Monday, February 11, 2008PENSIVE
Business Toolbox: Your supply
Texas shrimp fleet ailing
Each Aug. 15, opening day of Texas' autumn commercial bay shrimping season, state coastal fisheries staffers climb into airplanes, overfly the bay systems from Sabine Pass to Port Isabel and count every shrimp boat pulling a net.
The survey, conducted since 1994, is one method used to track the number of shrimpers fishing.
In 1995, the aerial tally showed 886 commercial shrimpers working Texas bays on opening day. This past Aug. 15, staffers counted 180.
Data collected by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's coastal fisheries division over that same period indicate that while many fewer shrimpers are working the state's water these days, they are catching more shrimp for the same effort than in the 1990s.
Those numbers — sharp shrinkage of the inshore commercial shrimp fleet and the increased productivity for those shrimpers pulling nets — reflect the dramatic changes in Texas' commercial bay shrimping industry over the past decade or so. That reduction in shrimping pressure has benefited the state's inshore fisheries as well as worked to the advantage of the shrimpers.
Multiple factors play into the steep reduction in shrimping effort in Texas bays since the mid-1990s. Economics are a big one. The price of fuel and other fixed costs have soared, making operating a shrimp boat much more expensive.
Trade policies saw imported and farm-raised shrimp flood the market, forcing the price of wild-caught Texas shrimp so low shrimpers find it increasingly tough to make a decent profit. In some cases, the price Texas shrimpers get for a pound of shrimp is about half what they got in the late 1990s. – Houston Chronicle
Business Toolbox: The race to the bottom
India shrimp farmers can’t compete with Chinese farmers
KOCHI, India – The Indian seafood industry rocked by extremely adverse market conditions can reach placid waters only if pragmatic polices are adopted and basic changes are effected in the product mix without delay.
The main concern is the fall in the black tiger shrimp exports from the country, which contributes a major share of the export earnings. The tiger shrimp market is being grabbed by the low-cost Vannamei shrimp from China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
It can be produced at almost half the cost of tiger shrimp, but equally attractive looking and tasting as the tiger shrimp.
Because of this, importers quote low price for the tiger shrimp at which the exporters are unable to export the goods. The shrinking demand has forced the farmers to reduce the farming area, if not withdraw from the business. -- Newindpress, India
Business Toolbox: Sustainability
Seafood consumers demand ecological outlook
Just two items today, but signs that consumers and retailers are demanding sustainability are growing around the globe.
In Austria, the environmental organisation WWF has accused the Eurofisch-Markt fish supermarket in Vienna-Meidling of selling species of fish threatened by extermination.
WWF has cited sales of such species as shark, swordfish, and skate at the supermarket in that regard.
Even worse, WWF says, fish dealer and supermarket operator Lasar Chassidov has failed to make good on his promise before opening three months ago not to stock fish from threatened species and to make customers aware that they are endangered. -- Wiener Zeitung, Österreich
Dutch fishmonger group Visgilde is launching a campaign to introduce Marine Stewardship Council eco-label to its customers. The 46 stores have received certification for processing and selling seafood from 13 MSC-certified fisheries. -- IntraFish
Business Toolbox: Marketing
Want to promote Alaska seafood? Cash awaits
Looks like the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board is handing out money again.
According to a legal notice appearing in the newspaper over the weekend, the agency plans to distribute $500,000 in matching grants to applicants with ideas for expanding the sales, consumption and value of Alaska seafood.
Individual grants of up to $50,000 are available. Deadline to apply is March 14.
Applicants must include “disclosure of any financial interest in the proposal by an AFMB board member.”
That’s seems wise, considering the rather battered history of the marketing board.
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and his congressional colleagues created the agency in 2003 and funded it with $29 million. The intent was to help revive the state’s struggling commercial salmon industry.
The marketing board also drew some jeers for giving Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a jet plane to look like an enormous salmon. – Anchorage Daily News
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Business Toolbox: Staying legal
Retailers aren’t following seafood origin labeling rules
SALEM, Ore. — Only about half of Oregon retailers follow federal rules for labeling seafood with its country of origin, but a state report says the problems seems to be a lack of information, not defiance.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture did an audit last year at the request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service.
