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Fish Talk on the Menu at the European Seafood Exposition

Winners of the Sustainable Seafood competition celebrate at the European Seafood Exposition in the OSO booth. Credit: SeaWeb

Sustainable seafood was at the tip of everyone’s tongues at the 2012 European Seafood Exposition, and on their minds and in their bellies. The topic of discussion played out like a carefully planned menu that was executed to perfection.

This year’s Expo in Brussels marked a particularly notable event in the gastronome’s calendar – the announcement of the winners of France’s first ever National Catering Competition for Sustainable Seafood.

Organised by SeaWeb’s Seafood Choices in France, the competition had seen France’s young chefs go head to head to prove their knowledge of seafood sourcing. Technical trials have been organized in January in Paris and in Brittany and the prize giving ceremony in February in Brittany with 10 winners (all categories).

So after the tension of the three-month competition and the drama of the final cook-off, the Brussels trade show provided the perfect opportunity to toast three of the winners Romain Tertrais, Nicolas Mont and Damien Regnier who shared their experience with the public and spoke about their recipes with pollack, red gurnard and tub gurnard. Toast at the OSO stand – our gracious hosts (Seafood Champion s2009) with a glass of bubbly! While Michel Mouisel, from the school of culinary arts FERRANDI (cofounder of the competition) announced next edition of the competition in France for next year and later on at the European level, the young chefs swapped notes, Messr Bruno Gauvain prepared some delicious oysters and the rest of the guests talked fish.

And boy did we talk fish. Because it turned out that there was an awful lot to talk about.

For starters was the topic of sustainability. Clearly sustainability had moved up on the agenda since the last Expo, with more stands than ever before displaying sustainability claims or certification. Cynics amongst us commented of “green washing”, while others questioned whether this reflected true change in practices at sea (a question we debated at the World Fisheries Congress on May 9).

But there could be no doubt that change is afoot in both the supplier and catering industries, as demonstrated by the support given to the Seafood Choices Catering Competition by both OSO and the French School of culinary arts, Ferrandi. And on talking to stall holders, it became clear that many businesses viewed sustainability as an opportunity they were open to exploring.

Almost 90% of global aquaculture production takes place in Asia with China alone accounting for over 25% of world production.

Next on the menu was the complimentary pairing of “Aquaculture” and “Asia”. Undisputedly the dish of the day, these two topics were served side by side throughout the show. Whether walking the floor, hearing presentations at an Intrafish luncheon (from both Nutreco and SalmonChile), or pondering the brand new ASC stand – the rise of aquaculture, and the production power of Asia were delegates’ food for thought. The use of fishmeal and fish oil for purposes other than aquaculture were seen as key barriers to the industry’s progress, while the innovation of new non-animal protein sources were seen to be its saviour. Environmentalists and fishmeal producers both were unhappy with the predominance of soy alternatives– but as one green NGO pointed out – “how else are we going to feed the world?”

For dessert was talk of the Seafood Summit. SeaWeb’s keystone sustainability event upcoming in Hong Kong September 6 - 8 proved a perfectly timed digestif for sustainability, Asia and of course, aquaculture. Met with enthusiasm at the OSO reception, the SeaWeb team stormed the show’s halls deploying literature to gentle murmurs of appreciation all the way from USA to Brasil.

And so concluded another Seafood Expo, and another evening of Fish Talk. At next year’s show, OSO will again be generously hosting the winners of our next National Catering Competition for Sustainable Seafood. So for the freshest fish talk, from the most sustainable sources, we hope to see you there.

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