INFOPESCA Internacional 29

”Our policies are not of welfare work; instead they are oriented to organize the sector”
Interview with Altemir Gregolín, Special Secretary of Fisheries, Brazil
What will happen when Brazil becomes a world fishing and aquaculture power? Some believe that this country will be able to respond for the increasing world demand. So far, Brazilian governments are becoming aware of the country’s huge potential, and taking measures that had been delayed until now, like the creation of a Special Secretary, with the same political range of a Ministry. Dr. Altemir Gregolín, a veterinarian specialized in rural development and managing, who was born in Santa Catarina, took over in April 2006, though he had closely collaborated with his predecesor, José Fritsch.

“Doomed to be understood”. Ecuador develops a new model for official quality assurance
By Francisco Blaha
Being Ecuador one of the main seafood exporters in the Latin American region, its processing sector received the visit of a group of EU inspectors by the end of 2005. Their final report indicated that the official system of quality assurance should be updated, in order to keep on exporting to the EU countries. Thus, both the government and the industry found that they were forced to develop a nation-wide plan, which could assure the equivalence with the EU standards that would be in force since 2006. One of the plan designers describe it in detail.

Do you know where your food comes from? Traceability in shrimp production
By Leonardo S. Maridueña (Inspectorate America Corporation)
“From farm to consumer”, “traceability”, and other similar terms, are synonymous that reflect a new reality. In these distraught times, the concern on the origin and nature of food is increasing, and so is the demand for detailed information. The author presents the definitions from different regulating agencies and brings the concept into the shrimp industry, where he has been a technical advisor for many years.

Japanese market for sashimi and non-sashimi tuna
by Kazuo Shima
The Japanese tuna market is categorised into sashimi, katsuobushi and canned tuna markets. The market for sashimi tuna, is by far the most important in terms of used volumes. In turn the katsuobushi market stagnated in recent years, causing an effect on the purse seine fishery, which practically depended on it. As a result, tuna fishermen are forced to look for alternate markets.

Quality auditing in aquaculture. HACCP verification in Cuba
By Marlen González,Maritza Linares y Mirtha Ruíz
Quality auditing were implemented as a method for HACCP verification at aquaculture, processing and trading units in Cuba. At national scale, all those units the constitute the company- group called INDIPES. HACCP had been already implemented for many years to satisfy the requirements of the international markets. The article describes all the steps from the beginning to the present times.

Free Trade Agreements and their impact on seafood trade
Byr Helga Josupeit
An overview of many free trade agreements are described in this article, together with some import-duty concessions signed by the USA, the EU and Japan with third countries. For the EU, the most important multi-lateral FTA are those signed with the European Free Trade Area (Norway, Switzerland and Iceland), with Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countrie (ACP) and with Mediterranean countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, and Jordan). The USA is in the process of bi-lateral FTA signatures with many countries, while Japanese negotiatons with third countries, though started only very recently, are rapidly expanding.