The European Commission intends to increase sustainable aquaculture production in the Mediterranean by 20% and, in order to help achieve this goal, the MedAID project is born, framed in the H2020 program, and the results of which are expected to be essential to promote fish farming. Mediterranean marina.
The research group Economic Management for Sustainable Development of the Primary Sector of the University of Cantabria, through professors José Manuel Polanco, considered a world-wide expert in the aquaculture sector, and Ignacio Llorente, participates in this European project that began in early May and that «will play a key role in identifying the factors necessary to promote the growth of this increasingly important food production sector,» according to Bernardo Basurco (Instituto Agronómico Mediterráneo de Zaragoza) and Dolors Furones (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries de Cataluña), MedAID coordinators. «This project, which has the main experts in aquaculture in Europe and has a duration of 4 years, will support the development of the sector, proposing best practices, innovative tools and solutions to these challenges to increase growth and productivity», they point out.
The project, which will focus on sea bream and sea bass, two of the main productive species in the Mediterranean, will exhaustively study the competitiveness and sustainability of the marine aquaculture sector in that sea. Among other topics, nutrition and feeding practices, animal welfare, animal diseases, genetics, environmental impact, consumer perception and aspects related to marketing, economic efficiency and performance of the sector will be discussed, as well as the social image of aquaculture.
Coordinated by the Zaragoza Agronomic Mediterranean Institute (IAMZ –CIHEAM) and the Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries de Cataluña (IRTA), it has a budget of 7 million euros and more than 30 organizations from 12 different countries participate in it. Partners include research centers, prestigious universities, producers and international organizations.
The University of Cantabria is in charge of package # 6 of the MedAID project, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Bergen Business School. In this sense, UC researchers work on productive efficiency, the analysis of the factors that influence its efficiency, the reduction and optimization of its costs and, in addition, the market analysis, among other aspects.
CONTEXT
In Europe, twice as much fish is consumed today as produced, supplying the demand with imported products, despite the fact that aquaculture accounts for approximately 20% of production in Europe, directly employing some 85,000 people, mainly in rural and coastal areas. However, compared to other non-EU Mediterranean countries, aquaculture production on our continent is stagnating.