‘Turkish salmon': the Black Sea's new rose-coloured gold
TURKEY: Sitting in his spacious office with a view of the Black Sea, Tayfun Denizer smiles: his rainbow trout, raised in submerged cages, have made him a wealthy man.
'Our exports surged from $500,000 in 2017 to $86 million last year, and this is just the beginning,' said Denizer, general manager of Polifish, one of the Black Sea's main producers of what is marketed as 'Turkish salmon'.
In its infancy just a decade ago, production of trout -- which in Turkey is almost exclusively farmed for export -- has exploded in line with the global demand for salmon, despite criticism of the intensive aquaculture required to farm it.
Last year, the country exported more than 78,000 tonnes of trout raised in its cooler northern Black Sea waters, a figure 16 times higher than in 2018.
And it brought in almost $498 million for Turkish producers, a number set to increase but is still far from the $12.8 billion netted by Norwegian salmon and trout giants in the same year.
Russia, which banned Norwegian salmon in 2014 after the West imposed sanctions over its annexation of Crimea, accounts for 74.1 percent of 'Turkish salmon' exports, followed by Vietnam with 6.0 percent, and then Belarus, Germany and Japan.
- 'Spectacular success' -
Stale Knudsen, an anthropologist at Norway's Bergen University and a specialist on Black Sea fishing, said Russia offered 'an available market that was easy to access, near Turkey'.
For him, the 'spectacular success' of trout is also down to Turkey's experience and the technology used in farming sea bass and sea bream, a field in which it leads Europe.
Turkish producers have also benefitted from the country's large number of reservoirs where the fish are a raised for several months before being transferred to the Black Sea.
There, the water temperature -- which stays below 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit) between October and June -- allows the fish to reach 2.5 to 3.0 kilogrammes (5.5-6.6 pounds) by the time they are harvested.
Last, but not least, is the price.
'Our 'salmon' is about 15 to 20 percent cheaper than Norwegian salmon,' said Ismail Kobya, deputy general manager of Akerko, a sector heavyweight that mainly exports to Japan and Russia.
'The species may be different but in terms of taste, colour and flesh quality, our fish is superior to Norwegian salmon, according to our Japanese clients,' Kobya told AFP at Akerko's headquarters near the northeastern town of Trabzon, where a Turkish flag flies alongside those of Russia and Japan.
Inside, a hundred or so employees in long blue waterproofs, green head coverings and rubber boots behead, gut, clean and debone trout that has an Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification for responsible farming practises.
- Disease risks -
'Over the last two years, many Turkish producers have moved to get those certifications,' said Knudsen, though he does not believe such labels are always a guarantee of sustainability.
'I think the rationale behind that is not only to become more sustainable, but is more importantly a strategy to try to enter the European markets... where the Norwegians have some kind of control,' he said.
In a 2024 study, researchers from a Turkish public institute raised concerns that 'the rapid growth of the trout farming sector... led to an uncontrolled decline in the survival rate' of the fish.
Pointing to the 'spread of diseases' and 'improper breeding management', the researchers found that nearly 70 percent of the trout were dying prematurely.
Polifish, which also has an ASC certification, acknowledged a mortality rate of around 50 percent of their fish stocks, predominantly in the reservoirs.
'When the fish are small, their immune systems aren't fully working,' said its deputy general manager Talha Altun.
Akerko for its part claims to have 'reached a stage where we have almost no disease'.
'In our Black Sea cages, the mortality rate is lower than five percent, but these are farming operations and anything can happen,' Kobya said.
- 'Fake fish' -
Visible from the shore, the fish farms have attracted the wrath of local fishermen worried about the cages, which have a 50-metre (165-foot) diameter, being set up where they cast their nets to catch anchovy, mackerel and bonito.
Mustafa Kuru, head of a local fishermen's union, is a vocal opponent of a farming project that has been set up in his fishing zone just 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the Georgian border.
'The cages block the movement of the fish and what happens then? The fish start leaving the area,' he said, accusing the trout farmers of pumping chemicals into their 'fake fish'.
