Image: Revista Puerto / FIS

Shrimp Season in Jeopardy as Tensions Persist

ARGENTINA
Monday, February 19, 2024, 01:00 (GMT + 9)

Despite the efforts of the Government of Chubut to bring the parties in conflict closer together and promote dialogue, the season continues to struggle. The STIA and SUPA delay the negotiations and another week of fishing was lost. It is operating only a dozen ships.

The catches in December and January were records if we compare the same months in recent years in the jurisdictional waters of Chubut, but today the shrimp (Pleoticus Muelleri) harvest entered an impasse and it is difficult to predict what will happen in the coming weeks.

Source: Revista Puerto

These days a dozen boats from a fleet of one hundred were operating, whose catches supply processing plants in Comodoro Rivadavia and Rawson, and this Thursday a company from Puerto Madryn also took out its boats.

The season is still open, it is a political decision of the provincial government, which has not granted the request for cameras to end the harvest. After the long carnival holiday, multiple meetings were held with unions and companies with the idea of making effective the premise of continuing to discuss wage parity, but with the boats fishing and the plants processing.

The Government does not want to close the harvest

Source: Revista Puerto

From the Executive, through the Secretaría de Pesca, they continue to make efforts so that the activity is resumed and there are parameters of a certain normality that allow working without ups and downs. The union's failure to comply with previous commitments made to collaborate in the maintenance of the season has not helped in any way to unblock this situation.

It is also true that there are certain companies that prefer to maintain the stoppage, waiting for better conditions in international markets, given the stock they have of shrimp that is still unmarketed.

FEPA negotiates

Source: Roberto Garrone | Revista Puerto

After the arrest of five members of the SUPA Chubut in a case for extortion and threats, the Federación de Portuarios Argentinos (FEPA) was established in the province, they met with Governor Ignacio Torres and remained in charge of the negotiations.

“We left the meeting with Torres very satisfied and with all the optimism of signing an agreement. We are willing to engage in dialogue to get negotiations back on track and for workers and businessmen to meet through dialogue for and for the future of the ports of Chubut,” said Marcelo Osores of FEPA. He is the same national leader who had announced that he would paralyze all the country's ports if the union intervened in Chubut; which could happen shortly.

Vessels and plants working

However, the boats that went fishing in recent days have operated normally with stowage, taking into account that they disembark at the private docks on the southern edge of the port, where there is no conflict.

And the merchandise has been transported to plants in Comodoro Rivadavia and also in Rawson, where the Food Union has complied with the mandatory conciliation. This Thursday, yellow boats from a company in Puerto Madryn left for the fishing area, so we will have to wait as the hours go by to see what STIA's actions will be when they have raw materials in the plant.

The scenario remains complex, tensions remain and another week of the season has been lost. The vessels that are leaving bring very good shrimp and there are marks in several places. It is unprecedented that an annual species that has optimal levels of abundance is not being fished and the production chain is interrupted. The consequences will only be measured later, and it may already be too late.

Author: Nelson Saldivia | Revista Puerto (Translated from the original in Spanish)

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