Capture-based tuna farming will contribute about €73 million to the economy and account for over 1,000 jobs in 2025, according to a strategy on the aquaculture industry.

The sector now needs a strategy to determine exactly where it is going and how to get there

This forecast is based on an assumed recovery of tuna stocks in the wild that would allow quotas to increase and the Maltese industry to return to 2007 levels of production.

According to the strategy’s forecasts, closed cycle aquaculture could produce about 10,000 tonnes of fish by 2025, contributing nearly €40 million to the economy and employing close to 800 people.

The proposed strategy is part of a public consultation process on a national strategy for aquaculture, an industry that originated 22 years ago. The public consultation will last six weeks.

When the Aquaculture Centre at San Luċjan Tower in Marsaxlokk had opened, the government had had a vision and understood the importance of the sector, which was still non-existent, Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino said during the launch of the consultation process.

Sea bass and sea bream farms were then developed, followed by tuna farms in 2000, when the industry reached a new milestone.

The sea bass and sea bream farms get most of their fish from hatcheries overseas, indicating the need for a hatchery on a commercial scale in Malta.

The industry, which had the potential to provide 2,000 direct and indirect jobs and generated gross value added for the economy to the tune of €120 million, today consists of six operators, working from nine sites.

The sector now needed a strategy to determine exactly where it was going and how to get there, Mr Pullicino said. A plan for the sustainable development of aquaculture and a guide for investment in the field were needed, he said.

The strategy is based on 10 points, including establishing production volumes, identifying sites for aquaculture, consultation with stakeholders, research and finance needs, the streamlining of licensing procedures, control on fish health and product diversification and commercialisation.

The documents can be downloaded from www.mrra.gov.mt and comments can be sent to aquaculture.mrra@gov.mt.