"Many of the establishments we contacted during the audit were simply unaware of these requirements or how to do the labeling," says ODA Assistant Director Dalton Hobbs.
He said the department gave the retailers information that he expects will improve the compliance rate.
In Oregon, 40 retail stores selected at random for the audit, and 21, or 53 percent, were in compliance against a national average of near 60 percent.
"There is a willingness and an interest by retail establishments to comply with the mandatory labeling," said Hobbs.
Federal law allows for a fine of up to $10,000 per violation if it is determined to be willful but that has not happened in Oregon.
"We will continue to work with retailers to teach them how they can better trace their product and establish the country of origin," said Hobbs.
"What I heard from retailers is that they are glad we checked on country of origin labeling and that they welcome the help in meeting the requirements," said ODA's Lindsay Benson, who performed the audits.
Hobbs said more people want to know where their food comes from.
Seafood is the first commodity to face the federal requirements. Perishables such as beef, lamb, pork, fruits, and vegetables will follow.
In some cases the origins of seafood may be unknown to the dealer. The USDA estimates 80 percent of seafood eaten in the United States is imported.
"Years ago, you would go to a fish store and there was a dealer behind the counter who probably knew the guy who actually caught the fish," said Hobbs. "There was a close connection between the fisherman and the retailer. That's not always the case anymore."
Hobbs said savvy consumers see the value of labeling for country of origin as a way to differentiate products. Some are doing so with other foods before it becomes mandatory.
In the Oregon audit, national retail chains did better than regional chains or independents.
While studies show that consumers are willing to spend more for U.S. red meat products if they can identify it as produced locally or regionally, there is no evidence that the federal rule is resulting in increased sales of domestic seafood.
Feedback from Oregon retailers indicate that consumers are more concerned with the method of production, such as farmed versus wild-caught, than with the country of origin.
Price also is a factor. Hobbs said more often than not, buyers vote with their pocketbooks. But some worry about where the fish was caught or whether it is a sustainable fishery. – The Oregonian
Business Toolbox: Keeping track
Low-cost radio identification tracking tags not yet produced
A few years ago, Wal-Mart issued a mandate for suppliers to attach products with RFID tags. Today, only a few suppliers have complied, or in other words, the mandate does not work effectively in retail supply chain. 5-cent RFID tag is the most demanded RFID product in the world. Unfortunately, the product does not exist. The underlying assumption of large volume purchase to reach the price level of 5-cent has never become reality.
“We quickly determined that if RFID tags were ever going to have a shot at being widely used, a 5-cent price target was important for both psychological and commercial reasons. In return, though, the volumes would have to be very high—for example, more than 5 billion bar codes are scanned daily today. The problem with RFID tags at the time was that the industry was "stuck" in a higher-margin, lower-volume mind-set.” wrote Sanjay Sarma, the co-founder of MIT's Auto-ID Center (now Auto-ID Lab), and also the CTO & Director of Oat Systems, in his article “Integrating RFID” several years ago.
Even though Wal-Mart has recently started to issue an ultimatum to its suppliers shipping to its Sam's Club warehouse outlet distribution center in Texas, with a premium price of $2 per pallet, it is estimated that over 15,000 Wal-Mart suppliers have yet to comply with Wal-Mart's RFID mandate, according to a recent article at Computer Business Review.
While the retail supply chain industry is still waiting for the coming of 5-cent RFID tag, various RFID applications that do not rely on 5-cent price level have mushroomed for the past few years in diverse vertical industries.
The use of RFID & sensor technologies have become more common nowadays. Active RFID tags with built-in sensors are readily available in the market. Applications such as electronic container seals, intelligent buildings, vital sign measurement of monitored hospital patients are only a few of applications that require cost-effective infrastructure.
With the increasing number of nodes & types of sensors in wireless sensor network (WSN), the role of infrastructure has become more critical to manage sensors and intelligent networks. – Press Release
Business Toolbox: Sustainability
Are we depleting the earth's basic fishery?
