Monday, 13th April 2009
April Brussels Briefing
A new strategy for Europe's fish farms
The European Commission has just published new proposals aimed at boosting Europe's fish farming sector and reclaiming the EU’s place as world leader in aquaculture. This is a vitally important sector for Scotland.
The lucrative aquaculture industry has been developing rapidly over the past decade in both Europe and across the world. Today, a fifth of EU fish sold comes from aquaculture. The sector meets expanding demand from Europe's consumers with high-quality and healthy fish products, while providing more than 80,000 full and part-time jobs, often in remote, peripheral areas. At an annual output of £450 million, the UK is the second biggest aquaculture producer in Europe after France in terms of value.
Marine aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector in the world, growing at 9% annually everywhere except the EU. Before they can sell a single fish, our fish farmers have to comply with 400 pieces of regulation, not to mention additional planning and environmental constraints in the Member States. At a time when demand for healthy fish products is growing and marine fish stocks are dwindling, the opportunities for the EU to be a global leader in aquaculture innovation and technological development are hampered by red tape.
Despite its potential, fish farming in Europe has been stagnating and struggling to compete with non-EU producers. Numerous EU regulations have caused the sector's stagnation in Europe and encouraged the growth of production in countries like China, Japan and Chile. Although EU countries are capable of meeting their consumers' demand for seafood, we are currently importing almost 50% of the fish we eat from outside Europe.
In addition to simplifying legislation, there is a great need for financial support for Small and Medium Enterprises in the fish farming sector. At a time of financial crisis in particular, reducing red tape and bureaucracy are a vital prerequisite for creating new jobs in a selection of fields, from research and technological development to marketing and advertising.
In Scotland we have cutting edge technology, dynamic entrepreneurs, a perfect environment and a long background in aquaculture, which puts us in poll position to take advantage of any new initiatives from the European Commission. I welcome this report, which is long overdue, as a way of re-booting our fish farms and breathing new life into a once buoyant industry.
The Commission Communication is a result of a stakeholder consultation held in 2007 and highlights the current problems of the aquaculture sector, aiming to give a fresh impetus to the EU's fish farming industry. The initiative identifies ways of making EU aquaculture more competitive, focusing on maintaining sustainable growth in the industry and improving the sector's image and management.
Island Odyssey
Belinda Don and I have just returned from an extensive tour of the islands, taking in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles. With the European elections looming on 4th June, it was important for Belinda to meet the fishermen, farmers, entrepreneurs and council leaders in the Northern and Western Isles to familiarise herself with the issues.
We were impressed at the way the Northern Isles in particular seem to be insulated from the worst impacts of the economic recession. Unemployment is almost non existent and the building trade is buoyant. Shetland has even seen a 30% increase in new business start-ups.
The fishermen were not so happy, however. In Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles the story was similar. Following a relatively good year, last year, when things appeared to be looking up, everything was then scuppered by bad decisions taken in Brussels at last December’s Fisheries Council meeting.
Indeed Shetland’s fishermen told us that the new and complex kilowatt days system of limiting the time a fishermen can go to sea in direct relation to the size of his engine, has become so unworkable, that some fishermen are sailing hundreds of miles northwards to fish beyond Rockall, so that they can escape the zone within which these rules apply. However, they are undertaking these perilous long-distance voyages in vessels that were never designed for this kind of distant-water activity and their lives are being put at risk.
Despite assurances from the SNP Fisheries Minister that he had secured a good deal at last December’s Fisheries Council, it now seems to have been anything but! The Council of Ministers and the European Commission need to think again and amend these rules before someone loses his life. It was a similarly gloomy report from the fishermen’s cooperative in Stornoway. They told us that a knock-on consequence of the December Council decision has virtually closed down the lucrative crayfish and squid fisheries on which they used to rely.
I was able to tell the fishermen on all three islands that there is a major reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in the pipeline, with a Green Paper about to be published shortly by the European Commission. From recent conversations with Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, I know that he is determined to react to our longstanding demands by devolving fisheries management away from the Brussels bureaucrats and out to the stakeholders in the regions. Indeed he told me last week that he sees the Producers’ Organisations undertaking this demanding role, which will represent a dramatic policy shift for the fishing sector and will be widely welcomed by fishermen. I said that Commissioner Borg also wants to ban discards and insist on all fish being landed. He also intends to replace the current quota system with Individual Transferable Quotas, while at the same time protecting traditional fishing rights by ring-fencing the lion’s share of quota for local fishermen.
