This Friday, the Assembly of the Republic (AR) unanimously approved the negotiation of more licenses for the installation of tuna traps, for Portugal, with the European Union.
The Draft Resolution, presented by the Socialist Party, recommends to the Government "a set of measures around the consolidation of greater resources for Portugal in terms of catching, growing and fattening bluefin tuna, as well as in terms of national quotas."
At the moment, although there are three of these structures operating in national territory, all of them in the Algarve, two of them – operated by the company Real Atunara, from Vila Real de Santo António – are using licenses not used by Spain and Italy, since Portugal only has a license for one Tuna Armação, granted to the company Tunipex, based in Olhão.
In addition to "the definitive consolidation of more licenses (a minimum of two more traps, making up the three that have been precariously maintained) for the installation of bluefin tuna traps in Portugal", the draft resolution now approved also urges the Government fighting for the "possibility of associating growing and fattening units with registered frames, not harming them by feeding the specimens there," according to the PS deputy elected by Algarve Miguel Feitas.
«We took the initiative to present this Draft Resolution with the understanding that it constitutes a contribution to the negotiation process with the European institutions and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which will take place in December, in which Portugal we must fight for an increase in the national quota for the capture of bluefin tuna», summarized the coordinator of the Socialist Party for Agriculture and the Sea, in AR, who promoted this parliamentary initiative, as he had guaranteed after a visit to bluefin tuna traps in the Algarve.
Although official negotiations between member states only take place at the end of the year, the process has already been launched. The director of Real Atunara Miguel Socorro was in Brussels last week, to present arguments to the European Union, and has already used the deliberation of the Portuguese Parliament as a negotiating trump card.
If the issue of licenses is a priority for Portugal, for Miguel Socorro it will be just as or more important to achieve recognition of the fattening modality in Portugal. As the farming aspect is not recognized at Community level, only the capture aspect, Portuguese companies are restricted to selling only the weight of fish that they have allowed to enter the frames, not being able to take away all the added value of the fattening they promote. .
Even so, the two companies do not stop feeding the fish and keeping them, until they grow, with the costs that it entails, since it adds value to the fish, when it comes to selling. And despite the fact that, in practice, they haven't caught more fish than the quota allows, these companies are forced to release a large quantity of tuna with each passing season.
According to the socialist Miguel Freitas, «in 2014 alone, we released 1200 fish», something that «lacks the investment made in the profitability» of tuna and is a «competitive disadvantage», compared to other European countries that are dedicated to the production of tuna. same species and are allowed to fatten.
Comments