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From the farm straight to the fork of consumers.
Michelin-Starred Armani Ristorante Sources ASC Certified Fish from Croatia
(FRANCE, 12/7/2022)
Carrying the highest standards of quality cuisine, Michelin star Emporio Armani Caffé & Ristorante in Paris, France, chooses ASC certified fish to serve in their restaurant. Fresh seabass and seabream are sourced from Cromarisin Croatia, which operates seven fish farms off the Adriatic coast.
At Emporio Armani Caffé & Ristorante, sourcing premium quality and responsibly produced ingredients are key to their restaurant operations. Fruits and vegetables are sourced from a local permaculture garden, ensuring seasonal produce that is fresh, flavourful, and supportive of local biodiversity. , and as for farmed seafood, Manager Matthieu Mori and Executive Chef Massimo Tringali prefer fish from ASC certified farms.
Executive Chef Massimo Tringali.
“ASC’s work allows us to select top-level suppliers. The Cromaris product has low percentages of fat and a very delicate taste,” says Tringali. “It’s an excellent fish, and it is ASC certified, so we know it is responsibly farmed.”
Mori adds: “We decided to source ASC certified fish first because we believe it is important to integrate aquaculture into our sourcing, as wild fishing is suffering from overexploitation. At the same time, it is important for us to choose sustainable aquaculture. That is why we need the support of ASC to help us identify responsible farms.”
Quality and Assurance for Customers
Emporio Armani Caffé & Ristorante has also achieved the certification, which proves its commitment to sustainable sourcing. This certification assures consumers and seafood-buyers that ASC labelled products come from a certified responsible farm.
“Is an added value for our restaurant and an assurance for our customers that the fish we serve comes from a responsible, ASC certified farm. To obtain it we had to follow different rules to prove the fish we claim to be certified actually is certified,” says Mori. “For instance, we had to install separate refrigerators and train the teams to set the certified products apart from the other products. Then we had to do an audit by an independent third-party to confirm that we were complying with these rules.”
Emporio Armani Caffé & Ristorante in Paris, France.
Commitment to Quality and Environmental Responsibility
Being one of the fish suppliers for Emporio Armani Caffé & Ristorante, Cromaris ensures freshness in their products through their delivery system. A buyer can place an order one day, and the fish is harvested the next day. The same day as harvest, or possibly the day after, the fish is delivered – fresh, unfrozen – to the buyer’s door. In Europe, the Cromaris fish on your plate at dinner may have been harvested earlier that day!
With ASC certification across all seven of their farms, Cromaris commits not just to delivering quality fish but also to their social and environmental goals. Excellent seawater quality is a baseline upon which Cromaris has carefully crafted numerous responsible farming practices for their fish, which are all native species in the region.
Cromaris seabream (Sparus aurata) is one of the most gastronomically valued species of Adriatic white fish. It is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, protein, phosphorus and vitamin D. The meat is very tasty and soft, with a rounded taste and natural sweetness.
“The ASC certification plays into everything that we do on the farm,” says Ivana Šimunović, Marine Biologist at Cromaris. “We’re already working to extremely strict standards, but it adds an extra check and balance, and if we fail to comply with any of the ASC requirements, we risk losing our certification.”
“We pay great attention to fish feed,” says Šimunović. “Years of hard work and perfecting of the feed formulation has resulted in fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids and a positive ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It’s like a curated diet for athletes. These fish are getting the best nutrition possible!”
Košara Farm, Cromaris' largest farm, is located on a small island of Košara, southwest of the island of Pašman. In the vicinity of the farm is world famous National Park “Kornati”.
‘Farm-to-fork’
From the farm straight to the fork of consumers, ensuring the fish on a customer’s table is responsibly produced is a high priority for restaurants such as Emporio Armani.
As responsible sourcing becomes ever more important, consumer awareness of the ASC logo continuing to increase.
According to the latest ASC Consumer Survey, in France alone, 48% of the consumers surveyed recognise the ASC label while the trust level in the ASC logo reached 68% among French consumers.
Cromaris' headquarters and processing facility are located in Zadar.
About Cromaris
Cromaris is a leading premium positioned company in production and processing of high quality Mediterranean fish and the sixth biggest company in the world in farming of sea bass and seabream, and the fastest growing company with a trend of further growth.
Cromaris was established in 2009 by merging the pioneers of Croatian and European aquaculture, so the tradition of Mediterranean fish farming lasts for more than 40 years.
The company’s headquarters and the processing facility are located in Zadar. Of the total of 6 farms, one is located in Istria (Budava) and 5 in the Zadar region, Central Adriatic (Lamjana Košara, Velo Žalo, Žman and Kudica). The farming site selection criteria depended on the crystal clean sea and untouched, pristine nature, far away from any potential pollutants, but also on the Spatial Plans of the Zadar and Istria Counties, according to which the above mentioned positions were assessed as suitable for white fish breeding. In 2015 one of the most modern facilities for premium quality Mediterranean fish spawning in Europe was opened in Nin, at the location of the old hatchery dating from 1981.
(FRANCE, 12/7/2022)
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