Faroese fishermen are gaining significant benefits from an agreement with the European Commission on fishing for mackerel, while their Scottish counterparts claim they are losing out.
Now Scotland’s mackerel fishermen and processors are urging the UK Government and European Commission to reduce the current access arrangements for Faroese fishermen which allows them to catch mackerel in Scottish waters.
In 2014 a quota exchange agreement and an access arrangement was finalised were negotiated. The access part of the deal enables vessels from Faroe to catch some of their own mackerel and blue whiting quota in EU waters rather than in Faroese waters, and in return EU vessels can catch some of their quota for these species in Faroese waters.
But an economic report on the access arrangement just published by the UK quango Seafish has found that this part of the agreement is heavily skewed in favour of the Faroese, according to the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA).
The report shows that UK received no benefit as its vessels did not catch any mackerel or blue whiting in Faroese waters in 2014. Conversely, the Faroese caught 93% of their mackerel and blue whiting permitted from EU waters with an estimated catch value of £42.1m.
The deal is now up for its annual negotiation and the (SPFA) and Scottish Pelagic Processors Association are calling for the EC and the UK governments to adopt a strong stance to ensure a more equitable agreement is reached.
Ian Gatt, SPFA chief executive said: “We are not against every part of the overall agreement, especially since its enables some Scottish whitefish boats to access quota held by the Faroese. It is also desirable to work within international quota arrangements rather than have autonomous quota setting.
“However, the part of the agreement that is causing us huge concern is the access arrangement for mackerel. This has given Faroe the opportunity to catch over £40m worth of high quality mackerel - primarily from within Scottish waters - which is now being sold into the same markets as our own processing sector, creating marketing difficulties.”
Ian McFadden of the processors association, said: “The market is already challenging given the Russian /EU trade dispute, the devaluation of the Ukrainian currency and significant currency import problems with Nigeria since the oil economy crash. These are all important markets that are now effectively closed. "
He said processors were now in direct competition with the Faroese sector as the mackerel caught in Scottish waters had a much higher quality.
"In essence we have turned their mackerel value from bronze to gold. This access agreement is having a detrimental impact on the profitability of the Scottish processing sector which is a significant direct and indirect employer in Scotland."
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