They only grow up to 6 cm (2.3 inches), yet are perhaps the most abundant creatures on the planet in terms of weight.
Krill -- small shrimp-like crustaceans which with modern technology can be used in fish feed, human dietary supplements, soya sauce flavouring, pharmaceuticals, or even to clean the paintings of Old Masters -- are in increasing demand.
A "pink gold," which if fed to farmed salmon cut out the need for colourants to make the flesh pink, krill are extremely rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, linked to health benefits for people.
Occurring in all oceans but most abundant in the Southern Ocean, they are also the staple diet for seals, penguins and whales and snow petrels.
But rising human demand for fish oils, likely to bring more competition from trawlers for krill, is causing concern that this keystone species near the bottom of the food chain should not be overfished.
"The krill catch is projected to go up with other countries getting involved," said Stephen Nicol, a krill expert at the Australian Antarctic Division, adding that current catches seem no threat to vast stocks.
"But there's a lot of concern because this is a keystone species -- whales, penguins and seals depend on it," he said. "But part of that dependence is because there's a lot of krill."
Led by Norway, annual krill catches total 120,000 tonnes, a tiny share of a Southern Ocean stock estimated at anywhere from 100 million to 500 million tonnes.
Japanese, South Korean and Polish vessels also have krill licences under an international deal.
Norway says it already thinks about the ecological impact of its krill fishing. "We are concerned to catch krill in an environmentally sustainable way," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.
Norway's Aker BioMarine, which operates the most advanced krill trawler, aims to launch a krill oil diet supplement across the Nordic countries and in the United States next month.
But scientists say little is known about the history of fish stocks and global warming could be a problem - it is unclear how far krill depend on algae that bloom near the ice shelves around Antarctica, and climate change could melt some of the ice.
"One of the big questions is what happens if the sea ice disappears," Mr Nicol said. "It's very unclear." – Reuters
Business Toolbox: Sustainability
Yet another retailer promises to sell sustainable fish
LONDON – Sainsbury’s has announced several new action plans to ensure that all fish it sells is sourced from sustainable stocks.
The giant supermarket group, which sells over £400million ($785 million) worth of fish and seafood each year, said that move was in response to the sustainability challenges facing the industry.
Just over a year ago, the company introduced a traffic light system for fish similar to the one giving nutritional guidance (fat, salt content etc). Green meant the fish has been scientifically verified as in plentiful supply and is fully sustainable, amber signifying some concerns about sustainability, but steps were being taken to resolve them and red meant there were serious problems and the fish would not be sold in Sainsbury stores.
A spokesperson said: "Our response to the sustainability challenges facing the fish sector is a commitment to improving the sustainability of the top five species that we sell. Looking at a whole host of factors, including individual fisheries, catch-area, bycatch, catch-method and environmental impact, our aspiration now is to move all our top five species to green rated status. The impact of this commitment will be felt on a huge scale. We are one of the UK's largest retailers of fish and sell over £400 million of fish every year."
"We have already removed skate and huss from our shelves, and now take squid from a more sustainable source as a result of this assessment process," he said.
Last year, the company announced that it believed line-caught is a less destructive, more sustainable alternative to trawling and therefore all its fresh cod and haddock were now line caught.
Saisnburys says it is offering more sustainable alternatives to cod such as pollack and hoki and claimed it was now buying more pollack than any other UK retailer.
Even farmed fish was coming under scrutiny. Sainsbury's said: "Where the food comes from to feed farmed fish is an important issue. We therefore apply our sustainability rating system to species used for fish feed, ensuring our processes are sustainable right the way through from egg to plate."
There were also moved to reduce pollutants from nets and the waters in which salmon and other fish were farmed.– FishUpdate
Business Toolbox: Your supply
Commercial clam diggers fading away
OCEAN CITY -- Gary Tull isn't sure what he's going to do for a living after October.
"I'm 56 years old and I don't think anyone wants to hire me for anything," said the Crisfield man who has spent his entire career clamming in the coastal bays with a hydraulic dredge.
"This is all I've known and it's all I've ever done."
