The fishermen will have the opportunity from this Thursday to express their anger, in particular over the end of diesel aid and the “disengagement” of the State from a sector “on the brink of the abyss”. The annual fishing conference opens for two days in Nice.
The Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, confirmed on Saturday that cash flow aid of 20 cents (excluding tax) per liter of diesel would stop on October 15. “It is not up to the State to always replace the responsibility of all the players in the sector,” he said, in an interview with West France and TV-Rennes.
Fishermen “caught” between diesel and fish prices
The overall cost of these measures, in place since March 2022, amounted to 75 million euros for the State, with the government affirming that it can no longer extend them “because the European regime which allowed this aid stops this year “.
The Secretary of State’s statement was seen as “a provocation” by professionals. “We are caught between the price of diesel and the price of fish, which is very low,” testified Christophe Collin, director of Armement Bigouden in Guilvinec (Finistère). One of its nine ships thus returned to port with 43,000 euros of fish for an exorbitant expense of 23,000 euros of diesel.
An aging French fleet
On Wednesday, the main organizations in the sector also denounced the “disengagement” of the State. The national fisheries committee (CNPMEM) raised its voice, recalling the capacity for mobilization of fishermen, while the France Filière Pêche association (FFP), the inter-professional association bringing together fishermen, fishmongers, processors and distributors, considered that it was not up to the sector to “make up for the government’s shortcomings”.
The French fleet, third in the European Union behind Spain and Denmark with some 6,500 ships, has shrunk by more than a quarter in twenty years. Its weapons are aging, like its sailors, almost half of whom will retire within 5 to 10 years. And the succession of crises, from Covid-19 to Brexit, has further weakened it.
The Secretary of State in front of the fishermen on Friday
The fishermen especially regret “a lack of consideration” from the government. “For two years, the State has (responded) to the emergency, but without defining the conditions of a lasting solution for the sector nor displaying concrete ambition for French fishing for the next 20 years”, according to the committee national.
“Where are the 100 million euros that the Secretary of State wanted to impose on large and medium-sized stores? Rather than making announcements, he should have accompanied us,” lamented the president of the national committee, Olivier Le Nezet. According to him, the challenge is rather to achieve lasting solutions, allowing the sector to recruit, decarbonize and find balance. Hervé Berville’s response is expected Friday morning when he comes to the meeting.