IRELAND:  Ireland’s Tuna CHART bluefin tuna sea angling survey programme for 2023 has opened for charter skippers to apply.

Anglers in Ireland will once again have the opportunity to catch and release bluefin tuna in 2023 through the continuation of the Tuna CHART (CatcH And Release Tagging) programme that has been in operation around our coast since 2019.

Experienced charter skippers are now invited to apply to take part in this year’s Atlantic bluefin tuna scientific survey programme of Irish waters.

Building on the successes of the Tuna CHART programmes of 2019-2022, this scientific data collection catch-and-release fishery for Ireland will again operate in 2023.

A maximum of 25 authorisations may be granted to qualifying angling charter vessel skippers around the Irish coast for this fishery, which opens on 1 July and closes on 12 November.

The Tuna CHART programme is a collaborative scientific programme between Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and the Marine Institute in partnership with the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority

Source: afloat.ie

CAMBODIA: In collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has opened a new Representation Office in the Cambodian capital to build on its long history of cooperation, FAO on 20 March 2023.

Cambodia joined FAO as a Member Nation in 1950. FAO opened its first full Representation Office in Phnom Penh in 1994. However, the Organization had been actively working in collaboration with its Member since 1979 to serve the needs of the Cambodian people.

During these years, FAO has provided assistance to support the implementation of the country’s national development priorities, through both emergency and technical support, in many areas including increasing agricultural productivity and diversification, irrigation, animal production and health, management of fisheries and forestry resources, food security, food safety, and agri-food industry development.

The official opening of the brand-new FAO Representation Office took place today in the Ministry’s compound and in the presence of H.E. Dith Tina, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), and Jong-Jin Kim, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific.

“The location of this brand-new FAO Representation, located within the compound of MAFF, is emblematic of the close cooperation that our Representatives and FAO technical colleagues have been enjoying for many years with Ministry counterparts and others, and I am sure its presence will enable further fruitful interaction between us,” said Kim.

The inauguration, in addition to marking another historical milestone of strong partnership between FAO and Cambodia also indicates a strong willingness on the part of MAFF to collaborate with FAO well into the future.

“We have been working very hard with FAO and other partners from the very beginning and so the result we have today is the fruit from what we had planted. We have been partners for 70 years. Since (restoration) of peace and elections in 1993 and the return of FAO in 1994, many things have changed, and in a positive way,” said H.E Dith Tina, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). “We came from a society where hunger was a permanent threat, but today we come to an era where we talk about the needs of the market and how we can grow sustainably.”

Through this convenient working environment, the technical relationship between the FAO Representation and Cambodia will result in even stronger ties and foster future innovative collaborations, speakers said.

Projects valued at over USD 65 million set to commence implementation in 2023.

By the end of 2023, FAO Cambodia aims to have commenced the implementation of a range of new projects, in close collaboration with MAFF and other partners, with total funding of over USD 65 million – raising the total value of FAO Cambodia’s country portfolio to more than USD 120 million. That would represent an increase of 120 percent in FAO’s country portfolio, compared to the previous year.

New additions to FAO Cambodia’s country portfolio include the recently approved Green Climate Fund PEARL project (USD 43 million). Focused on enhancing local people’s fight against climate change, it will be the biggest project in the portfolio. Additionally, FAO anticipates receiving funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for livestock and land restoration activities, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for forestry, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD).

“At FAO Cambodia, we are very much looking forward to developing even greater collaboration with MAFF and other development partners. Backed by the support we receive from our FAO Regional Office in Bangkok and FAO headquarters in Rome, I am confident working in this new Representation we will do just that,” said Rebekah Bell, FAO Representative in Cambodia. 

Bell added that FAO in Cambodia stands ready to continue its support to Cambodia to assist the Royal Government of Cambodia of achieving its priorities by building even more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all.

Source: FAO

SPAIN: Before the official announcement of the European Commission on the relaunch of trade negotiations with Thailand, ANFACO-CECOPESCA expresses its deep concern about the start of negotiations between the EU and Thailand for the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement, the relaunch of which was made official by the European Commission .

Thailand, with a production of more than 550,000 tons, according to the latest available data from the FAO, is the world's leading producer of canned tuna, having a good share of the EU market even without enjoying total preferential access.

A free trade agreement between the EU and Thailand that involves the opening of the community tuna market would have a lethal impact on the Spanish and community canning industry, which has invested and continues to invest in order to carry out its activity based on robust health, social and environmental. It would mean a break in the competitive balance that would jeopardize the 15,000 direct jobs in the canning industry in Spain alone.

The continuing nature of the current Thai government headed by the general who led the coup in 2014 raises serious doubts about the existence of a real democracy in Thailand, which supposedly will hold general elections in 2023, and about an effective implementation of the advances announced in the social, labor and environmental spheres. For example, in relation to the fundamental conventions of the ILO, Thailand has not ratified those related to freedom of association and the right to organize and one corresponding to safety and health at work.

 For this reason, this news seems incomprehensible and surprising, to which ANFACO-CECOPESCA has already manifested its request for the total exclusion of tuna from the scope of this negotiation. In addition, the establishment of solid preferential rules of origin whose definition is wholly obtained fish, and only a bilateral accumulation for the set of fishery and aquaculture products that may be affected. Likewise, effective mechanisms must be considered to ensure in the long term that no tuna canned benefit from tariff preferences.

After the relaunch of the negotiations in this context, ANFACO-CECOPESCA will begin a round of contacts with the different Administrations, both Spanish and Community, in order to transfer the sectorial position on negotiations that must be developed taking into account the sensitivity of the Spanish industrial fabric. and community. Otherwise, it will mean the disappearance of a century-old industry in the country, committed to the social and economic development of the regions in which it is located.

In statements by Roberto Alonso, Secretary General: "This news is a cause for notable concern, in the face of a country, Thailand, with serious and repeated democratic deficiencies, conflicting ethical principles, and a lack of effective surveillance and control to ensure compliance with the basic community regulations on labor or environmental aspects, despite the sustainable approach that the Commission wishes to justify. It supposes a competitive loss due to the lack of level playing field. We hope, and thus we will actively sue all the agents involved, for the European Commission to reassess its decision and in any case impose the total exclusion of tuna, which under no circumstances can be subject to a tariff reduction, a position that we will defend with all means possible, our scope. We will have a firm position, since the opposite would imply the disappearance of our fish canning industry in Spain. We will not allow our history, jobs and industry leadership to be lost.”

Source: ANFACO CECOPESCA