AquAgriS Project Workshop on by-product utilization

AquAgriS Project Workshop – Università del Salento – Lecce – Italy – 11th & 12th, June 2008

The AquAgriS Project, which is funded by the European Commission under the FP6 “Food Quality and Safety” initiative, is researching where the European Union and selected countries are - with respect to the legislation and research activities in the management of waste materials produced by the farming, fisheries and aquaculture industries.  The project has 27 partners, mostly from European countries, but also including representatives from Israel and India.

The project has already discovered that the term “waste” is probably inappropriate, as a “waste” from one industry is a raw material for another, e.g. fish heads and discards are a base material for reprocessing and creating other products.  This means that waste has considerable interest to many industries, but to harness this raw material requires additional research to fully exploit this potentially valuable resource. 

Here, AquAgriS is contacting researchers throughout Europe and other states to assess their specific areas of research, and to create a network of like-minded researchers enabling future developments for “waste” utilisation.

AquAgriS also recognises that the legislation that controls and influences these activities is currently fragmented, and has a range of targets that are commonly not met, not enforced, or are too stringent without commonality in EU States, and as such create unfair competition within the EU.  At the recent workshop and meetings held in conjunction with the Bremen Fisch International Exhibition in Germany, this was underlined by the presentations from participants from Germany, Italy, India, Finland, Iceland, Spain and Israel.  The legislative framework exists, but there are considerable needs for clarity and harmonisation when it comes to the use of the “commonly owned” resource of water – both in cases of imissions and emissions.

To assist the aquaculture sector in Europe, the coordinator of AquAgriS, the University of Salento, will be holding an open technology transfer workshop in the University during June – 11th & 12th.  The workshop will have several guest speakers who specialise in the field of waste water and waste water management, as well as speakers from the AquAgriS project who will report of specific issues researched by the project.  The workshop will be open to all who have specific interests in aquaculture and fisheries and will be free to all participants. 

For further information on the workshop content, accommodation and how to get there, contact Vincenzo Zonno at vincenzo.zonno@unile.it or visit www.aquagris.org