CROATIA
Omega 3 is Croatia’s biggest small pelagics cooperative
Looking for means to fund a much needed expansion Producer Organisations are one of the pillars of the European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). They contribute to achieving the objectives of the Common Organisation of the Market (CMO), an integral part of the CFP. The broad objectives of the CMO, which has been a part of the CFP since 1970, are to stabilise the market and guarantee fair prices for producers. It also seeks to improve the competitiveness of European producers, ensure a level playing ďŹ eld for all products sold in the EU, and support sustainability, among others. Producer Organisations (PO) play an important role in achieving these objectives.
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lthough Croatia have does not have any recognised POs, it has a number of fishing cooperatives, which are slated to become POs. As of May 2012 there were 18 recognised fishing cooperatives in Croatia with a total of 443 members. Membership in the cooperatives varied from 7 members to 90 members.
Kali – a village with a long fishing tradition Omega 3 is one of the fisheries cooperatives established in the town of Kali on the island of Uglijan. Kali has been the site of a fishing tradition that goes back centuries and today too is well known as a hub of the fishing industry. In fact all the three ports on the island are in Kali. Some 90 of the approximately 1,700 inhabitants are connected to the fishing industry, either directly as fishers or working in a related industry. Residents from Kali have also emigrated to other parts of the world, such as Australia, where many of them continue to be involved in the fisheries sector in their new host country. This close connection to the sector made Kali an obvious choice to base the Omega 3 cooperative, when it was established at the end of 2008. Today it can 38
Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2014
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boast 24 members with total catch volumes of 13,000 tonnes of small pelagic fish from 30 purse seiners. Of these vessels three are small, between 15 and 18 m, while the others are from 21 to 30 m. They all however exclusively target pelagic fish. The total volume caught by Omega 3 is bigger than any other cooperative and amounts to about 25 of the total Croatian catch of pelagics. In 2012 with the help of IPARD (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance in Rural Development) funds Omega 3 established a processing facility based in an industrial estate in Sopot-Benkovac on the Croatian mainland about an hour’s drive from Kali. Alen Lovrninov, the logistics manager at Omega 3, says the primary focus of the cooperative today is to try and maintain the quality of the fish that is caught so that even if volumes are lower the price is higher. This not only means encouraging the fishers to invest in ice and equipment such as tubs that will contribute to the quality. More than machinery we have to encourage a change in the way the fishers think, says Mr Lovrinov, as some of them have been fishing for the last 20 years and have very definite ideas about how they want to do things. Zlatomir Franov, the president of
Zlatomir Franov, President, Omega 3
Omega 3, fully supports the idea of improving the quality at the expense of quantity. We want to catch euros not fish, he says, and the price for premium quality fish is 30 higher than for the next grade. Omega 3 supports its members in improving the equipment on board that will result in better quality. Ice machines, refrigerated water systems, insulated bins will all help. So will the technology used to draw the fish from the water. The fisher has to learn to handle the fish better, which means not
taking 500 kg of fish from the water at a time, but taking 150 kg instead, so that the fish does not get damaged. At Omega 3 the quest for better quality does not stop on board the vessel, but continues through the value chain. When the fish is landed the effort is to get the fish as soon as possible into the factory and on to the processing line, so the cooperative has invested in fleet of five trucks that transport the fish to the factory. In case of need other trucks are hired as well. Often a truck will drive off with half a load www.eurofishmagazine.com