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The Spanish fishing, aquaculture and food trade sector appreciates that Minister Luis Planas agrees with his request that the next European Executive have a specific Commissioner for Fisheries capable of safeguarding the interests of this activity from knowledge and defending the three areas of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. This is how representatives of the sector expressed themselves this morning after the meeting held with the minister and the general secretary of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Isabel Artime.

 

The sector, which has described the meeting as positive, has also stated that it will continue to defend the reduction or elimination of VAT on fishing products as a formula to encourage its consumption, after describing the Government's decision to confront the decline in consumption as a mistake. only through promotional campaigns. It is worth remembering that in our country, a third of household consumption of fishery products has been lost in the last 10 years, going from 27.2 kilos per person per year in 2013 to 18.48 kilos as of November 2023.

 

 

According to representatives of the sector, "we are convinced that the elimination of VAT would be fundamental to change the trend of fish and seafood consumption in Spain and that it goes beyond this Ministry, but we are not going to give up and we will continue to ask for it." as we have been doing for years.”

 

At the meeting, the sector also asked the minister for: greater agility and flexibility in the application of regulations when sanctioning infractions that are considered serious, but which in reality are minor, which prevent access to European aid; a decisive action to fight against the fraudulent labeling of plant-based foods that confuse the consumer, a professional promotion plan to promote generational change, aid for the scrapping and decarbonization of the fleet, as well as the renewal of the agreement with Guinea Bissau, which concludes in mid-June and that both the sector and Planas will propose that it be extended for one year while its renewal takes place.

 

Regarding the fishing agreement of the European Union with Morocco, the sector has valued the defense made by Planas of its legality and respect for community and international law, suspended since July 2023 and whose continuity depends on the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

 

 

Finally, both the sector and the Government have agreed on the importance of enforcing, in the next informal Council of EU Fisheries Ministers to be held in Bruges (Belgium), on March 24 and 25, the CJEU ruling of January 2024 that defends fishing and aquaculture management supported by scientific reports and that not only takes into account environmental objectives but also socioeconomic objectives.

 

In this sense, it is worth remembering that the Spanish fishing sector is a model in the world for its sustainable fishing practice and that it faces unfair competition from fleets from third countries that do not comply with the same rules of the game and whose products enter the market. community, in some cases free of tariffs. This is one of the points why the sector requests a change in the orientation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) so that fishing activity and its entire value chain is sustainable, but also profitable.

 

It is worth remembering that the Spanish fishing sector has nearly 8,600 vessels, generates 31,000 direct jobs and 150,000 indirect jobs, and invoices 2,000 million euros in first sales. For its part, the aquaculture harvest in Spain was 326,520 tons with a first sale value of 760.7 million euros and the 6,200 retail establishments selling fresh and frozen fishing and aquaculture products grouped in FEDEPESCA employ more than 23,000 people.

 

 

 

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