A bill passed by the Maryland State Legislature to ban hydraulic clam dredging will go into effect in October to the joy of many environmentally concerned residents, but the dismay of clammers such as Tull.
Tull was on his way back to shore with 4,400 clams. He would take them to Virginia to be sold.
"That's a pretty good day," he said. "Some people sell in Cambridge, some in Seaford, but I don't have anyone to buy them in Maryland."
As to whom the seafood distributor Tull sells, he's not sure what they'll do either.
"I guess they could always go to farm-raised," he said. Aquacultural techniques allow watermen, with some success, to raise clams in cordoned-off sections of waterbeds.
"But in my opinion they're not any good," Tull said. "This is just natural and most people like the natural stuff, I would think."
Local fish market owner Sam Martin said he sells mostly farm-raised calms, but though he does not financially support the clammers he still thinks they should be allowed to continue.
"They have been doing it for years," he said. "They say the clammers are tearing up the grasses in the bay, but there are more grass in that bay than you can shake a stick at."
But legislators, and commercial fishermen, disagreed. Tull's way of life was outlawed due to its destructive nature, said Delegate Jim Mathias D-38B-Worcester, who supported the bill. – Salisbury Daily Times, Maryland
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Business Toolbox: Your supply
Florida red snapper quota cut in half
While fishermen say there is no shortage of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's coast, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted to tighten the regulations in state waters.
The new rules, which will be in place before the season starts, are similar to recent federal rules that were approved in an effort to protect the species from overfishing.
The daily limit was halved, from four to two, for recreational and commercial anglers.
Charter captains and their crew can't count in the per-person limits.
And recreational and commercial fishermen will have to use non-stainless steel circle hooks, along with dehooking and venting tools for all reef fish in the Gulf.
The season remains April 15 to Oct. 31 in state waters. But the rule is June 1 to Sept. 30 in federal waters, more than nine nautical miles out.
The minimum length for commercial boats dropped from 15 inches to 13. Rules take effect on April 1. However, the rule for circle hooks and tools doesn't start until June 1. – The Ledger, Florida
Business Toolbox: Marketing
Want to promote Alaska seafood? Cash is waiting
Looks like the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board is handing out money again.
According to a legal notice appearing in the newspaper over the weekend, the agency plans to distribute $500,000 in matching grants to applicants with ideas for expanding the sales, consumption and value of Alaska seafood.
Individual grants of up to $50,000 are available. Deadline to apply is March 14.
Applicants must include “disclosure of any financial interest in the proposal by an AFMB board member.”
That’s seems wise, considering the rather battered history of the marketing board.
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and his congressional colleagues created the agency in 2003 and funded it with $29 million. The intent was to help revive the state’s struggling commercial salmon industry.
The marketing board also drew some jeers for giving Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a jet plane to look like an enormous salmon. – Anchorage Daily News
Business Toolbox: Your customers health
Retailer vigilant against mercury
A new investigation testing mercury content in seafood in New York City has put the recurrent issue at the forefront.
As a result, Wegmans Food Markets Inc. has expanded its safeguards on seafood and at least one local Asian restaurant is considering doing the same. One local health expert, though, says he doubts one finding in the investigation.
The New York Times in January reported it tested tuna sushi samples from 20 Manhattan restaurants and food retailers. It found that 25 percent of the samples reached or exceed the Food and Drug Administration's 1 part per million limit.
The newspaper calculated that a regular diet of six sushi pieces per week from most of the locations would exceed the mercury limit that the Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable.
Methylmercury is found in nearly all types of seafood. Methylmercury in large doses is linked to developmental problems in babies and children as well as maladies in adults.
Many health experts say the risk of mercury exposure must be weighed with the health benefits of eating seafood.
"Fish is important for brain development," says Philip Davidson, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The amount and time of mercury exposure that tips the scales is unclear. Davidson has been part of an ongoing study on child development in the Republic of Seychelles. The study has found that the children seem to be developing normally, despite their mothers' consistent and copious consumption of mercury-tainted fish during pregnancy.
