A MINIMUM IMPORT PRICE should be set to bring some stability to the European salmon market, a key UK fish farming conference has been told.

In questions at the end of the first session of Aquaculture Today 2005, at the Edinburgh Marriott Hotel, Donal Maguire, a senior official at the Irish Sea Fisheries Board said he felt the measure made more sense than selectively applying safeguards to Norwegian imports in general. Mr Maguire said that he hoped “a certain amount of sanity would break out” over the current trade war between the European Union and the Norwegians.

He said he felt a minimum import price would be better as it would apply to all imports not produced in the EU, such as Chilean salmon, and could provide a longer term guarantee for EU producers that their produce would fetch prices that were related to the costs of production.

Mr Maguire was speaking at Aquaculture Today 2005, a new pioneering conference organised by Fish Farmer magazine.

Tomorrow’s second day of the conference is set to be dominated by the issue of trade sanctions, with the European Commission’s Willem de Munck speaking in the afternoon.

De Munck is the deputy head of unit for Trade Defence Instruments, from DG Trade, a division of the European Commission.

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