The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights Anton Refalo took part in a high-level virtual meeting organized by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) in collaboration with the European Commission.
At the meeting ‘Building together a new strategy for Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries and aquaculture’, Minister Refalo explained how challenging this year has been in which all countries have faced unprecedented circumstances due to the pandemic COVID-19, as it has disrupted societies around the world and has caused great damage to the economy globally, including that related to fishing and aquaculture. He expressed his concern that Maltese sectors have been particularly affected by market disruption following declining demand from buyers. This led to a reduction of about twenty percent in sales of fishery and aquaculture products.
Minister Refalo also mentioned how much this pandemic has served as a catalyst for the change of sales concepts that have turned into opportunities. This is because today we can also find the sale of fresh fish on social media platforms and through apps that take the product to the door of the consumer.
The Maltese Authorities have worked in this sector to improve fisheries management at national level through various initiatives such as the installation of GPRS on board all fishing vessels and the installation of new software in the Fishing Monitoring Center. This was done to increase the monitoring of the Maltese fleet while also increasing the collection of information.
Malta will maintain its commitment to safeguard the fisheries and aquaculture sector while complying with recommendations and regulations aimed at the sustainable use of resources at sea.
The Minister went on to say that Malta recognizes the objectives of the strategy and agrees with the strengthening of capacity, cooperation and solidarity in the Mediterranean region. “Our country will continue to work to eliminate illegal fishing that is not reported or regulated and therefore control and information collection efforts are being made. Malta must comply with the GFCM strategy where it must work hard on long-term environmental and economic sustainability especially when it comes to small-scale fishing ”.
Minister Refalo closed his speech and said that in order to achieve the objectives of the GFCM strategy, Malta reiterates the need for legal harmonization in the Mediterranean region in a holistic way. He stressed that the key to success would be if everyone shared their resources with only one goal, that of active harmonization that achieves effective management with a sustainable future of marine resources across the Mediterranean.
Photo: MAFA