He said a lack of fish stocks in the area had already forced two boats from his port to cast their nets much further afield -- off the western coast of Africa.
'If the fish leave, our boats will end up going to rack and ruin in our ports,' he warned.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Norway to meet 5% NATO goal on defence, security spending, prime minister says
OSLO (Reuters) -Norway plans to raise overall spending on defence and broader security to 5% of gross domestic product, its prime minister said on Friday, in line with a planned common goal among NATO states. Europe is scrambling to boost defences against a potential Russian attack after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump made clear that the United States was no longer willing to be the main guarantor of Europe's security. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has proposed that member nations should each agree to aim for spending 5% of their gross domestic product on defence and broader security measures when they meet from June 24-25 in The Hague. "We must do more to secure our country and contribute to our common security with our allies in NATO," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a press conference on Friday. "Security for Norway is about having a defence that is reliable, that has the right equipment, enough people and good plans," he added. Norway, which shares a border with Russia, plans to spend 3.5% of GDP on traditional defence, including its financial support to Ukraine's military, and a further 1.5% on broader security, in line with Rutte's proposal, he said. Norway in 2024 spent an estimated 2.2% of GDP on defence, up from a low of 1.4% in 2022, the national statistics agency (SSB) said in April, and the government said in May it aims to spend 3.3% in 2025. The Nordic country will probably reach the 5% spending target sometime in the years following 2030, depending on decisions made at next week's NATO summit, the prime minister said. Asked about Spain's request to opt out of NATO's 5% plan, Stoere said he assumed that work would be done to reach a consensus at next week's summit. Norway is the only country in Europe that can finance increased military spending without having to borrow more, as it has a near $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, at its disposal. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo and Isabelle Yr Carlsson in Copenhagen; Writing by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Stine Jacobsen and Kate Mayberry)
The Sun
8 hours ago
- The Sun
‘Turkish salmon': the Black Sea's new rose-coloured gold
TURKEY: Sitting in his spacious office with a view of the Black Sea, Tayfun Denizer smiles: his rainbow trout, raised in submerged cages, have made him a wealthy man. 'Our exports surged from $500,000 in 2017 to $86 million last year, and this is just the beginning,' said Denizer, general manager of Polifish, one of the Black Sea's main producers of what is marketed as 'Turkish salmon'. In its infancy just a decade ago, production of trout -- which in Turkey is almost exclusively farmed for export -- has exploded in line with the global demand for salmon, despite criticism of the intensive aquaculture required to farm it. Last year, the country exported more than 78,000 tonnes of trout raised in its cooler northern Black Sea waters, a figure 16 times higher than in 2018. And it brought in almost $498 million for Turkish producers, a number set to increase but is still far from the $12.8 billion netted by Norwegian salmon and trout giants in the same year. Russia, which banned Norwegian salmon in 2014 after the West imposed sanctions over its annexation of Crimea, accounts for 74.1 percent of 'Turkish salmon' exports, followed by Vietnam with 6.0 percent, and then Belarus, Germany and Japan. - 'Spectacular success' - Stale Knudsen, an anthropologist at Norway's Bergen University and a specialist on Black Sea fishing, said Russia offered 'an available market that was easy to access, near Turkey'. For him, the 'spectacular success' of trout is also down to Turkey's experience and the technology used in farming sea bass and sea bream, a field in which it leads Europe. Turkish producers have also benefitted from the country's large number of reservoirs where the fish are a raised for several months before being transferred to the Black Sea. There, the water temperature -- which stays below 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit) between October and June -- allows the fish to reach 2.5 to 3.0 kilogrammes (5.5-6.6 pounds) by the time they are harvested. Last, but not least, is the price. 'Our 'salmon' is about 15 to 20 percent cheaper than Norwegian salmon,' said Ismail Kobya, deputy general manager of Akerko, a sector heavyweight that mainly exports to Japan and Russia. 'The species may be different but in terms of taste, colour and flesh quality, our fish is superior to Norwegian salmon, according to our Japanese clients,' Kobya told AFP at Akerko's headquarters near the northeastern town of Trabzon, where a Turkish flag flies alongside those of Russia and Japan. Inside, a hundred or so employees in long blue waterproofs, green head coverings and rubber boots behead, gut, clean and debone trout that has an Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification for responsible farming practises. - Disease risks - 'Over the last two years, many Turkish producers have moved to get those certifications,' said Knudsen, though he does not believe such labels are always a guarantee of sustainability. 