Sep
13
Mussel harvesting vessels. (Photo: Lia Russo)
Brussels accepts to provide aid to mussel producers
EUROPEAN UNION
Friday, September 14, 2012, 03:00 (GMT + 9)
The European Parliament (EP) approved Stevenson Report on fishery and aquaculture products, which includes the Galician mussel among the eligible species to avoid their price drops.
This document of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) is one of the four reports of the future Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) that will regulate the fishing industry from 2014 to 2020.
It is expected that producers’ associations receive funding to be able to store mussels and place them on the market when prices stabilize.
According to Ana Miranda, BNG MEP, “it is a measure that makes it possible to guarantee producers’ incomes and stability in the market for this product, on which thousands of people in our country depend for their livelihood.”
Furthermore, she appreciated the role Stevenson Report confers to the designations of origin as a quality assurance, Atlántico reported.
Meanwhile, Carmen Fraga, PP MEP, welcomed the result and explained the author of the report, Struan Stevenson, bore in mind a visit he performed to Galicia at the time of issuing the report.
Fraga stressed the chapter on the data provided to consumers because the proposal from the Commission mixed “good information with a flood of indigestible information for the consumer.”
Meanwhile, Miranda believes that the consumer is spared information.
“Consumers of canned food and of processed fish and shellfish are not going to know where the product they are made with comes from after the advance of the PP’s amendments to remove the labelling proposal which the Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, had made,” she added, newspaper Faro de Vigo reported.
Regarding fresh fish, it was decided to record the landing date on the label but not the capture one.
If the document is ratified, Miranda considers that the consumer will not know the origin of the products of a can or whether the fish being purchased was thawed before the sale.
By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
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