ROMANIA
Pelicanul Distribution expands its activities in a completely new direction
From architecture to aquaculture Pelicanul Distribution, a company involved in architectural design and construction, decided about ďŹ ve years ago to diversify into agriculture or a related ďŹ eld. After exploring different avenues negotiations with a carp farmer looking to sell ďŹ nally fructiďŹ ed in May 2014. Today Pelicanul Distribution is producing some 700 tonnes of carp a year.
G
eorge Ionescu the owner of Pelicanul Distribution recalls how the first carp farm his company took over was producing 20-30 tonnes per year. The site is a reservoir close to Bucharest with cages for the cultivation of carp. After investing in the site, production doubled and since 2015 the company has a contract to sell its fish through Metro. Today production from the cages has increased further to about 130 tonnes of fish per year.
Steady expansion in production The lake in which the cages are placed is also being used for the production of fish. It has an area of 800 ha and is used for extensive aquaculture, while the cages are used for intensive production. The lake is populated with some six different species, including crucian carp, which feed at different trophic levels. Production from the lake and the cages together amounts to about 350 tonnes annually. The species introduced into the lake include carnivorous fish such as pike and catfish, some of which are very large. We regularly catch catfish of 20 kg and last summer even had one at 70 kg, recounts Mr Ionescu. For these large predators, onesummer-old fish introduced into the lake for on-growing are easy prey. The company therefore started introducing two-summerold fish, which weigh above 600 g 52
to protect them from the predators. The fish used to populate the lake are produced in a 55 ha lake at another site. In 2016 Pelicanul Distribution took over another fish farm with 1,350 ha, where production was over 300 t last year. Altogether, ten species are produced regularly and include: crucian carp, common carp, three types of Chinese carp, bream, roach, and the predators pike, pike-perch and catfish. The total production including all the sites amounts to about 700 tonnes per year or 5.5 of the total Romanian output of farmed fish and puts Pelicanul Distribution amongst the top three or four producers in Romania. Pond fish farming in Romania is not without its challenges, amongst the biggest of which is poaching. According to Mr Ionescu the scale of the challenge is partly because the authorities tend to downplay the importance of the issue. They see it as a minor misdemeanour rather than a felony, and because it is usually non-violent it tends to get overlooked, he feels. The other problem the sector faces is predation by birds, populations of which have multiplied over the years thanks to the availability of food, habitat, and legal protection. At the lake where the intensive-extensive production is practised predation by birds is not such a problem because the lake is relatively deep which
Three species of Chinese carp (bighead, grass, and silver) are cultivated in the lake near Bucharest. The image shows a bighead carp.
allows the fish to escape, but in fish ponds, which are shallower, farmers can lose a lot of stock to birds. The fisheries administration in Romania is well aware of the issue and at a recent seminar Nicolae Dimolescu, President of the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Agency, called for more support from the scientific establishment to address the problems caused by cormorants, the most prominent predator.
Freshwater ďŹ sh consumption is a tradition that must be encouraged Fish consumption in Romania is dominated by imported marine fish such as herring, mackerel, and salmon, which are available
in many different product forms. To compete with this variety as well as with other forms of animal protein such as chicken and pork, Mr Ionescu feels it is important to have a variety of species on offer. Romanians are familiar with freshwater fish, which they have been eating for generations. They know how to cook and consume it and the production can be done extensively meaning there is no pressure on the lakes or ponds. For these reasons we want to promote this form of cultivation and encourage the consumption of pond-farmed fish, which is fresh, even live, and healthful, says Mr Ionescu. He points out that the total population in those countries of Central and Eastern Europe where there is a tradition
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