Spanish Authorities Block Senegal & Ghana Tuna In Port ff

According to the secretary general of the Spanish National Association of Canned Fish Producers (ANFACO), Juan Vieites, Spain’s cannery sector has expressed its discontent with increased, stringent controls on tuna landings carried out by the local authorities. They claim that this situation is causing a dramatic decline in the amount of available raw material, which will be extremely threatening for the activities of this industry.

Mr. Vieites was referring to the news of the seizure of 800 tons of tuna for the local cannery industry, which a Panamanian-flagged freezer carrier intended to land at the Galician port of Pobra de Caramiñal.

Fisheries inspectors in charge of the operation found that the cargo, coming from Senegalese and Ghanaian-flagged fishing vessels did not comply with EU regulations.

According to Vieites, this incident involving the carrier with African whole round tuna is not an isolated one.  He claimed that a large amount of raw material imported by canners is seized at the ports by order of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA), given the threat this poses to production.

Canners believe that the increased control measures being applied over the last few months has led them to operate “at low-level capacity,” and some production lines are even at risk of closing down “in the middle of summer, when there is a peak in the demand.”

Despite canner's statements, they made it clear that they are not against the crackdown on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, but they demand that the measures be the same for all European ports, and that controls be applied also at other stages of the tuna production chain.

One of the issues of major concern according to ANFACO is that the raw material that cannot enter Spain due to the current strict controls may later be sold in countries such as France and the United States, where it is processed and then sold to Spain, thus “representing a ferocious competition in the market.”

Faced with this situation, ANFACO members have urged authorities to adopt equitable measures in order to defend their sector.