MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Patagonia fisheries industry suffers rough period

The increases in costs are cutting profits for the industry

The fisheries industry in the Patagonia region is going through a critical moment attributed to a combination of factors that include tax measures, operation costs significantly rising, a slump in international prices, and prolonged biological bans, stated the sector's chamber.

Authorities from the Argentine Chamber of Freezing Fishing Shipowners (CAPECA) met on Thursday, 6 September with representatives of high authorities in the fishing sector (national and provincial authorities, entrepreneurs and union leaders) to explain the basis of the complications which the industry is faced while operating in Patagonian ports. During the meeting, the president of CAPECA, Alfredo Pott, explained how the fisheries sector currently came to this situation. He also mentioned the various crises that befell fisheries sector in the past 30 years, and the constant fall backs that prevent the consolidation of the fisheries industry. By means of graphs, he demonstrated how the excessive rise in operations costs annulled the profitable effects of the (end of) 2001 devaluation, and beginning of 2002, reported Pesca & Puertos.The entrepreneur also commented on the negative effects of the multiple measures approved by the national government, including the non-renewal of refunds by the Patagonia ports, implemented export rights and the inability to claim the majority of tax returns. Some of the actions carried out by the governments of the Patagonian Provinces also hurt the development of normal fisheries activity, such as increased fees for permits, port and land transportation fees. Pott added that the increase in labour costs rose from a 33 per cent of the structure's costs to 50 per cent and in some cases up to 60 per cent; and that the significant drop in international prices on squid (Illex argentinus) and shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri)only made maters worse. Added to this were the extended biological bans that shortened the work year: while in 2001 a shrimp vessel harvested for 304 days, currently only190 days were working days; squid jiggers went from 200 days of harvest in 2001 to 70 in 2007. One factor that adds to the matter was the increase in the price of main supplies for the industry, such as fuel, docking costs, steel cables, and electricity, among other things. Pott emphasised that all the people involved in the fishery industry "can help turn this critical situation around." He invited them to work jointly towards to modifying the National Government's taxes and tariffs; to produce a labour treaty for the entire country: targeting reduced costs, that operations and services at the ports be managed at a provincial level, and to work hard towards sustaining the resource and in reinforcing the Federal Fisheries Law. Those present at the meeting included the National Director of Fisheries Co-ordination, Marcelo Santos; the heads of Santa Cruz Fisheries Funds, Liliana Scioli; from Chubut, Juan Beron; and from Rio Negro, Miguel Alcalde; and heads of unions including Omar Suarez, Marcos Castro, and Angel Raimundi, Juan Carlos Pucci and Enrique Venturini, among others. (FIS)