Undersecreatry of Fisheries of Chile, Pablo Galilea, holding a Chilean sea bass in MercaMadrid. (Photo: Subpesca)

Chile seeks alliances to increase fish consumption

SPAIN
Monday, April 30, 2012, 00:30 (GMT + 9)

The head of the Chilean Undersecretariat of Fisheries (Subpesca), Pablo Galilea, visited the cities of Madrid and Barcelona to perform alliances and bases to develop a promotional campaign that will contribute to an increase in fish consumption in his country.

In addition, Chilean authorities intend to create a public-private partnership to achieve those goals.

During the official stay in Spain, Galilea met with representatives of local organizations and scheduled visits to several trading platforms of fishery resources, such as MercaMadrid and MercaBarna.

The Undersecretary of Fisheries intends to perform a partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Magrama) to exchange experiences and receive technical advice in this area in the short term.

He also hopes to become aware of the promotion of fish consumption and its trading channels in Spain.

"We believe that Chile can successfully implement promotional campaigns to increase the consumption of fish and seafood, following the example of countries like Spain," stated Galilea.

"Our idea is to create a public-private consortium that brings together artisanal fishermen, industrial ones and farmers who, together with the public sector, may have the resources to promote an increase in the domestic consumption of our seafood," he added.

For Galilea, the experience in Spain will be very useful for Chilean producers because it is one of the largest consumers of marine resources in the world.

Furthermore, it has a long tradition of launching campaigns designed to foster fish consumption.

According to the data released by Subpesca, between 1980 and 2008 Spain increased fish consumption per capita from 25 to 36 kilograms. That success was achieved through promotional campaigns carried out by the Fund for Market Regulation and Organization of Fishing Product Market and Mariculture (FROM), under Magrama.

"There are many fisheries resources that could have a greater demand on the domestic market, which means improving the profitability and diversify of the product basket supply, particularly of the artisanal fishermen who now represent 50 per cent of Chilean fish landings," said the Chilean undersecretary.

In Spain, Galilea also met with producers, importers of Chilean fish, fishing organizations such as the Spanish Fisheries Confederation (Cepesca), and representatives of government institutions related to fisheries and aquaculture.

Cepesca Secretary General, Javier Garat, provided the Chilean delegation with details on actions to promote the consumption of fisheries products
conducted by the Confederation in recent years.

Besides, he explained to them the importance and the need to strengthen the Spanish consumers’ confidence in fish products.

During this year, Cepesca will present the Spanish Network of Fisheries Knowledge a platform that will help users to search and offer information related to the sector.

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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