Welcome speech by Professor Carmelo Agius
Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, delegates, ladies and gentlemen
Good morning to you to all and welcome.
It is indeed my honour and pleasure to welcome you to this workshop on aquaculture. I have, of course, attended numerous aquaculture events like this but none gives me more pleasure than this one since this is the first ever workshop or conference of international stature to be hosted by Malta. This reflects the importance the present government through our minister present here is giving to aquaculture development. This also happens to be the first regional scientific activity to be hosted under the second phase of MEDRAP the Mediterranean Region Aquaculture Project which is a UNDP project.
A decade ago we were saying that aquaculture development in the Mediterranean is severely handicapped by the lack of technology with producing juvenile fish on an industrial scale. Now we have bass and bream hatcheries producing millions or at least so they say because in a good number of cases talk and facts are far from Italy. Appropriately enough therefore this workshop will try to plot the route as to future research and development in order to introduce new species, new techniques and even new types of fish products on the markets. This will further enhance flexibility and variety on the markets two distinct advantages aquaculture offers over traditional wild fisheries. Research and development take years to achieve commercial realisation so this workshop is being organised with a great deal of foresight at a time when prices of the established species ie bass and bream are still relatively high. I hope we have learnt the lesson from elsewhere where everproduction of salmon for instance lead to a price collapse and the industry was not prepared to buffer such a shock.
To successfully culture any organism under artificial conditions which is what aquaculture is all about one needs to be fully conversant with the biology of the species. It is the first step that this workshop will be mainly concerned with. Technological innovations must then be tailored around this prerequisite. Very often fish farmers may be very good at growing fish but totally unprepared for marketing. The first commandment of this business is don't grow it if you can't sell it. This workshop will therefore touch also on the marketing aspect.
Well we have a busy week ahead of us and with so many distinguished speakers a successful outcome is guaranteed. I trust you all have a pleasant stay in Malta and a very good workshop. If you do I don't mind taking the credit; if you don't you blame the people who have done all the hard work, namely Ministry staff, the Director for Agriculture and Fisheries Dr. Anthony Scicluna Spiteri and particularly Lucienne Gassar and Carmelo Galea.
It is now my pleasure to invite Mr. Akrout the Project Coordinator for MEDRAP II to address the workshop.
WORKSHOP ON DIVERSIFICATION OF AQUACULTURE
MALTA 1 – 7 JULY 1991
OPENING SESSION : SPEECH OF HASSEN AKROUT
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Honourable Minister,
Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to participate to the opening of this workshop which deals with a highly important theme.
Diversification of aquaculture products, as you should know, is in fact, particularly important because of its impact on the development of aquaculture production and of its economic aspects.
This theme is also important because of its contibution to food security and self-sufficiency which constitute two of the leitmotiv of the FAO and also of our project.
During this workshop, we have tried to group some scientists from our region, so that they can exchange ideas about their experiments and try to come out with the most suitable conclusions and recommendations.
We will listen to communications, on experiments which are on going, and others which have already given their results; so that we will all learn from one another and the results of our exchange can only be positive and beneficial for the Mediterranean.
This forum of highly competent scientists can be also considered as the first step on the constitution of the research sub-network. So that I invite you, on going back home, to start thinking about the conception and the mechanism of this sub-network which will be the object of a seminar to be held in Cyprus in October 1991.
I will not go into technical details since there are people who are more qualified to do it, and I am sure they will do it well, but, I have to think in a particular way, the host country, Malta : Government, and particularly the honorable Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, institutions and especially all the personnel of National Aquaculture Centre and at their head Professor AGIUS, for the perfect organization and the effort they have made to have this workshop be a success and to provide it with the best conditions.
I also have to thank all of you for coming and having your communications ready, which will contribute to the success of our endeavour.
My thanks are also addressed to Mr. GASUOUT, the Sub-regional Coordinator, and to the National Coordinators for the effort they have made in selecting the participants, and in chosing the most competent among them. I am particularly glad for the number of candidates we have had and I am sorry if we could not select more than one participant per country for reasons you know, I mean the lack of money.
You will also allow me to thank Mr. FERLIN, the Coordinator of MEDRAP in its phase I, who is representing here IFREMER, for his helpful and very positive personal contribution, and also for all he has made on behalf of France, which is until now, the only associated country bringing its full support out the project and I hope the other associated namely, Italy, Spain and Greece, will joint in this project and support its activities generously.
Thanks, again to the honourable Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, for his high interest as evidenced by his attendence to this opening of our workshop.
Finally, I wish you full success in your work and hope that this workshop will contribute to the development of aquaculture in our region.
Points For Minister's speech on the occasion of the opening of the MEDRAP workshop on diversification in aquaculture
Delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure this morning to launch this workshop on diversification in aquaculture under the auspices of MEDRAP. Aquaculture is rapidly expanding through the Mediterranean region; this expansion is necessitated by the increasing demand for fresh fish coupled with the decreasing wild fish catches. Such expansion has been made possible by the establishment of industrial scale production of marine fish fry such as sea bass and sea bream. The relatively warm waters of our sea ensures year round fast growth rates in most regions and therefore the potential is considerable even if pollution and restricted water exchange pose restrictions on such prospects.
So far the emphasis has been on sea bass and sea bream and it is natural that interest will at some stage be diverted to other species to increase the variety of products for the consumer. This workshop is therefore most timely in its execution; it will give you experts an opportunity to share views on your experiences and future plans in the regard. This cooperation should result in planned developed for the region
Looking through the list of new species which you plan to be discussing it is clear that exciting possibilities exist. It is important to keep in mind production costs; in the Mediterranean we are still seeking to develop species which are widely accepted and at the same time having reasonable production costs. We cannot go on forever catering only for the high class tourist markets as has been the case so far with sea bass and sea bream. It is only when the average Mediteranean citizen can afford to buy our farmed products that we can reduce our dependence on imports of fish products from other parts of the world.
Like all other Mediterranean countries the Maltese Government recognises the potential of developing aquaculture as a new industrial sector and since taking office the present administration has done all it can to promote this sector viz.,
The Industrial Development Act is being amended to enable potential investors in this sector to benefit from the incentives offered through the Malta Development corporation.
A National aquaculture Centre was set up in order to provide a focus for these developments; I'm sure you will find your visit there most interesting.
Malta is very actively participating in international activities in this sphere, it is therefore with great satisfaction that today we are witnessing the inauguration of the first ever international workshop on aquaculture and we hope this will be the first of many.
The efforts of UNDP in this MEDRAP initiatives is much appreciated by the maltese authorities and this being the first activity organised in the framework of MEDRAPII we wish MEDRAPH success in its endeavours. Indeed the maltese Government was prepared to participate even more actively in MEDRAP. It offered to host the regional and subregional centres when the project was in its formative phase. Unfortunately Malta did not benefit much from MEDRAPI since at the time aquaculture in Malta was not given priority, but now we are determined to make up for all that lost ground. The United Nations who are sponsoring this project can rest assured of all our cooperation in these worthwhile activities.
Malta's potential in the field of aquaculture is, of course, considerable even though land is at a premium. The aim is to concentrate on intensive systems which do not require vast areas with particular emphasis on offshore fish farming to maximise use of our resources. It is therefore with great interest and anticipation that we wait to hear what the experts have to say and we trust that all delegates feel at the end of it that it has been well worth it. On our part we will do all we can to make your stay here a memorable one. I have the honour of declaring this workshop open.
