodities are obtained from Turkish producers but can also be imported from South America or northern Europe. When the material arrives at the factory random samples are taken and are subject to a range of physical and chemical analyses. The results of these procedures have to lie within a certain range for the material to be accepted.
Tightly controlled fish feed production The monitoring continues through the entire manufacturing process with samples going to the company laboratory to be tested for a range of parameters. The production concludes with the feed being loaded into bags and placed in storage until they are distributed. The whole manufacturing process is automated so human intervention is reduced to the minimum. The feed factory has two production lines and produces about 70,000 tonnes per year, says Mehmet Gümüsel, the www.eurofishmagazine.com
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export manager, and a member of the family that owns the company. Of this volume approximately 30 is used for Gümüsdoga’s own fish production, while the rest is sold to other farmers. The company’s fish production depends on fingerlings obtained from external suppliers as Gümüsdoga does not have its own hatchery. As with most other producers of seabass and seabream Gümüsdoga too produces substantially more seabass – 60 to 70 of the total production of 9,000 tonnes. Both seabass and seabream are sold as whole round fish to markets in the EU including France, the UK, Germany, Spain, and Italy. The Turkish market is also important, says Mr Gümüsel, about 30 of the production is sold locally. Traditionally people in the cities of Istanbul, Izmir, and other parts of the Aegean coast have always consumed fish, but now it seems as if seabass, seabream, and trout are becoming popular all over Turkey and not just in the big cities. The spread of the retailers from the big urban areas to the more rural parts of the country has no doubt contributed to the increased popularity of whole round fish. The other factors are availability and price. Unlike wild fish, farmed fish is available throughout the year in the same quality and for more or less the same price. Wild fish availability fluctuates with the season and the price changes depending
“Our strength does not lie in the volume of fish we produce, but in our reliability and the ability to produce consistently good quality,” says Mr Mehmet Gümüsel, Export Manager of Gümüsdoga.
The feed factory has two production lines and a production of 70,000 tonnes of feed a year for the market (70%), and for the company’s own use.
on supply and demand. These aspects too are contributing to the popularity of farmed fish.
Seabass and seabream spread through Turkey Even in the central and eastern parts of Turkey where trout is better known than seabass and seabream, the latter are becoming more popular. Greater availability may be part of the reason, and, additionally, if
consumers are already used to eating fish they may be predisposed to trying other kinds of seafood. The demand for fish on the local market is good for producers, but for many of them the export market is primary. Earning in hard currency is necessary when costs are in dollars and fish meal and fish oil, the main expense in the production of farmed fish, are international commodities denominated in dollars, even when they are produced in Eurofish Magazine 2/ 2014
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05/04/14 5:48 PM