Page 7 - German article - UK translation

The skipjack is the smallest of the commercially important tunas.

Not counting illegal fishing, around six million tonnes of tuna are taken from the
oceans every year. Only a little more than two per cent, or about 65,000 tonnes, end up
on German plates. One of the players in this million-tonne trade: the Briton Redfern.
He cooperates with Naturland, Germany’s largest provider of organic food, which
is also active internationally. This is not entirely unimportant, because the organic
association awards its own seal to wild fish, which focuses primarily on artisanal and
exemplary fisheries. Also, because it is a growing market. In the past two years of the
Corona pandemic, more than five billion euros were spent on “seafood” in Germany
each year.

“Naturland Wild Fish has recognised our tuna from the Azores as the first in the
world to be certified”, says Redfern proudly. He once made “a bit of money” as a
banker, but never felt comfortable in the financial world. Then came an inheritance,
enough to found a company for organically grown food more than twenty years ago.
And then Fish4Ever, which today carries the main turnover of his companies.

On the cans of its fish products, the company guarantees that the contents can be
traced back to the boat. A matter that also interests the trader Ursula Wagner from
the Tübingen area. On that July day, she is standing in the harbour of Horta on the
Faial and talks to one of the fishermen. She learns that they only fish seasonally,
from March, April to September, when the shoals of these predatory fish pass by the
Azores. Moreover, she learns that the 31 fishing boats of the Apasa cooperative start
at dawn, the larger vessels sometimes stay at sea for up to two weeks and the smaller
ones return in the evening.