Dragon Feeds’ wily worms have helped the company walk off with the Billingsgate School Sustainable Seafood Award 2009, reports Peter O’Neill.
MD Tony Smith explained how the company set out to provide anglers with farmed polychaete worms (nereis virens – ragworm). The company then expanded its farming to meet demand from aquaculture and says it can produce 30,000kg wet weight of the polychaete per hectare. What makes the worm wily is that it will eat and transform almost anything. The company believes using them in feed can offer a competitive and sustainable alternative to using fish in fishmeal. It also says polychaete in the feed brings on sexual maturity in sub-tropical shrimp and helps extend the breeding time cycle and create more eggs.
Another fish bidding for the award was farmed halibut. There were a variety of questions about whether certification of products by supermarkets and fisheries was worth the money in annual fees and why some certified companies were not using labels on some of their products. Halibut farmer Alistair Barge spelt out the certification they used: G. I. G. H. A. It’s the name of the island where his farmed halibut also sustains a small community! (www.gighahalibut.co.uk/) Their quality and controls were appreciated by buyers from Waitrose to Harrods. They did not see the need to turn to and pay someone else to certify what they, the buyers and customers know is a product good enough to satisfy the most discerning palate and sustainable conscience.
Last year’s winner, with gurnard, M&J Seafoods, has seen sales of the fish increase significantly. It was always a good seller elsewhere in Europe, so the message is simple - with a good campaign you can boost sales of most things.
There were concerns expressed by various participants during tasting over brunch and lunch of the competing fish for the final vote. They were about some of the stocks being affected for the worse because they have become a major target, paradoxically after being certified as sustainable, and now face overexploitation. To compound the paradox one skipper said emphatically that the allegedly threatened cod was out there in abundance. The view from the bridge seems clearer than that from the marketing department.
