RoundGoby hosts a workshop at the EUSBSR Annual Forum in Visby

On the agenda was a video interview with fisherman Johannes Klingvall, who founded the economic association Gute Fisk and is a commercial fisher on Gotland.

Johannes talked about what needs to change in terms of regulation and licensing, economic incentives such as subsidies and funds, and how to increase consumer demand for locally caught fish.

Cecilia Solér from University of Gothenburg then outlined four specific challenges facing Swedish small-scale coastal fishers today.

The first being Swedish authorities do not prioritise small-scale coastal fisheries, secondly, most fish on sale in supermarkets and wholesalers is not locally caught. Thirdly, there is almost no infrastructure left to process the caught fish into consumer products. On the east coast of Sweden, there are only two facilities left. The last challenge concern dioxin levels in substocks. There is a difference between different substocks of herring, however the current advice from the Food Safety Agency does not differentiate.

After some interesting input the participants joined three discussion rounds on regulation, economic incentives for small-scale coastal fishers, and how to increase consumer demand for underutilised, locally caught fish.

After some great discussions, the participants came up with the following action points:

• Make it easier to transfer fishing licenses to younger generations
• Review the current licensing system, introducing “individual transferrable licences, and part-time licenses
• More direct funds to building up infrastructure to supply locally caught fish from “sea to table”
• Introduce financial incentives to increase consumer demand for locally caught fish and underutilised fish species
• Introduce locally caught fish to kids – our pickiest consumers – at an early age. This is the next generation of sustainable blue food consumers
• Increase consumer awareness through marketing such as supermarket demonstrations, tourist “from sea to the table” tours and tasting sessions

A warm thanks to all participants attending!

Programme Manual Online

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