Last week’s visit to Ecuador by seven members of the European Parliament, members of the Fisheries Committee (PECH), left good feelings and encouraged the expectations of the national fishing sector and the Government to get out of the yellow card, announced in 2019; and the return to the green card after almost four years.

For two days, European politicians, led by the Frenchman Pierre Karleskind, president of PECH, observed the progress made by the country in the fight against illegal and unreported fishing, for which the European Union introduced sanctions in 2019. Karleskind and his colleagues left Ecuador with a pleasant impression of modernization legal framework and progress in the industry, especially in terms of traceability, which the French MEP called the center of his demands.

Pierre Karleskind: I am convinced that Ecuador will receive the green card in 2023

“Traceability is at the heart of our demands: inform consumers about what they are buying, protect fishermen who follow the rules,” Karleskind announced after visiting the factory in Manta.

For his part, Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, highlighted on Monday, February 27, the good results of the European delegation’s visit, assuring that great efforts were made to avoid the yellow card. paid off. , and state that $60 million has been invested to achieve these advances.

Among them, Prado highlighted 120 automated and digitized processes, the new state-of-the-art Law and regulations on fisheries that have been in force since 2020 and, according to the minister, are the most modern in the region. In addition, traceability of the entire fleet through GPS, a system of sanctions.

These advances were also highlighted by Karleskind in an interview with Diario EL UNIVERSO, in Guayaquil, where he stated that the country mobilized to avoid a yellow card.

“I’m talking about public administration and the Government that passed this law – the Fisheries Act – 2020, but I’m also talking about port authorities, about everything that is done in ports with inspections, we managed to check whether there is control of what is unloaded from ships, fish are weighed to ensure that there is no overfishing and illegal fishing, we were also able to verify that the Government has developed a really efficient and state-of-the-art traceability system with monitoring and satellite and digital monitoring”, expressed the surprised president of the Commission of MEPs.

Progress in Ecuador’s fisheries control over the past five years impressed European delegates

As for the national industry, Karleskind indicated that some of them visited the company Altura, where they checked the development of a “really efficient international level” platform.

“We were also able to verify that the industry itself, the fishing industry, had established traceability standards, the same is the case with canning factories, that’s where everyone really mobilized,” said the MEP.

“There is no other country in the world that has a system like Ecuador”

Meanwhile, Bruno Leone, President of the National Chamber of Fisheries (CNP), who also met with the European delegation in Manta, highlighted the public-private partnership between the Government and the fishing industry to achieve progress; but he specified the reasons for the yellow card notification in October 2019.

“It was a yellow card for government reasons, that the government did not do what it had to do to control traceability and ensure the fight against illegal fishing. So, the Government started working together with us and we had to make some decisions there, we had to invest money there (…) the money the Government had to invest, I don’t know if it was 60 million dollars”, he said. Leone, who recalled that, for example, around 300 inspectors were hired, technological equipment, an electronic platform, improvement of internal processes, among other adjustments.

The leader emphasized the quality of the systems and processes that the fishing sector manages after the progress after 2019. “I dare say I don’t know of any other country in the world that has a system like this,” Leone said.

Meanwhile, regarding the industry’s expectations regarding the abolition of the yellow card following the visit of MEPs, the CNP president indicated that although the delegation that visited Ecuador last week and checked the progress of the fishing sector does not have the power to return Ecuador’s green card, his the report to the European Commission will be key to the decision.

The new fisheries law and the electronic platform, one of the advances that Ecuador will show the European commissioners so that the ‘yellow card’ can be reversed

“The aspiration we have is to remove the yellow card this year, four years before the call for attention that was in October 2019, and go to green,” Leone said.

He also reminded that after the last visit, last December, the General Convention of the EU on the Sea, which is responsible for issuing the green card, also checked the progress of the sector, but two issues remained: the establishment of the sponsoring area, which is the area in which to be the lawyers who will lead the processes of fishing violations; and the checking and counting of ships that had some kind of discrepancy in the documents.

“We have made a lot of progress, we have done a great job, a public-private job, worthy of attention, this is how complicated issues in the country should be solved, the public and private sectors sitting at the table,” said Leone.