"I can assure you that no one eating fish in those (Manhattan) restaurants came anywhere near the 6 parts per million," says Davidson. That 6 parts per million is the average mercury level tested in maternal hair samples in Seychelles.
Wayne Luong, owner of House of Sushi, says mercury has not been a concern for him or his customers. But he will now consider asking his New York City suppliers about mercury levels in the tuna he serves at the East Avenue restaurant.
Suyeon Holmes, owner of Shema Sushi in Webster, says when she gets questions, they are about whether uncooked fish has more mercury. She tells them, correctly, that cooking has no effect.
Mercury content varies with the type of tuna; larger varieties such as bluefin tend to have more than the more commonly found yellowfin or albacore.
Wegmans Food Markets Inc. has been conducting in-house tests for mercury on swordfish and tuna for years and requires its swordfish suppliers to do the same, says spokeswoman Jeanne Colleluori. Since the New York Times article ran, the chain has decided to make its tuna suppliers do the same, she says.
Tops Markets also requires its tuna and swordfish suppliers to test mercury levels, says spokeswoman Katie McKenna. – Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, New York
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Business Toolbox: Product comparison
Batter Up! Fish fry fanatics test coatings
Fish fry lovers, be bold.
You don't have to passively wait for Friday, or stand in line at a busy restaurant, to get your fix of crunchy coated cod or perch during Lent.
Whip up your own fish fry at home using a box breading or batter mix from the store. The results are equally satisfying, though you'll need to dispose of the leftover frying oil yourself and come up with a home alternative to strolling accordion musicians.
We taste-tested 10 grocery store box mixes with the help of Milwaukee Area Technical College culinary instructor Bob Barton and a team of MATC culinary students in a kitchen lab at the downtown campus. The MATC team mixed batters and fried up cod, the most common catch for area restaurant fish fries. A few of the breadings coated pan-fried perch.
The aroma wafting through the school kitchen was reminiscent of Serb Hall on a Friday night, as batter-coated fish plunged into bubbly cooking oil turned a golden brown. We tasted them hot from the fryer or, in the case of the perch, still sizzling from the frying pan.
Our clear favorite was not the heavy beer batter that generations of Milwaukee fish fry lovers would hold sacred. It was a lighter, crunchier coating, whose brand name would be familiar to fishermen who fry up their catches on the shore of their favorite lake.
The Shore Lunch recipe originated with a fishing guide. It was passed down through generations of Minnesota Lake Country fishermen before it was commercialized for wider sales in the 1980s, according to the company, based in Blaine, Minn.
Two Shore Lunch brand mixes, "original recipe" and "oven style," blew away the competition in our taste test.
Another brand, Drake's, had a pleasingly familiar quality because it is the same batter many restaurant fish fries have used for years, according to Barton, a restaurant chef before he moved into the classroom.
You now can find Drake's in many grocery stores, and it produces the thick coating many fish fry lovers prefer.
"I've cooked fish fries 'til the cows come home," Barton said. "It has always been a thick, gooey batter that Milwaukeeans prefer. You get used to the beer batter over the years, and it becomes the standard.
"You touch a chord in people's souls with the fish fry, especially during Lent."
Following are the top five picks from our taste test in order of preference:
• Shore Lunch Original Recipe fish breading and batter mix: Nice, even golden coating. "It looks like a suntan," Smith noted. A slight sweetness complemented the flavor of the fish. The creamy batter with a hint of onion and paprika adhered well to the fish. The batter didn't fall off when the fish was cut with a fork. One 9-ounce box of breading and batter mix makes 5 pounds of 4-inch, pan-fried fillets or 5 to 7 pounds of 3-inch, deep-fried beer batter fillets. We tasted it deep-fried.
• Shore Lunch Oven Style fish breading: The garlic powder gave it a kick. We liked the coarse, crunchy texture, which reminded us of panko bread crumbs. We also liked that you could pan-fry it in a small amount of oil to brown it, then finish it in the oven. Less mess for a great fish fry flavor. The 6-ounce box makes about 3 pounds of 4-inch baked fillets. Microwave directions also are included on the box.