'I think the rationale behind that is not only to become more sustainable, but is more importantly a strategy to try to enter the European markets... where the Norwegians have some kind of control,' he said. In a 2024 study, researchers from a Turkish public institute raised concerns that 'the rapid growth of the trout farming sector... led to an uncontrolled decline in the survival rate' of the fish. Pointing to the 'spread of diseases' and 'improper breeding management', the researchers found that nearly 70 percent of the trout were dying prematurely. Polifish, which also has an ASC certification, acknowledged a mortality rate of around 50 percent of their fish stocks, predominantly in the reservoirs. 'When the fish are small, their immune systems aren't fully working,' said its deputy general manager Talha Altun. Akerko for its part claims to have 'reached a stage where we have almost no disease'. 'In our Black Sea cages, the mortality rate is lower than five percent, but these are farming operations and anything can happen,' Kobya said. - 'Fake fish' - Visible from the shore, the fish farms have attracted the wrath of local fishermen worried about the cages, which have a 50-metre (165-foot) diameter, being set up where they cast their nets to catch anchovy, mackerel and bonito. Mustafa Kuru, head of a local fishermen's union, is a vocal opponent of a farming project that has been set up in his fishing zone just 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the Georgian border. 'The cages block the movement of the fish and what happens then? The fish start leaving the area,' he said, accusing the trout farmers of pumping chemicals into their 'fake fish'. He said a lack of fish stocks in the area had already forced two boats from his port to cast their nets much further afield -- off the western coast of Africa. 'If the fish leave, our boats will end up going to rack and ruin in our ports,' he warned.
New Straits Times
15 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Israel: Iran's Khamenei 'can no longer exist' after hospital attack
JERUSALEM: Israel's defence minister warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war. As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base. Meanwhile Russia, an Iranian ally, told the United States that joining the conflict would be an "extremely dangerous step." Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy last week, triggering deadly exchanges. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Katz told reporters. "He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist." The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis, 20 months into the Gaza war. Hospital director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured at the Soroka, where an evacuated surgical building was hit leaving smoke billowing. "Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital," he told journalists at the site. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities "appalling", while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as "collateral damage." People fleeing the attacks on Iran described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access. "Those days and nights were very horrifying... hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles," University of Tehran student Mohammad Hassan told AFP, after returning to his native Pakistan. "People are really panicking," a 50-year-old Iranian pharmacist who did not want to be named told AFP at the Kapikoy crossing on the Turkish border. "Yesterday the internet stopped and two major banks were hacked so people couldn't access their money. And there's not even enough food." Khamenei has rejected Trump's demand for an "unconditional surrender", despite the president's claim that Iran wants to negotiate. Trump has been deliberately vague about joining the conflict, saying Wednesday: "I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. "The next week is going to be very big," he added, without further details. Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, using specially developed bunker-busting bombs. The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides on Tuesday he had approved attack plans but was holding off to see if Iran would give up its nuclear programme. The US president had favoured a diplomatic route to end Iran's nuclear programme, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 agreement he tore up in his first term. But since Israel unleashed the campaign against Iran last week, Trump has stood behind the key US ally. In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that any US military intervention would have "truly unpredictable negative consequences." On Thursday, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. The Israeli military said the Arak site in central Iran had been hit "to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development." There was a "near-total national internet blackout" in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran's Fars news agency confirming tighter internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week. An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday. Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Netanyahu's office said on Monday. Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent – far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead. Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.--AFP
