TURKEY
More Aquaculture – complies with all food safety standards
Frozen seabass fillets for international markets More Aquaculture is part of the AKG Group which has interests in construction and tourism apart from the aquaculture sector. More Aquaculture specialises in frozen fish, almost entirely seabass and seabream which it produces for the EU market, primarily the UK.
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event Akgerman, Executive Director of More Aquaculture, says that business has been good, with demand, particularly for seabass, at higher levels today than at the same period last year, due in part to the crisis affecting the industry in Greece, which has resulted in lower production there. But while demand is strong at the moment he says that lower production in Greece is not necessarily a good thing for companies like his that specialise in frozen products. With fresh products there is greater acceptance for an increase in price and if the price of fresh fish goes up by one euro then the price of fillets goes up by at least two euros and customers buying frozen fish are unlikely to accept the higher price, he explains. If it gets too expensive they will just buy another species. For the moment however, things are going well with sales going to the UK, France and Germany.
Increasing demand for seabass Today More Aquaculture is producing 550 tonnes at one of its sites and 2,800 tonnes at another giving 3,350 tonnes in total of which 70 is seabass. The tonnage produced at a site and thereby the area of the site is determined by the license. The smaller site has an area of 60
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20,000 sq m as this has been calculated to be what is needed for a production of 550 tonnes. Last year production was split equally between the two species, however this year there is more demand for seabass. At the smaller site there are 20 cages for seabass and seabream each either 24 m, 20 m or 16 m in diameter located 1.5 km from the shore. The smaller cages are used for the younger fish. As More Aquaculture does not yet have its own hatchery it is buying fingerlings from two or three suppliers and introducing them into the cages. The company is however planning its own hatchery and has invested in a building, but is still some distance away from being able to go on stream. The fish are fed with a feed barge that visits each cage and pumps the feed into the cage using a system of compressed air. In summer the fish are fed twice a day as the water is warmer, the rate of metabolic activity is higher, and the fish grow more rapidly. In winter everything slows down and the fish need only be fed once a day. Seabass and seabream are usually farmed together, not in the same cages, but in different cages at the same site. But they are quite different in some respects, for example, seabream is a hardier fish while seabass needs to be
Yusuf Topaloglu, who is responsible for exports, and Gülhan Ural, the quality control and assurance expert.
vaccinated against disease; seabream also has a shorter growing time of between 14 and 16 months, while seabass takes 18 to 20 months for a portion-sized fish of 350 g. During the growing period the fish are graded by size and the nets on the cages are changed to reflect the bigger size of the fish. Density within the cages is maintained at 12-13 kg per cubic m. While 350 g is the most common size, the company can supply fish from 200 to 1,500 g. When the fish are harvested they are loaded into large tanks filled with ice and transported to the processing facility so they can be processed immediately.
Frozen fillets in 15 minutes Here the fish are descaled, graded, and filleted and the fillets are IQF frozen before being bulk packaged in cartons. The processing plant is EU-approved and certified to several international standards including HACCP, BRC, IFS, GlobalG.A.P., and Friend of the Sea, says Gülhan Ural, the quality control and assurance expert, which is valuable for our customers and ensures the quality of the production. Employees at the plant are subject to occupational safety and health regulations. The plant is equipped with modern machinery including www.eurofishmagazine.com
05/04/14 5:48 PM