Focus on safety and quality
FAO: International fisheries committee meets in Bremen

High-ranking members of the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will be meeting in Bremen for the fifth time from 10 to 14 February 2004. About 120 representatives from different governments, the fish industry, and members of non-governmental organizations will come together in Bremen’s Park Hotel to discuss the current situation and developments within international fish trade and fisheries.
The focus of the five-day conference will be food safety in the fish industry and it will cover major issues such as traceability and labelling of products at the fish retailer’s as well as safety and quality, paying particular attention to fish meal and BSE. The delegates will also be addressing the question of harmonization in the area of documentation of fishing results.
The United Nations conference forms part of the programme of events arranged around the trade fair ‘fish international’ which is being organized by Messe- und Ausstellungsgesellschaft Hansa (MGH) for the ninth time in 2004 and will take place at the Bremen Fair Centre from 12 to 15 February.
The idea to found a Sub-Committee on Fish Trade under the umbrella of the United Nations dates back to the summer of 1984 in Rome when international fishing and fisheries development were on the agenda of the FAO World Conference. The actual decision to establish a sub-committee was finally taken in spring 1985 and the committee met for the first time in Rome in October 1986. Its aim was to improve international structures within fish trade and the processing of fish and fish products. Worldwide sales from fish trade rose from 15 million US dollars in 1982 to 55 million US dollars at the beginning of 2000, and the share of world exports contributed by developing countries rose from 43 per cent to 50 per cent during the same period.
Upon the invitation and with the support of the city state of Bremen, the Sub-Committee has met in Bremen on the occasion of the exhibition ‘fish international’ since 1996… a source of some satisfaction to MGH as organizers of fish international, “because positive synergy effects arise from the simultaneous presence of the fair and the conference”, says MGH-Director Peter Koch-Bodes, pinpointing the significant benefits. For as host to the major fish and seafood fair on the one hand and the fisheries conference of the United Nations on the other hand, Bremen was not only the chosen meeting place of the international fish industry but at the same time also the starting point for political recommendations of far-reaching scope.

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