The Agriculture Ministry is refuting claims made by the co-owner of the country’s largest fishery that admission to the European Union’s Schengen zone has fostered a black market in carp, the country’s signature, if rather bony, fish.
Josef Šindelka, chairman of Rybářství Třeboň, railed against Schengen in a recent interview with the weekly Týden, saying that the black market sales of unprocessed fish are one of his major concerns. Independent fishermen are selling their catch directly to restaurants and pubs without proper documentation, skirting taxes, he said.
Such sales boost fishermen’s profits 20 percent, Šindelka said. And, since the “Czech Republic’s admission to the Schengen zone, Germans are buying from these small fisheries as well,” he added.
Any contention that Schengen accession, which allows passport-free travel between member states, influences the fish trade with Germany or any other country is bogus, said Agriculture Ministry spokesman Petr Vorlíček.
“We have been part of the European common market ever since the Czech Republic joined the European Union,” he added.
Rybářství Třeboň declined to elaborate on the chairman’s remarks or to respond to the Agriculture Ministry’s statement.
The fishery’s worries, substantiated or not, come as Třeboň carp has become one of the EU’s protected food products, a designation it gained in November 2007. Nine other Czech products preceded carp on the EU’s protected list, including Hořice rolled wafers, Budvar beer and Czech hops.
Unlike some of these other products, no neighboring EU state filed a complaint with the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, over the Třeboň carp label. It’s a name that’s been used for more than 100 years.
Třeboň’s mayor, Jan Váňa, said the EU protection will contribute “to the worldwide reputation of this unique fish species. And it’s clear that this will increase the city’s prominence as well.” He hopes that the protection will attract carp gourmands to the city’s restaurants, he added.
Marketing origins
Wholesale prices for first-class carp range up to 79 Kč ($5), but at the fish counter this can be significantly higher. Carp producers would like to boost these prices by effectively leveraging the EU’s label as a marketing tool.
Rudolf Provázek, head of the carp producer Fish Market, said he hopes the label will help sales in countries like Austria and France, where people are prepared to pay for quality. The carp is already known, but the European logo will make it clearer to consumers, he added.
The origins of the Třeboň carp lie in the 16th century. Working on what was previously swampland, two fishermen in the service of the Rosenberg family built a unique system of ponds and canals around the city. At the heart of the water system is a 45-kilometer-long canal, named Zlatá stoka, or the Golden Canal. The steady stream of fresh water supplied by the canal is widely credited with giving Třeboň carp its distinct taste.
Efforts to protect the Třeboň carp go back to 1967, when the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellation of Origin was revised in Stockholm. It received protection as a registered trademark in Czechoslovakia in March 1939.
There are signs, however, that the country’s long love affair with carp may be waning: In an informal survey on the Fish Market Web site, only 20 percent of respondents said they preferred carp to any other freshwater fish. Meanwhile, 29 percent of voters designated zander, also known as pike perch, as the top freshwater fish.