MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina tightens controls on squid fishery companies

Taking advantage of the abundance of squid, in spite of poor international prices, Argentina has decided to implement stricter controls on companies involved in the squid fisheries.

"The purpose is to clarify the extent of previous regulations to help consolidate monitoring and control activities and commitments assumed by companies that have access to the resource", said Argentine Fisheries Under Secretary Gerardo Nieto. This basically means more precise regulations regarding "record of proceedings, landings and destination of resource captures", which is included in resolution 299/07. Nieto said that this squid season "has been particularly good in catches, although international prices have fallen substantially and are a third below last year's". "This is an opportunity to look for new markets, develop new products and an in depth analysis of the structure of costs to help improve profits for the squid sector", he added. The new regulation forces companies to comply with signed commitments, and can demand licensed companies to present all the "health, commercial and customs documentation" as well as proceed to "inspections, verifications in any of the plants where landings or catch storage takes place". Jurisdiction falls on the National Fisheries Coordination Office. The office is also entitled to check all the crew roll calls to ensure that a percentage of jobs in jiggers is covered by Argentines as demanded by law. However to help restrain fluctuations in land activities, (because of low prices) the regulation will allow landings of the current season until August 31 and the reprocessing in local plants until the end of February next year. Licensed plants can process squid catches in other plants but must keep to the original agreed project, and assume full responsibility for the operation. Finally no jigger will be allowed to leave port for international waters until the fleet owner or responsible has complied with all agreed commitments.