The International Sales and Promotion Company (ISPC), a Belgian company, which is based in Seychelles is one of the companies which has found a way to ensure that by-catch from the foreign purse seiners fishing in the Seychelles' Exclusive Economic Zone is put to good. They try to make available on the local market, a whole range of value added fish products targeting species which are not commonly consumed by the Seychellois people.

The Seychelles branch of ISPC was set up December in 2006, as an offshore entity, which is located at Roche Caiman, some 2 km in the south of Victoria, providing wholesale food products to restaurants, hotels, ships and individuals.

The initiative is also aimed at contributing towards developing and maximizing yields from the 'blue economy', a concept which Seychelles is actively promoting within the region and beyond while calling for more ocean-related business activities locally.

According to ISPC’s Chief Executive, Alfred Fourcroy, the company began to venture into fish processing some 18 months ago and has to date created 35 products from the likes of swordfish satay, smoked marlin, burgers and Thai fish cakes.

“These are all easy to prepare as after defrosting overnight in a fridge, or for 20 minutes in water, they can be pan fried for 3 minutes…and served sliced with lemon or salad,” said Fourcroy.

"There are also swordfish rillettes and pâté, made from leftover fish fillets. Leftover fish fillets are also scraped and processed into burgers.”

When cutting fish into fillets, other parts such as the head and bones are thrown away, but by turning those unwanted part into fish soup this minimizes wastage.

Another product conceived by ISPC is the sesame crusted tuna.

Chef Florian Foucart explained to SNA that this is yellowfin [tuna] cooked on the outside to obtain the fish flavour, but kept raw on the inside.”

“This is a Japanese technique,” he said.

Fourcroy told SNA that swordfish, which constitutes the lion’s share of the long liners’ catch is the main fish being sought after by ISPC.

The company is aiming to maximize the use of the swordfish as Fourcroy explained that “there is an issue on the export market when it comes to swordfish, presumably because of its cadmium content and until now, no great demand locally.”

Previously, the Seychelles swordfish were exported to the European Union markets, but following the change of cadmium percentage tolerated by the EU in swordfish, Seychelles can no longer export this fish.

Marlin and sailfish are two types of fish which are being used to produce the value added fish products which is done in compliance with the strictest global sanitary regulations.

ISPC is also using some demersal fish, brought in by boats engaged in bottom fishing. These include the ruby snapper, grouper and parrot fish