• Old Bay Better Batter: Makes a light, crunchy coating. The distinctive Old Bay seasoning flavor (mustard seed, celery seed and red pepper) offset the flavor of the oil. An excellent choice for those who like a flavorful fish. The mix comes in a 9-ounce can instead of a box, with directions for both pan-frying and deep-frying. We tasted it deep-fried.
• Drake's Crispy Fry Mix: We could taste the beer in this batter, but the dominant flavor was the oil. It was greasy, but familiar, as this is the standard batter used at restaurants, according to Barton. The 10-ounce box includes directions for pan-frying but also suggests deep-frying. Our sample was deep-fried.
• McCormick Golden Dipt Fry Easy all-purpose batter mix: This batter, which looks like pancake batter, makes a crispy coating. You can actually taste the moist fish; the coating was not as oily as some of the others. Our sample was deep-fried; the mix works with pay-frying, as well.
We also sampled McCormick Golden Dipt Beer Batter, McCormick's Golden Dipt Tempura seafood batter, Zatarain's Crispy Southern Style Fish-Fri, Bakin' Miracle and Krispy Fish Mix.
We wouldn't recommend any of them because they were bland. All we could taste was the grease. – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Business Toolbox: Retail motivators
Retails are starting to demand cruelty-free food
Suppliers of eggs and meat products to Safeway, one of the US's biggest food retailers, will be under pressure to prove their animal welfare credentials.
The company is building on an animal welfare programme already introduced to meet consumer demand for healthy food.
The Wall Street Journal quotes one of the company's representatives saying that Safeway is "actively looking" to increase the amount of poultry it buys from producers that use "controlled-atmosphere stunning". This method gases birds rather than using electricity and a mechanical blade.
Safeway also hopes to increase the quantity of cage-free eggs sold to at least 6 per cent by 2010 and increase the amount of pig meat it purchases from suppliers that don't use gestation crates (metal enclosures that confine pregnant pigs) by 5 per cent over each of the next three years.
Brian Dowling, Safeway's vice president of external affairs, stressed that these changes will not mean higher prices for customers, partly because the company is introducing them in a "careful, thoughtful way".
These moves have led to praise from the Humane Society and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), two organisations that have not always been so positive about the company.
Paul Shapiro, a senior director at the Humane Society said: "Safeway's move send(s) a strong message to the agribusiness industry that it must rapidly move away from the worst factory farming abuses, such as intensive confinement systems and the conventional poultry slaughter method."
On its website Safeway promotes itself a "retail industry leader in animal welfare", saying that it understands its responsibility to work with suppliers to ensure that animals in the food production system are treated humanely.
The company says that its animal welfare programme requires that meat, pork, poultry, dairy and seafood suppliers meet a set of designated animal treatment guidelines, and Safeway-brand processors also have to demonstrate that they require their raw material suppliers to meet these standards.
Safeway conducts an audit programme to ensure standards are met, the results of which are reviewed by the company's Animal Welfare Council, the company said. – FoodProductionDaily.com,U.K.
Business Toolbox: Marketing
Text ‘f-i-s-h’ for sustainability report
If you're trying to do right by the ocean and environment when buying seafood, avoid Chilean sea bass and Atlantic halibut, while tilapia and Olympic oysters are fine. Wild Alaskan salmon is a go, but be wary about farmed salmon and Atlantic cod. Those are recommendations from the Blue Ocean Institute, which puts out a guide to sustainable seafood.
So what if you're standing at the supermarket or in front of your favorite fishmonger and you can't remember which fish to buy and which to avoid?
In this blog post, New York Times foodie and writer Mark Bittman suggests texting to get the answer. Text "30644" (Blue Ocean Institute) and type in "FISH" followed by the type of fish you want to get a rating on.
Bittman writes: If you put in sea bass, for example, you would get a message back saying, "Black sea bass; U.S. Mid Atlantic (GREEN) few environmental concerns, strong management has helped populations recover from overfishing." Green means green light, of course. Avoid Chilean sea bass, groups warn.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has this Seafood Watch guide. From your mobile phone, you can log onto www.seafoodwatch.org and you'll be automatically directed to the latest online pocket guide. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Business Toolbox: Your market
New Zealand seafood sales slumped in 2007
Seafood sales were down last year, with the high dollar curbing benefits from strong international prices, says the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council.
