FAO insight into cold chains, aquaculture, and fish trade

As part of the VI Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia held on 27–29 September at Expoforum in St. Petersburg, Oleg Kobiakov, Head of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, participated in two significant events: Cold Chain Eurasia International Conference for Unbroken Cold Chain and the FAO and Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) Roundtable on the outcomes of the latest sessions of FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) Sub-Committees on Aquaculture and on Fish Trade.

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Cold Chain Eurasia International Conference for Unbroken Cold Chain brought together all Russian market players engaged in the storage and transportation of food products along Eurasian transport corridors.

Head of the FAO Moscow Office Oleg Kobiakov said that FAO was originally created in 1945 to defeat hunger. “Today, there are almost 800 million hungry people, meaning that they do not eat during the day and are not sure whether they will have their daily bread the next morning. Hunger is a grim companion of every 9th person on the planet, which is, of course, unacceptable.”

“FAO has recently introduced the concept of “food systems”. In this context, food systems and logistics chains, especially cold chains, are an integral whole,” continued Oleg Kobiakov. “The current situation is such that one out of five food calories we receive crosses at least two international borders. Almost half of this huge amount of transported food raw materials and food requires refrigeration – either freezing or a special regime for ensuring temperature and humidity conditions.

For Russia and for its partners in the cold industrial chain, the refrigeration industry and refrigeration containers in the port infrastructure, modern transportation experience, multimodal transportation, and a system for accelerating international trade by facilitating customs processing and phytosanitary control due to the introduction of a paperless trade system, these are the drive belts that make it possible to reduce the transport leg, if not in distance, then at least in time.

The international labour distribution is structured in such a way that that most of the food is consumed in places different from where it is produced. An exception is probably China that has now turned into the largest producer of almost all groups of food and remains its world leading consumer. And considering the scale of this country and the existing division of labour, the Chinese market will simply be unable to function without food transportation.

The volume of food raw materials currently transported through logistics chains ranks third in the world in terms of tonnage, exceeded only by energy carriers and finished products. If you think about it, the global grain production amounts to almost three billion tonnes, the meat production is 450 million tonnes, and the total capture fish and aquaculture production exceeds 200 million tonnes. Ensuring the protection and quality of these products, cutting down energy consumption for transportation, optimizing labour, and reducing the climate footprint are all extremely important goals. The industry’s climate footprint is around 60% of the total energy footprint left on the planet by the transport sector and the food industry.

The head of the FAO Moscow Office noted that there are several areas of cooperation with the refrigeration industry and the fish sector. “Firstly, there are regulatory activities: apart from the national legislation, considerable efforts are taken to improve the international legislative framework. Secondly, there is a special focus on the regulation of product quality, which is evidenced by the standards set by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission on food standards. Thirdly, FAO provides advisory and technical assistance to its member states.”

In conclusion, Oleg Kobiakov emphasized that FAO represents the interests of consumers worldwide and is concerned with ensuring that everyone receives the required quantity of high-quality fresh fish products in a timely manner.

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Vasily Sokolov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, delivered his welcoming remarks at the FAO and VNIRO Roundtable on the outcomes of the latest sessions of the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture and the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade of the FAO Committee on Fisheries.

“To begin with, I would like to express my gratitude to the FAO Office in Russia for organizing this Roundtable. A more reliable and stable partner could hardly be wished for. I would like to thank you personally, Oleg Kobiakov, and your whole team. We appreciate all your efforts.

Russia is an important member state of FAO, the largest organization that works directly on food issues, unites multiple countries, and has every opportunity to establish links between countries in production and supply of fishery products.”

Vasily Sokolov noted, “Thanks to FAO’s vast experience and broad information base, opportunities arise to expand the range of partners. During this forum, several foreign countries became a discovery as they demonstrated an unusually rapid growth in the aquaculture segment.

Another valuable aspect of the forum was the experience of countries that found the right solutions for ensuring veterinary and sanitary security. This entire body of data of all countries becomes available largely thanks to FAO’s coordinating role.”

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During his Fisheries and Aquaculture, International Trade and the Role of FAO Governing Bodies presentation, Marcio Castro de Souza, FAO Senior Officer and Secretary of the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI–FT), highlighted the “unique importance of fisheries and aquaculture products that amount to 49% (share in USD) of the total mass of commodities sold in international markets.”

