Sjømat Norge, the national association for the Norwegian fishing and aquaculture industry, agrees with the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries that recent events in the industry demand action. "Aquaculture is a continuous improvement effort and now is the time to take action in light of a number of individual incidents," said Geir Ove Ystmark, CEO of Sjømat Norge even before the meeting with Cecilie Myrsethl, seafood companies, and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) to discuss animal welfare.
Also in statements prior to the meeting, Ystmark said that it is the industry's responsibility to comply with regulations, something Minister Myrsethl later remarked. "The adherence to regulations must improve. Aquaculture is a highly regulated industry. Our experience is that the regulations are sufficient, but compliance is not good enough in all companies," Geir Ove Ystmark claimed.
"We view and have always viewed violations of regulations as unacceptable," he added. "We will also explore how we can make more information available and build a culture of transparency to gain trust in us and our operations".
This is why the national association of the Norwegian fishing and aquaculture industry came to the meeting on animal welfare at the Ministry of Fisheries with a battery of measures and provided an update on the status of ongoing work.
One example of this ongoing work is the written clarification of the emergency slaughter process that they are preparing "based on good dialogue with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority," after finding that a common factor in several recent cases was the use of bleeding boats in emergency slaughtering. Sjømat Norge thinks it will serve to ensure good compliance.
Among other things, the association organizes, shipping companies, aquaculture companies, and slaughterhouses. As a consequence of these measures, courses will now be initiated for member companies in systematic quality and risk management relevant to all risk management, including fish health, fish welfare, and food safety throughout the value chain.
Sjømat Norge said fish health and welfare, including reducing mortality, is something the industry is continuously working on, which is why a year and a half ago, it set up a top management forum to improve biosecurity, i.e., infection prevention, to reduce the chances of fish getting sick.
Now, the association has prepared an objective document on biosecurity that it is already working on for implementation in the regions. The document was presented at the meeting with Minister Myrseth. It recognizes, for example, that fish diseases can adversely affect fish welfare and therefore limiting the spread of infections is critical to the industry.
Likewise, it also recalls that the infection can be transmitted passively between aquaculture facilities through water currents or actively through the transport of fish and the movement of equipment and vessels between production units, and that, therefore, the work to reduce possible infections must be carried out jointly, between locations and companies.
In addition, in the run-up to the meeting, the CEO of Sjømat Norge also referred to the concern that these cases of irregularities and illnesses have caused among consumers. "We understand the concern that has arisen," said Ystmark. "We also see that we should have been more constructive in the way we approached the proposal for better labeling," he added in relation to the association's statements about labeling salmon disease history in early November.
Then, Arne Grøttum, Director of the association, said it was an irrational proposal. Now, Sjømat Norge has contacted the Consumer Council and requested a meeting once the necessary clarifications are available on what information can be shared with consumers, according to the marketing rules.
However, Geir Ove Ystmark wanted to emphasize that they already have a very comprehensive set of regulations and good monitoring of them, which contributes to a high level of food safety for food produced in Norway. "Norwegian regulations are the same as those in the EU," he concluded.
