Plenary speakers named for Aquaculture Europe 25
The future of regenerative aquaculture, the impact of genomics on fish farming and the changing habits of seafood consumers are the topics that will be addressed by keynote speakers at Aquaculture Europe 25 in Valencia this September.
The three plenary addresses at Aquaculture Europe, the annual conference of the European Aquaculture Society, will be given this year by Dr Carlos M. Duarte of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in Saudi Arabia; Dr. Elisabetta Giuffra of the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France; and Joan Riera, of market research organisation Kantar Worldpanel.
Dr Carlos M. Duarte is the Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology at KAUST, and Executive Director of the Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform (CORDAP.org) and CEO of the CORDAP Foundation. Before this he was Research Professor with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Director of the Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia. He also holds an honorary professor position at the Arctic Research Center in Aarhus University, Denmark.
In the first plenary session, on 23 September, he will argue that regenerative aquaculture, defined as an aquaculture practice that increases economic, social, cultural and natural capital, is an essential underpinning to fast track progress toward sustainability goals. He will elaborate on how the aquaculture practice can be regenerative and describe the benefits from a transition of the industry to a renewable paradigm for planetary and human health.
Dr Duarte will also describe the roadblocks, including scientific, governance, and market challenges, that need be overcome to achieve this necessary transition.
The application of genomics
In the second plenary session, on 24 September, Dr Elisabetta Giuffra will give a talk on “Leveraging the value of functional genome annotations and refined phenotypes.”
Dr Giuffra holds a research director position at the GABI Unit of Paris-Saclay University, INRAE, AgroParisTech in Jouy-en-Josas, France. In recent years she has been working in the field of host (pig)-virus interactions by transcriptional genomics approaches and in the context of the functional annotation of farm species genomes for genotype-to-phenotype research.
She is co-leader of the international Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) initiative and has coordinated the H2020 FAANG project GENE-SWitCH (2019-2023).
The consumer perspective
On Day 3, 25 September, Joan Riera will address the question: “What’s happening with seafood consumption ?”
The latest Eurobarometer report from the European Commission reveals a decline in seafood consumption across the European Union (EU). Only 29% of Europeans consume fishery and aquaculture products at least once a week at home, a figure that has dropped compared to previous years. However, Spain remains an exception to this trend, leading the EU in seafood consumption.
So what is happening? Is price the only driver? Is this a growing concern for us all?
Joan Riera is the Director of Client Service at the Barcelona office of Kantar Worldpanel, a global leader with over 60 years of experience in studying consumer behaviour. Joan and his team advise local and global food clients, working closely with marketing and sales departments to uncover actionable recommendations for growing their businesses.
Aquaculture Europe 2025 takes place in Valencia, Spain over 22-25 September. For more information, see the event website at www.aquaeas.org
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