Bare fish to reach Romanians' dinner tables

Gheorghe Huian has been working in fishery for over 30 years now and says the experience gained in the course of time helped him set up his own business by a partnership with Pescaris SA Company two years ago. The biggest achievement of his company is, according to Huian, the new scaleless fish breed, named Topless, which could reach Romanians’ dinner tables by next fall.

Piscicola SRL Iasi currently holds more than 800 hectares of flooded land in Movileni Commune, Iasi County, where some 10 million fish are bred. The operational centre is located at the confluence of the Jijia River and Miletin Stream, where over 1000 ha of flooded land were dammed.

“We transformed that place by dividing it into compartments and turned it into a major fish breeding unit, actually the largest privately operated in the entire Moldavia,” Huian says.

According to Huian, the company’s biggest achievement is the new scaleless fish breed, called Topless. “The first Topless fish will reach Romanians’ dinner tables by next fall, I hope. This is a carp breed, which cannot be found anywhere in the country, developed after ten years of work.

The selection activity was assisted by a group of researchers from the Iasi-based Research Station. The process took so long to complete because where fish are concerned, the selection is a long-term process. The new breed is the result of the crossing of two carp breeds.”

The Topless is a short fish, with a tall body and provides a higher flesh density in relation to other species. At the same time, it is quicker to assimilate food and is disease resistant. “I named it Topless myself, because it is so naked,” says Huian.

The food the fishes get consists in an assortment of groats and 2% fish or meat flour. The amount of food “thrown” into the water every day amounts to about 10 tonnes.

The owner of the Piscicola Company feels his business is profitable, though the financial results are affected by the poachers in the villages near Movileni commune.

When teaming up with the state-run company, Piscicola SA pledged to pay 30% of the profit every year. “They came up with the equipment, with the buildings and with the populating material, and we came up with what was necessary to keep production going.”

The Iasi-based company last year made 5.4bn lei in turnover, which it estimates to amount to about nine billion lei this year.

2000’s net profit reached circa one billion lei, while the investments made so far amounted to about 1.5 billion lei.

The Iasi-based fishery company deals in breeding and selling every species of fish, including carp, sheatfish, pike. The annual output is of some 500 tonnes, with the fish being sold in the company’s five shops.

“We sell about 40 tonnes per shop every year. The fish is sold only alive, and each shop is equipped with water ventilation and cooling installations,” Huian explained.

He also claims the losses reach several billion lei a year, as the poachers are always coming up with something new to carry out their business.