Good practice:

Centre for Aquaculture Consultancy Services to assist fish farmers on legal and technical matters

The Fish Culture Research and Development Station Nucet is a research institute that supports the Romanian aquaculture industry and fish farmers.
The launch of a Centre for advice and consultancy for aquaculturists was based on the need to create a formal mechanism that would allow the transfer of technology to fish farmers and to assist them in ensuring that their projects conformed to all the relevant legislation both national and european.
In addition, Nucet carries out all the necessary physical, chemical and biological analyses for environment impact assessments including for the water going into and coming from a fish farm.
The Centre advises fish farmers on legal and technical matters, assisting the investors in fish farming in getting all the permits, environmental authorisations and creating the necessary documentation.
It provides services in four areas: environment, welfare, health and marketing and promotion. For investors what is perhaps interesting is that European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) offers support to the farmers if they use this kind of service.
By facilitating the approval procedures for fish farms, testing various production parameters and conducting applied research for farmers, the Centre will undoubtedly make an important contribution to the development of the Romanian aquaculture sector.
The main beneficiaries of this good practice are the fish farmers, producers and SMEs in the aquaculture sector.

The Consultancy Centre has received funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) – the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Operational Programme. Overall budget: RON 440.917,66; EU contribution: RON 278.358,70.
The number of people working within the Centre is 6.

With the establishment of the Consultancy Centre the number of requests from fish farmers for advice reached 150 a year. Moreover, the types of advice increased; it is not only for water sampling, but also for advice on environmental legislation and authorisation procedures.
Other results achieved by the Centre are: increased competitivity of the aquaculture related SMEs, strengthened technological development, innovation and knowledge transfer, promotion of sustainable aquaculture.

The process of setting up the Consultancy Centre developed smoothly, with no challenges. The funding provided through the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Operational Programme was in line with the financial plan set out in the Application Form.

We believe that the services offered by the Consultancy Centre are necessary and useful, because often fish farms are managed by people who are not specialised in the technical aspects of fish breeding or are not familiar with the procedures for submitting projects.
Moreover, these services could be successfully transferred to other regions of Europe, in order to improve and facilitate the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector, by supporting the fish farmers.