Market prices for most export species had increased in US dollar terms during the previous year. The price of skipjack tuna was up 45 per cent, ling 35 per cent, snapper 25 per cent, hoki 20 per cent and mussels 10 per cent.
However, council chief executive Owen Symmans said the increased export return had been depressed.
"With 2007's exchange rate achieving over US79c during the year, sales were worth $1.25 billion compared to $1.35 billion in 2006," Symmans said.
"The industry's return is falling around $20 million for every cent the NZ dollar strengthens." The pressure on the industry had implications for investment, employment and research and development, he said.
"It's worrying that we are not able to maximise investment and consolidation for the industry's future because we cannot reap the benefits of the current high market rate for our product." – New Zealand Herald, New Zealand
Friday, February 15, 2008
Business Toolbox: Your customers' health
Canadian agency not alarmed about mercury
Your favourite sushi restaurant likely does not feature signs that read "Caution: Excessive consumption of tuna may lead to loss of motor skills" or "Pregnant women may be increasing the chances their babies will develop autism, or MS, or even ADHD by consuming tuna."
Should it? According to Dr. David Lean, professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Ottawa, such warnings wouldn't be inaccurate.
"It's a huge problem," he says. "The deep red tuna, like the kind that you get in the best sushi places, will have mercury levels at 1.5 parts per million (ppm). Women increase their chances of having babies with birth defects at levels that high."
According to Health Canada regulations updated last July, tuna and other large predatory fish (shark, marlin) can legally have levels no higher than 1 ppm. At that level, it recommends that they be eaten no more than once per week, or once a month by children and women of child-bearing age.
The New York Times recently tested tuna from 20 Manhattan restaurants and stores and in five cases reported that the mercury levels were "so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market." It also reported that recent studies have suggested consuming mercury can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and neurological symptoms in adults.
The findings don't alarm the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), however, which said it has been testing seafood for mercury since 1970 at the processing stage.
"Approximately 220,000 sample tests are done annually for chemical residue," said Mary Ann Green, director for the CFIA's fish, seafood and production division.
"Under the new guidelines for mercury samples, only three out of 38 lots of fish have been rejected by the CFIA," she said. Rejected fish are either destroyed or sent back to their ports of origin.
So does that mean tuna lovers in Canada can rest easy? It depends on who you ask.
"It all comes from the same place," says Dr. Lean, who works in Ottawa's Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics. "If one fish in the aquarium has high mercury levels, then they all do."
He recalls a particular case to confirm his doubts. It involved a 36-year-old woman who had been on a tuna diet to lose weight.
"She had severe depression and very low estrogen levels," he said. "Doctors were treating her the same way they would a post-menopausal patient. I advised her to stop eating tuna and, after she quit, her spirits came back and her estrogen was back to normal."
By testing a strand of the woman's hair, Lean was able to trace her depression and low estrogen to high mercury levels in her body.
"You could actually trace it back to when she stopped eating tuna," he says.
The CFIA doesn't test at the retail level, says Green. "We have a comprehensive program in place, and tuna has a high level of compliance," she said, pointing out that, according to the Times study, there is no U.S. government agency like the CFIA that regularly tests seafood for mercury.
That's not enough, according to Lean, who said there is a general lack of knowledge among Canadian consumers of the perils of tuna consumption.
As for warnings signs, don't expect to see them any time soon. While Health Canada warns against high consumption of tuna on its website and in its food guide, regulations to enforce warning labels on packages are not on the horizon.
"Health Canada doesn't issue warning labels saying eating five steaks a day is bad for you," said a representative. "The consumer needs to practise a little common sense." – National Post, Canada
Business Toolbox: Your environment
Top jewelers oppose Alaska goldmine
Environmentalists want you to buy organic roses, and human rights groups tout conflict-free diamonds.
