The passage of the El Niño phenomenon dealt a hard blow against industrial fishing, which is why we spoke with Eduardo Ferreyrospresident of the SNP, to know their evaluation of what happened and what they expect for this year, taking into account that they recently had a meeting with Produce and Imarpe.
-What is your 2023 balance on the sector?
-At least in the last 30 years, it has been the worst year for industrial fishing, as there was no first fishing season. This caused approximately US$1.2 billion to stop exporting. between flour and fish oil. That blow was very hard for companies, many have been on the verge of bankruptcy.
-But there was a second fishing season…
-Happily, we had the opportunity and the conditions were met for there to be a second season, which gave companies a break so they could stay alive. But in general it has been a very bad year. Fishing has fallen 20%. This has caused Peru’s general GDP to fall by around 0.8%. If we had not fallen, we would have had positive GDP growth last year.
-What are you waiting for now?
-The research cruise has already begun in the north-central area. And the results should be more or less at the end of March. With the scientific information collected from the biomass, let the season open. The first season of the central-north, which is the most important, begins in April. Everything indicates that the conditions are going to be in place, that it could be a normal year, that the climatic effects are not going to have an impact like they did last year.
-Experts point out that it would not be a normal season because temperatures will continue to be high…
-But everything indicates that it is beginning to cool down; For the month of April the conditions may already be in place. Now you never know what might happen. Although everything seems to indicate at this moment that there could be a first season.
-In the information that Imarpe gave you, did they tell you about the possibility of a Girl?
-No, we do not go into those details because we have a very large agenda of topics.
-What is the sector’s request to the authorities?
-What we need, and we have discussed this with the minister, is that decisions are made in a timely manner. The second fishing season was delayed because Imarpe sent the report and the ministry returned it to clarify things, and so the reports came and went, and in my opinion about two weeks of fishing have been lost. What we are asking is for there to be more communication between Imarpe and Producesand also that we be informed of what is happening to be prepared.
-Should the General Fisheries Law be updated?
-That is a very broad topic. For us it is not a priority to modify the General Fisheries Law nowthe important thing is that the conditions are created for fishing to continue working, and not only for anchovies, but also for horse mackerel and mackerel.
Keys
- Approved season. On March 2, Produce authorized the start of the first anchovy fishing season in the southern zone.
- Assigned quota. In accordance with Ministerial Resolution No. 000059-2024-PRODUCE, the maximum catch limit will be 251,000 tons.
Source: Larepublica
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