The price of sardines could soar this summer, to values above 15 euros per kilo, due to restrictions imposed by the government on the capture of this fish. This is said by the Algarve producers' organizations Barlapescas and Olhãopesca, who also fear the increase in unemployment and the unsustainability of the sector in the region.
O Order No. 2179-A/2015, of February 27, decreed a national sardine catch limit of 4 tonnes between 1 March and 31 May, dividing this quota among the various national producer organizations. In the Algarve, Barlapescas was limited to capturing 226 tons during this period and Olhãopesca to 193 tons, quotas considered very low by the organizations.
Mário Galhardo, president of Barlapescas, speaking to the Sul Informação, states that these restrictions on sardine fishing “have very serious consequences. I don't know if sardine fishing in the Algarve will survive. The shipowners have been out of action for six months and there is no company in the country that works for only six months, with personnel and labor charges… The personnel continue to fish because they have nothing else to do. If there was construction, there wasn't a single man at sea at this time».
The limitations for catching sardines are based on the scarcity of this resource, but Mário Galhardo says there are more sardines in the sea than the limitations would suggest. “I don't know how we're going to survive with this quota we've been given. We have 226 tons to fish from the 1st of March to the 31st of May, but, if we hadn't done some containment, in the month of March, we would soon have exhausted the quota».
"There's no shortage, as they say, this year, with the time we've been idle and with the spawning, there should be sardines ashore!", he adds.
According to Mário Galhardo, “the lack of sardines is not in the South, it is in the North, which is why they come to the South to fish. They no longer had sardines, they caught them wildly. That's why the average prices in the Algarve have soared in recent years, because the Algarve's shipowners are in line: when we imposed a rule in the port of Portimão, we talked to Olhão and we operated in the same way. We knew it wasn't worth catching fish to throw away, because we didn't have factories to sell. If there was a large quantity, the price would go down, and we opted for higher quality instead of higher quantity».
This whole situation will be reflected in the final price of sardines and even the Popular Saints may be at risk. «If this continues, this year we are going to buy sardines at the price of sea bass! If it is confirmed that there is no sardine in the North, as it has not been in recent years, and if this quota is maintained in the summer, then the sardine will soar! Last year, there were sardines at 10 euros at auction, maybe I'll sell sardines at 15, 20 or 25 euros, I'm even afraid to release a number on the air… Maybe there are no more sardines for the Popular Saints», warns Mário Gallant.
Miguel Cardoso, president of Olhãopesca, agrees with Mário Galhardo, since «with a demand greater than the supply, the price tends to rise».
The head of the Sotavento producers' organization assumes a problem with the resource, but says that the sector “has reached a point where the fishing possibility granted to Portugal is not coherent with the needs of the fishing, canning and freezing sector. … We can't do more. In a while, we have resources, but we don't have boats or crews, because people are leaving. This has very serious consequences for us».
Miguel Cardoso explains that the fact that Portuguese shipowners are not fishing for sardines may lead traders to opt for other markets. "We are not capturing and the traders are going to look elsewhere, namely Spain."
Although there is an agreement between Portugal and Spain, which defines that only 33% of the Iberian sardines are destined for Spanish shipowners, «the sales system in Spain is not so controlled, and there is a lot of parallel market», in addition to the Spanish Government defined, in January of this year, a monthly catch limit of one thousand tons, until the end of the year (10 thousand tons/year), a situation that could lead, according to Portuguese producer organizations, to change this agreement.
For Miguel Cardoso, “the big problem is the possibility of too much precautionary fishing, which is jeopardizing the sector and the surrounding industry. We can't stand another year like the previous one, many boats will go bankrupt because they can't stand it. What we are asking the minister to do is review this situation and share fishing opportunities for Portugal more equitably and at national level. The worst thing is that this is so little that it is indivisible…».
In all, among members of Barlapescas and Olhãopesca, there are around 50 boats in the Algarve affected by the situation, with a total of 500 crew members, a number that could drop a lot this year: «in view of the production costs, the boats will be forced to stop and fire crew and this will be reflected in unemployment», concludes Miguel Cardoso.
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