Minister of Fisheries Svein Ludvigsen

Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasure for me to be here in Sao Paulo, and to address to so many experts on the aquaculture and fisheries sector. I am grateful to be given the opportunity to open this seminar and to share with you some of my thoughts on the aquaculture sector and the future.

I will also take the opportunity – once more - to give you the warmest congratulations on your newly established Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries here in Brazil.

I would also like to thank the NORUT group for arranging this seminar. This makes it possible to come together and exchange experience, knowledge and to express views, about the past, the present and more important - the future. I have noticed some of the next speakers on the list here today, and I am convinced we will hear some very interesting and up to date speeches!

Brazil and Norway share the same resource situation in terms of a long coastline and vast sea areas. These national advantages give both our countries excellent opportunities to play important parts in the developing of the aquaculture and fisheries sector. The fact that your eco systems hold more than 5.000 species represents in itself a great potential for future candidates within aquaculture. Further - 8.500-kilometre coastline offer ideal conditions for aquaculture projects!

I am also very impressed with your latest production results! From 3.000 tonnes produced farmed shrimp in 1997 to some 47.000 tonnes in 2001! And the tilapia has achieved equal numbers recent years. A 26 per cent annual growth rate for the aquaculture sector in total represents an impressive growth!

The combination of rich natural resources and lately - the development within the industry - should set the scene for a considerable new industrial sector!

And within this business – things can develop quickly! This is something the Norwegian fish farming industry knows all about. Only thirty years have gone by since a couple of Norwegians did their first attempts to grow salmon in a net cage in the sea. On the other side; in no more than thirty years has Norwegian aquaculture grown from close to nothing into a thriving modern industry .

The salmon and trout industry, which are our main aquaculture export products, represented in 2002 about one third of the total export value of our seafood, and in numbers about 1,4 billion dollars. For a small country like Norway this represents a substantial value, and fish was in fact on of the largest export articles. This also makes Norway the largest exporter of Atlantic Salmon. We export to more than 130 countries.

There are numbers of reasons for this success but most importantly it is our long and clean coastline with large potential for marine production that has made this possible. Other important factors is:

• Long and clean coastline with large potential for marine production
• Good public infrastructure
• Predictable and stable regulation regime
• Globally competitive expertise
• Innovative thinking and creativity, based on an exchange of expertise

As we see – there are many reasons for our success, and I am sure I have not mentioned all of them either. I will not further deepen these reasons either, as I believe Mr Atle G. Mortensen will go further into this later on. But it pictures in a good way that a success within an industrial sector is always complex, and so also for the fish farming history of Norway.

Within this picture - as the Minister for Fisheries - I see my primary task to contribute and to arrange for the aquaculture sector, so that the value added in the marine sector can be triggered. I must emphasize the importance of promoting the industry rather than restraining it. “Wealth creation” is my main objective.

In this respect - the Government of Norway is very much concerned to create and to carry out a policy. A policy, which is innovation- and research orientated. A policy, which makes it possible to obtain the value added potential within the marine sector.

An example to picture this is the fact that the Government of Norway has agreed upon to focus on the development of fish farmed cod. A relatively new domesticated specie for fish farming in Norway. And the late situation we have experienced in Norway, with low salmon prices and several subsequent bankruptcies, shows in all respects how vulnerable the salmon industry in Norway is. And further - how important it is to develop multiplicity within the aquaculture sector.

A centre for economic analysis has forecasted the future development for the marine sector in Norway. Under certain conditions they have forecasted a growth within the seafood export value from $ 5 billion in year 2000 to 14 billion within year 2020. The fish farmed cod should alone represent more than $ 1,4 billion of the total 14 billion. This gives us a hint of what great potential that lays within the aqua culture sector.

Never the less - there is lots to learn and to benefit from the salmon industry, not at least in terms of technology and infrastructure. In other words, there are lots to learn from the aquaculture industry of today! And this is something I would like to emphasize in an audience as I stand in front of here today.

Not only is it possible for the newly established fish farmed cod industry in Norway to utilize from the already established salmon industry! This is also something a newly established aquaculture nation, like Brazil, could benefit from. I find it as our common duty to contribute with our knowledge in a way that can jointly benefit our two nations.

I think we all can agree on – that aquaculture holds many possibilities, and of course many challenges!

The most important challenges Norway experiences are:

The implementing of sustainable principles in every regulation we introduce to the aquaculture sector

To ensure that sea food products are safe to eat

To arrange for market access

But it is important to realize that the modern aquaculture is at an early stage of development and I am absolutely convinced that we have only seen the very start of what this sector will offer in the future!

In closing, I wish for all of you to have both informative and inspiring time during this seminar!

Thank you for your attention!