Voluntary ‘tie-up’ scheme slammed by fishermen as unfit for purpose

Four fish producer organisations have described the ‘Covid-19 Voluntary Fleet Tie-up Scheme‘ announced earlier this month as ‘completely unfit for purpose’ for an industry that is “fighting for its very survival.”

The industry is “unequivocal in our rejection of a botched and ultimately useless scheme” that does nothing to provide reassurance to fishermen during this pandemic,” remarked Seán O’Donoghue, Killybegs Fishermen’s Organsation.

“Instead of achieving the key objective of matching current supply and demand, the scheme will do the reverse with very little voluntary uptake, as almost all vessels will continue to fish, thus making an already over-supplied market worse.

“Crucially, not one single cent of new financial support is being made available to the industry.”

Discussions

Representatives from the IFPO, ISEFPO, ISWFPO and the KFO met with marine minister Michael Creed to outline what they describe as a ‘workable and effective temporary tie-up scheme’ that would try to match supply to demand.

They recommended a three-month scheme (April to June) to be reviewed at the end of May, and suggested that financial support for temporary tie-up should be based on 30% of a vessel’s total gross for the same period in 2019.

‘Force majeure’ should also be taken into account for this period, along with a tie-up period of 7-10 days.

The producer organisations have also “successfully lobbied” at EU level for an amendment to the European Maritime Fisheries Fund (EU Regulation 2020/560) “to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak,” he added.

Seafood demand

Demand for seafood has fallen to such an extent that some fishermen are not receiving any bids “they have risked life and limb to catch”. Closure of restaurants, markets and other outlets has also seen prices plummet by up to 70% for some species.

“This has created a serious and unprecedented crisis for Irish fishermen. As an industry, we’ve never faced anything like it,” Mr O’Donoghue added.

Capitulation in demand and prices combined with vulnerability and complexity of the supply chain, is making the sector a “loss-making exercise. Nonetheless the industry is doing everything in its power to ensure consumers continue to have access to essential nutrition in the form of high-quality sustainable seafood.”

As the fishing industry must find a safe passage through Brexit and its consequences, Mr O’Donoghue said he has never witnessed such anger in the sector:

“I implore the Minister to review the scheme, and deliver the very basic support that we need to survive. We are more than willing to meet him halfway and continue to operate, thereby providing a sustainable and very important food supply.”