Marcio Castro de Souza continued that FAO has the Committee on Fisheries with its three sub-committees: on fish trade, on aquaculture, and on fisheries management. The latest, 19th session of COFI–FT, which was held in Bergen, Norway, in September this year, brought together delegations of 43 FAO member states.

The session discussed such topical themes regarding market access as food safety and quality; traceability and catch documentation schemes; small-scale fisheries; economic effects of Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; biodiversity conservation; and trade agreements.

In the context of market access, the session participants considered it necessary to emphasize the “importance of not having unnecessary barriers to trade”. They agreed that “it is necessary to reinforce the role of small-scale operators being able to access markets and conduct more studies involving the trade impact of IUU fishing”.

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In his presentation, Matthias Halwart, Senior Aquaculture Officer and Technical Secretary/COFI Sub-Committee on Aquaculture, highlighted the key messages of the 12th Session of the COFI Sub-Committee on Aquaculture held in May this year in the city of Hermosillo in Mexico.

The Sub-Committee highlighted the importance of aquaculture to food security and nutrition, livelihoods, economic development, and public health as well as to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reported Matthias Halwart. The Sub-Committee welcomed FAO’s Blue Transformation Roadmap, recommended that small-scale aquaculture be prioritized by FAO in its intersessional work.

The Sub-Committee appreciated the publication of the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation, Sustainable Use and Development of Aquatic Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GPA) and efforts made toward its implementation.

The Sub-Committee appreciated FAO’s work on biosecurity and aquatic animal health, recognized FAO’s work on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), recognized aquaculture as an important topic for international cooperation, encouraged FAO to make use of South-South and triangular cooperation and other collaborations, welcomed the publication of the FAO Strategy on Climate Change 2022−2031.

The Sub-Committee requested FAO develop guidance on climate change mitigation and adaptation for aquaculture.

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“Our specialists participate in the work of the FAO Committee on Fisheries and its sub-committees where a kind of encyclopaedias of fisheries are reviewed and approved, taking the form of State of Fisheries and Aquaculture reports. They are useful for both scientists and practitioners,” noted Kirill Kolonchin, Director of the Russian Federal Research Institute Of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO). “Let me also remind you about the Codex Alimentarius Commission on food standards, including fish products, which are on top of the list there.”

“Upon the suggestion of FAO, we prepared a large-scale joint FAO and VNIRO study on fishery in inland (mainly freshwater) reservoirs of the Russian Federation,” continued Kirill Kolonchin. “We presented the research at the IV Fishery Forum in September 2021. Over the entire history of Russian and foreign science, we have never done such work. This report has one vision, and that is improvement through updating data.”

“We held a joint roundtable on the topic of Small-Scale Fisheries: Challenges and Successes at this forum for two years. Understanding of the meaning of small-scale (in FAO terminology, artisanal) fisheries came together with the realization that it is connected not really with the catch as much as with the way of life of people, therefore, it is relevant for the social development of territories, even though it mainly concerns residents of the central part of Russia.

In conclusion, I would like to say that we have partnership and friendly relations with FAO, which emphasizes the importance of Russia as the FAO member.”

“As for the principles of the certification of fish products and, in particular, aquaculture, as well as the FAO guidelines for sustainable fisheries development, which are supposed to be approved next year, it apparently makes sense to strengthen the provisions on international cooperation,” Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, picked up the topic.

“This should involve, first of all, the interaction with the former USSR countries, Russia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states, where the economic component is becoming more prominent,” noted Oleg Kobiakov. “For example, the story with a huge success of aquaculture in China, with sturgeon breeding, would not have been possible without the Soviet know-how, without Russian seed material, without using Russian scientific experience, and without considering Russian practice.”

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Vladimir Belyaev, Head of the International Cooperation Department of VNIRO, also spoke at the roundtable, going into detail about the implementation of principles of sustainable aquaculture development in the Russian Federation.

 

Additional information

Expanding the aquaculture industry based on the principles of sustainable development, ensuring that the whole fisheries industry is effectively managed and that aquatic food value chains are efficiently and equitably developed, are at the core of FAO’s vision of Blue Transformation.

Fisheries and aquaculture products are among the most internationally traded food commodities, involving more than 225 countries and territories in the trade, and its volume amounts to around USD 150 billion per year.