MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine fisheries experience bad year: 16% drop in catches

Argentine fisheries catches during the first ten months of this year have confirmed their falling tendency which has reached 16%, according to the latest reports from the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Secretariat.

Catches of hake hubbsi which is Argentina's main fish export have fallen 15.9%, compared to the first ten months of 2006. Something similar has happened with Illex squid, down 19.6%; southern blue whiting, 40.6% and hoki, 24.7%, all first line export items. But in spite of lesser volumes hake exports prices on average have increased 24.5%, reports the Argentine Fisheries Department. However with shrimp the opposite has happened, catches jumped 8.3% over 2006. But it's not all good news: export prices have plummeted on average 26.2% and so have Argentine shrimp export volumes, 24%, on average for the different categories. Apparently the fall in international prices is attributed to the lack of supply in 2004/05 which was rapidly covered, --and consolidated-- by farmed shrimp from Asia. The latest available statistics for the first eleven months which have yet to be discriminated, show total catches reached 861.587.5 tons, including 232.544 tons of Illex squid; hubbsi hake north of parallel 41o., 22.628 tons and south of 41o. 254.255.8.