The squid fishing season that will begin in a month in the Flakland Islands has in suspense the Vigo fleet that works in this fishing ground in British waters.
One of the vessels that will participate is the Hermanos Touza, which will leave the Beiramar wharf in the next few hours towards the Southwest Atlantic for four months.
Shipowners Cooperative of Vigo, ARVI.
"There is much uncertainty, more than ever, after the last vote, and if on March 29 there is no agreement we would have to leave the waters," says Javier Touza, president of the Shipowners Cooperative of Vigo (ARVI) and owner of the company Chymar, which operates the freezer trawler.
A total of 43 vessels from Vigo and Marín associated with ARVI operate in Flaklands, of which the majority (24) have a Spanish flag and the rest, a foreign one. The fleet is getting ready to start within a month the fishing season of the Patagonian squid that will unload the entire production in Vigo and that has in Europe its main market.
"Expectations are good, but we'll see what happens," Touza says regarding a "more than possible UK exit from the European Union." "Each time it takes more strength to the possibility that there is no agreement, so we have all our efforts in this matter because the socio-economic impact would be very important," adds the president of ARVI.
The cooperative held a meeting last week at the highest level with the Secretariat of State for the EU, responsible for Customs, ICEX, Chambers of Commerce and Employers' Confederations to accelerate the implementation of contingency plans.
"We can't wait at the last minute and we try to put ourselves in the worst case with a chaotic Brexit to be prevented. because in the case of leaving the EU it would become a third country and would change many aspects of great importance in terms of issues customs, phytosanitary, VAT or a possible payment of tariffs." Regarding this last point, Touza indicates that it would be "a serious setback" because "our product would be less competitive and there would be shortages in the market". "The socio-economic impact would be very relevant because four jobs on land depend on each job at sea," he recalls.
Argos Cíes, a fishing vessel belonging to Vigo-based shipowner Pereira, operates in Falklands' British waters.
Together with Falklands, another area of great commercial interest for the Vigo fleet is the British fishing ground of Gran Sol, where fifty boats operate, of which only a dozen bear the Spanish flag.
"We were forced to relocate because of the lack of fishing quotas and we have 33 more vessels with flags from other countries such as Ireland or France," says Touza. In this case the species that are caught are products of great economic value such as hake, megrim or monkfish.
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The cooperative held a meeting last week at the highest level with the Secretariat of State for the EU, responsible for Customs, ICEX, Chambers of Commerce and Employers' Confederations to accelerate the implementation of contingency plans.
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