Now, just in time for Valentine's Day, jewelry retailers are stepping up a campaign that aims to discourage the mining and sale of "dirty gold."
A group of prominent jewelers including Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds and Fortunoff announced that it opposes the massive gold and copper Pebble Mine planned for Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed, site of the world's largest sockeye salmon run.
The jewelers' “Bristol Bay Protection Pledge" marks a new front in the “No Dirty Gold” initiative waged by environmental and human rights groups against destructive mining practices.
It is the first time that retailers, which have hitherto limited themselves to supporting general rules for mining, have joined in a campaign to halt a specific mine.
An estimated 80% of the gold used in the U.S. is for jewelry. And gold mines -- typically huge open pit operations where tiny veins of metal are ground from millions of tons of rock -- produce an average of 76 tons of waste per ounce of gold.
The resulting air and water pollution have made metals mining the leading contributor of toxic emissions in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
"There are places where mining does not represent the best use of resources," Michael Kowalski, Tiffany's chairman and chief executive, said in an e-mail. "In Bristol Bay, we support . . . the salmon fishery as the best bet for sustainable, long-term benefit. For Tiffany & Co., and we believe for many of our fellow retail jewelers, this means we will look to other places to source gold."
Sean McGee, a spokesman for the Pebble Mine, said the jewelers had not contacted the mine's developers, a partnership of Vancouver, Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and London-based Anglo American.
"There is a lot of common ground between the Dirty Gold camp and the approach we are taking," he said. "We support high environmental standards for mining. If the fisheries can't be protected, we won't advance the project."
The campaign to clean up gold mines echoes the opposition to so-called blood diamonds, sold to finance conflicts in developing nations.
In the last few years, jewelers, working with nonprofit groups and the mining industry, set up a system to ensure diamonds as "conflict-free." Now the "ethical jewelry" movement is preparing to expand with a certification program for gold and silver.
"It's what's happening in the marketplace," said Stephen D'Esposito, president of Earthworks, a Washington-based advocacy group for mining reform. "Jewelers are highly sensitive to consumer concerns about the impact of the products they buy. It is a trend you see with food, coffee, wood, even sneakers." – Los Angeles Times
Business Toolbox: Ain't no business like show business
Press mandarins atwitter over Handsome Dan
WASHINGTON -- When actor and oceans activist Ted Danson speaks at a National Press Club luncheon Thursday to warn Americans about rapidly depleting fish stocks, the meal will feature wild Alaskan salmon.
It's not a mistake on the menu.
Danson and members of his host conservation group Oceana said they don't want to send a message that people shouldn't eat fish -- just that diners should chose wisely.
"If you enjoy eating fish, then you really are looking at the possibility that in our lifetime you will not be eating fish," Danson said.
Speaking at the D.C. office of Oceana where Danson serves on the board, he said, "I think we all have a moral obligation not to treat fish like the buffalo and not wipe them out completely."
The former "Cheers" and "Becker" star who in 1987 co-founded the American Oceans Campaign that later merged with another group to become Oceana, was in town for Wednesday's congressional correspondent's dinner. He is scheduled to speak Thursday before the press club on a range of ocean-related issues including pollution; rising mercury levels and harmful fishing methods like bottom trawling. – San Jose Mercury News
Business Toolbox: Your customers' health
Contaminated farmed salmon yanks from shelves
SCOTLAND'S leading salmon-farming company was at the centre of a major product recall by Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain yesterday, after some fish were discovered to have been tainted with white spirit.
Thousands of salmon products from Marine Harvest (Scotland) were removed from the shelves of more than 370 Morrisons' stores across Britain following complaints from about 50 customers. There is not thought to be a health risk.
The recall relates to all Morrisons' fresh Scottish salmon – excluding organic products – sold from its fresh fish counters and pre-packed in its chiller cabinets.
Investigations into the cause of the problem were continuing yesterday. These were focused on a vessel used to transport live fish to the firm's harvesting station at the Lochaber port of Mallaig.
A spokesman for Marine Harvest said: "We are investigating the cause of this taint, which we believe is present in a small number of our harvested fish." – The Scotsman
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