Sustainable fish became a big topic of discussion at the Hotelier Middle East Sustainability Summit, with a particular focus on steering customers away from hammour.
Horeca Trade category manager – meat & seafood Marco Kouch explains the alternatives to this threatened species.
Can you explain the alternative you’ve been offering the industry to hamour?
We have been offering Barramundi fish, a sustainable fish with origins from Australia that is grown in Aquaculture farms in Taiwan, under Australian Aquaculture specialist directions.
How has it been received since you started offering it?
It has been a very successful launch as chefs were surprised by its versatility (you can fry, bake and grill), consistency, flavour and look.
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Are you seeing increased awareness among hotels around sustainability issues?
Yes as an industry there is a huge awareness, however the resistance is still coming from the end user, the customers, who are finding it hard to let go of hammour, which they are used to and prize very much. It all takes time of course, but they will see the benefit of allowing hammour stocks to regrow naturally in the regional oceans for generations to come, because at the moment it is on the endangered species list. This is usually the step before no return, so it is very alarming.
Do you think there is enough awareness among consumers about sustainability?
Yes there is an awareness, however habits are hard to die and there is a strong “turn a blind eye” attitude towards it, but the message has to be drilled in.
What else can be done to make sustainability a bigger issue?
I think Government might have to step in and introduce a full on ban; I mean I have been to the fish market and I have seen fished hammour from all sizes all the way to small fist size. There isn’t much of it to eat at this size and still it is being fished carelessly; this is not a healthy practice and authority has to regulate.
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