Around 400 people from over 40 countries attended the biennial IAFI world seafood congress in St. John’s hosted by the Marine Institute.

Prior to the congress two full days of workshops were organised some of which took place at the Marine Institute covering diverse things such as trawling, water quality, bio-processing etc and others at the Delta Hotel conference centre. 

The IAFI regional workshops covering Asia, Africa and South America were all well attended with a constant theme running through all them, the increasing burden of regulation which was hampering access to new and emerging markets and the burden of ever increasing audits to satisfy the demands of the various customers.

IAFI also put on a well-attended workshop at MI to showcase the skills that will be in evidence at the next WSC due to take place in Grimsby in September 2015. This was jointly run by Gary Hooper, consultant to Tesco and CJ Jackson CEO of the Billingsgate Seafood Training School.

The main theme for the congress was Creative Solutions to Global Challenges with five thematic areas covering food safety and inspection, seafood sustainability, seafood innovation, profitable seafood markets and seafood and health.

The president of IAFI, Chris Leftwich, opened the main congress before chairing the opening plenary session at which delegates heard presentations from Glenn Blackwood, the vice president of Memorial University (the marine institute), Galen Weston CEO of Loblaw (the largest food retailer in Canada), the Honourable Derrick Dalley, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister for Newfoundland and Labrador and Cameron Prince Vice President of the Canadian Fish Inspection Agency.

The plenary on the second day was chaired by Tim Hansen, president elect IAFI with presentations by Dr George Rose of the Marine Institute, Dr Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington and Dr Iddya Karunasangar of the FAO.

Dr Mike Dillon, past-president IAFI chaired the final plenary session which had presentations from Anita Barker, the Chair of the Humber Seafood Institute, Ian Smith CEO of Clearwater and Steffen Kaiser of UNIDO.

On each day following the plenaries there were three concurrent sessions which proved somewhat challenging for delegates but the organising committee felt that this was necessary in order to ensure that all the areas were adequately covered.

The level of presentations throughout the whole congress were of the highest standard with many delegates saying that this had been the best ever congress. All of the presentations will be made available to IAFI members on the IAFI web site in the near future.

Delegates had plenty of time to interact during the breaks and at the social events which accompanied the congress.

After the congress dinner IAFI president, Chris Leftwich and past president Dr Mike Dillon presented the IAFI special recognition awards to Claire Winkel, Randy Rice, Cecilia Solis Fernandez and Dr Ken Lum for their outstanding contributions towards raising standards throughout the seafood industry.

Awards were also made to the students who entered their work into the student poster competition. Each student was presented with a book and certificate, with the winning poster also receiving a cash prize of $500.

IAFI president Chris Leftwich closed the congress following a presentation by Paul Williams CEO of Seafish on the next congress which is due to take place in Grimsby in September 2015. 

After the congress closure the IAFI General Meeting took place at which Chris Leftwich handed over the presidency of IAFI to Tim Hansen of NOAA. Also appointed to the executive board of IAFI were Carey Bonnell who has assumed the position of president elect, Christopher Horeau and  Randy Rice. A couple of new positions were made on the regional board which enabled Claire Winkel to be appointed as director of sustainability issues and John Heap to be appointed as membership and web site manager.

Following the congress a one day study tour was organised to visit the family run business, Quinlans. This company is a supplier of cold water prawns to such eminent clients as Marks and Spencers in the UK. The Company also has a factory supplying snow crab on the same site. The delegates who attended the study tour were given a presentation about the Company before being taken on a full guided tour of both factories.

Chris Leftwich

Outgoing President

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