Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management

The EU Commission has granted just over 2.6 million euros to the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, SwAM, in order to trace fish all the way from sea to supermarket with the help of RFID technology. “This gives us the foundation needed to start working. It's also an acknowledgement that the Commission supports Sweden’s interest in introducing requirements for traceability,” says Johan Löwenadler Davidsson, director of the Inspection and Enforcement Department at SwAM.

In 2009, the EU adopted a new control regulation for the European fishing industry. The regulation outlines that fish and shellfish caught or farmed in the ocean should be traceable through every stage of its journey. The aim is to reduce the risk of illegal fishing thereby boosting fish stocks in European waters.

EU Member States are allowed to decide individually whether tracing is to be done on paper or electronically. In Sweden, SwAM is responsible for the implementation, and the choice landed on electronic tracing using Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID. This technology is already commonly used in road tolls, bus passes, library self-checkout, passports, and theft protection in stores.

“SwAM and the former Swedish Board of Fisheries has driven the issue of electronic traceability since 2010. We believe that it is a method that ensures data quality and also provides information in real time. This model builds on information that is already recorded electronically, such as electronic fisheries logbooks,” explains Davidsson.
“The big difference is that information such as where and when the fish was caught can now become easily accessible to consumers.”

Fish crates will be labeled with RFID tags that store information about the contents. Special hand-held RFID readers can then quickly and easily read a crate’s information electronically. In this manner, the fish can be constantly connected to real-time fishing activities.

SwAM tested the method in four separate projects in 2010 and 2011. The projects included 11 vessels, Skillinge Fisk-Impex, Hanssons (Gothenburg), Fiskelyckan (Gothenburg), Elite Park Avenue Hotel (Gothenburg), ICA Malmborgs (Lund), Burgårdens Educational Centre’s restaurant (Gothenburg), Gothenburg’s Fish Auction, Falkenberg Seafood, HP Nogersund, and PM Fisk (Simrishamn).

Since May 2012, SwAM has been conducting another test, this time tracing cod that is caught in the Baltic Sea and sold to Västkustfilé in the west-coast town of Varberg where it is processed for sale to Swedish supermarkets.
“We will now start with detailed planning for how the system will work and procure suppliers for the RFID technology. The goal is to complete these preliminary tasks by late autumn of this year and complete the project in 2014,” says Davidsson.

“In 2015, we hope that consumers can begin tracing the fish they buy at the store, such as via an app on their mobiles.”

  Kulturexpress   ISSN 1862-1996

     Jan 28, 2013