Croatian fish farmer Riba Mljet will next year reach its annual production target of 200 tonnes at which point the organic producer of seabass, seabream and meagre will cap its output.
Speaking at the Offshore Mariculture Conference held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Riba Mljet general manager Ana Milina told delegates that the farm’s owners decided long ago to put the 200-tonne maximum limit on production. Production this year is expected to top 150 tonnes.
“Despite the popularity of our fish, the owners don’t want us producing any more than 200 tonnes,” said Milina. “The idea was never to make huge profits.”
Riba Mljet has the only organic-certified fish farm in Croatia. The company’s site is in the bay of Sobra on the island of Mljet, located in the southern Dalmatian Adriatic Sea.
Half financed by foreign investors – people who originated from Croatia but who are now living in the US and the Netherlands, the idea behind the farm was to help provide a source of income for Sobra’s local community. The island has a population of less than 1,000 people.
The company was founded in 1995 but its organic production of seabass, seabream and meagre started in 2006 in collaboration with the Swiss institute FIBL.
Milina said the company received no help from the local government or the Croatian mainland in turning the farm over to organic production. “We wanted to do it ourselves,” she said.
Depending on where the fish are sold, Milinia said Riba Mljet gets 30-40% more for its organic fish than regular bass or bream, but she added that the organic feed – in this case from Israel-based Raanan Fish Feed – is considerably more expensive.
Riba Mljet mainly targets German-speaking markets, such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It also puts a significant amount of its fish into the US.
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