Shipping services between the Falklands and Rio Grande in Brazil have been cancelled. (Photo: Stock File/FIS)

Shipping company cancels service to South America

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Friday, January 07, 2011, 23:00 (GMT + 9)

The South American Atlantic Service Ltd (SAAS) container shipping company this week announced that it would end its service between the Falklands and Rio Grande in Brazil at the end of June. This puts a hamper on the plan to boost the use of containers for the shipment of fish, meat and wool. 

Director of SAAS Hamish Wylie made the announcement. Also a director of SAAS' parent company Consolidated Fisheries Ltd (CFL), he believes the company’s shipping partners have been pressured to help stop the growth of the Islands’ fishing industry.

The pressure exerted on companies also running in Argentina has led to excessively high shipping costs and, in turn, a drop in the volumes of cargo, according to Wylie, Penguin News reports.

Stuart Wallace of Fortuna Ltd, which in the past provided containers for one ship’s catch and intended to expand this volume, called the news’ repercussions “a really very serious development for the whole of the Falklands economy.”

Connectivity with South America is vital for the Falkland Islands’ future economic growth, says the recently published Economic Strategy.

Argentina has systematically interfered with shipping between the Islands and the continent, and this behaviour most recently reached a climax with the Presidential Decree 256/10, which mandates that all shipping headed for the Falklands obtain permission from Argentina’s government.

It looks as though fear that the SAAS charter vessel Anja could be detained under the terms of the decree caused it to detour around Cape Horn in its last trip from Punta Arenas, Chile, to Stanley, despite the documented “operational reasons,” reports Penguin News.

After the SAAS contract with Anja ended, uncertainty followed. A new vessel was then chartered and a new route set between Stanley and Rio Grande, at which point the original SAAS service between Stanley, Montevideo in Uruguay and Punta Arenas was dropped.

Even though Wylie could comprehend the Falklands’ Government’s reluctance to keep subsidising the SAAS route, it was time for the government to broadly disclose the harm caused to the Islands by Argentina, he said.

Councillor Gavin Short, Legislative Assembly member with the Fisheries portfolio, called the ending of the SAAS service as “a very worrying development.” 

He said that although the Assembly considered challenging Decree 256/10, the problem was that the government did not own its own ship and other ships’ owners were anxious about threats.

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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