International organization Eurofish, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has launched its website www.eurofish.dk featuring regular market reports and a new shop interface.

The site is based on a content management system tailored specifically to Eurofish requirements that gives it a smart new look and makes the site easier to navigate. New features include a more versatile shop function with all the latest Eurofish publications, Eurofish member country information, regularly updated commodity market reports with the option of signing up for a message whenever a new report is released.

Eurofish Director John Ryder said “As an organization in the information exchange business Eurofish wants to make use of the best available information-sharing technologies. The new website gives significant advantages in the reach achieved by material presented on the web, offers a richness of information that cannot be matched by more traditional methods and allows the possibility to create relationships with customers.”

The new website is designed to reflect the objectives and functions of the organisation and to act as a gateway to accurate and up-to-date information on member countries and their fisheries sectors, technical issues such as HACCP and traceability, news and market data. The website will be a key tool in the promotion and distribution of Eurofish publications as well as an e-learning initiative to be launched in the near future.

The new website will also emphasise the relationships and exchange of information between the FISH INFOnetwork, a globe-spanning network of six organisations backed by the Fisheries Department at FAO Headquarters in Rome.

Eurofish is the successor organization to FAO EASTFISH which was a service initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concentrating on the post-harvest fisheries and aquaculture sectors to assist the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries after the political changes of the 1990’s. This programme, “Fish Marketing and Information Service for Eastern European Countries” started in June 1996 with funding from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (MFAF) of the Kingdom of Denmark. The project has been implemented in 2 phases – Phase 1 from June 1996 to November 1999, and Phase II from December 1999 to June 2003.

Twenty countries are members of EASTFISH: Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

A major goal of the project was to become established as a self-financing international organisation to continue the work of EASTFISH and provide a long-term service to the development of fisheries in CEE - the new organisation Eurofish.

For more information contact: Behnan Thomas, Eurofish: Behnan.Thomas@eurofish.dk; Website: www.eurofish.dk