Trelew Free Zone Takes Center Stage at Vigo Seafood Fair

FTZ News: Three Patagonian provinces sent fishing officials to the frozen-seafood fair in Vigo this week. On the floor the talk was squid, hake, export taxes and, from Chubut, lots inside the Trelew free zone.

According to Revista Puerto, in a report by Nelson Saldivia dated Oct. 7, the 27th Conxemar International Frozen Seafood Fair opened Tuesday and runs through Thursday, Oct. 8. A FAO congress sits next to it. Argentina is there with Patagonian and Mar del Plata firms. Río Negro sent Sergio Paleo, its man on the Federal Fisheries Council. Chubut sent Diego Brandán, fisheries secretary. Santa Cruz sent Sergio Klimenko, secretary of fisheries and aquaculture.

Paleo said it was the first time his team had come to the FAO congress and the Vigo fair since taking the Río Negro file. He said he was looking for openings for the province’s industrial boat owners, who have taken a beating. On export taxes, he said the national government still owes the fleet. Cutting them, he said, would make the industry competitive again. A campaign promise to drop the tax on diesel, a basic cost for the boats, has not been kept. Río Negro is in its third year of a fishing emergency. A key season starts at the end of October. Last year there was a hint of a shrimp recovery. INIDEP has said hake is coming back, but not enough yet to fish the way the sector wants. Paleo said Gustavo Gualtieri’s administration should help, slowly.

Brandán said the FAO meetings took up the future of fishing, how artificial intelligence may bear on it, and transparency. He set a meeting for Oct. 19 in the Chubut legislature on transparency in the fishery. Sin Azul No Hay Verde will be there. Chubut, he said, was the first province to put a public page online with fishing data. A new fishing law, just voted, benefits Camarones. At the end of the provincial shrimp season the province will add each boat’s catch.

On the Trelew free zone, Brandán said the government is betting hard. A few days ago Mediterráneos del Sur started refitting a lot into a plant for next season. Buenos Aires Pesca has started moving dirt. Arbumasa and Red Chamber have investments planned. Seven projects have been filed. A firm about to get a final permit in Rawson will also ask for a lot.

Klimenko called Santa Cruz Argentina’s first hake hub, built with company work and state backing. This year the province also landed nearly 50,000 tonnes of squid, plus king crab. It wants a shrimp quota rebuilt because it kept the San Jorge Gulf closed for eight years to protect the stock, a closure he said helped the national grounds. His line was not always to catch more, but to add value, with traceability, and more work in Santa Cruz plants. He said the quota fight has to be settled inside the Federal Fisheries Council. Governor Claudio Vidal is named in that file. The paper does not say any contract was signed in Vigo./.



photo: revistapuerto.com.ar