Someone once said that you can put lipstick on a pig but that doesn’t alter the fact that it’s still a pig - - which is pretty much an accurate description of the latest BIM Seafood Report.
Editorial Comment - Cormac Burke, IFSA
Despite leading with a report headline that seems purely intended as a PR spin for the Government in the run-up to a general election by claiming “Government spending boosts Irish seafood industry in 2023 amid challenges”, all the efforts at whitewashing cannot mask the fact that this industry is in the biggest crisis of its history.
And it is noticeable that this report, which has been due for release since last April, comes in the same week that the Minister is at the Ploughing Championships (and therefore presumably unavailable for questioning from the industry), and in the same week that the CEOs of the main Producer Organisations are all in Brussels at meetings - - timing is everything when releasing political ‘bad news’.
The farcical BIM Seafood Report from the previous year remains fresh in the memory - - a report which attempted to manipulate, if not totally avoid, some glaring figures of an industry in serious financial decline - - indeed it was only when the Bord Bia subsequent report was issued did the general public get to see the real state of a sector that was down by almost 40%.
This time the Seafood Report is at least a bit less fanciful but still attempts to put a positive headline of Government investment and “commitment” by trying to claim that this Government is somehow ‘saving’ the industry despite the figures speaking for themselves with frightening reductions across the board.
Amongst the gross figures and efforts at a positive report, the negatives for the fishing and seafood industry are glaring and alarming:
Landings into Ireland by Irish & non Irish vessels down by 8%
Irish exports to the EU down by 12%
Irish exports to Asia down by 13%
Irish export value down by 10%
Top selling species, Cod down by 5%
Aquaculture value down by 14%
And, as if it’s a positive, proudly announcing an increase of 9% of fish imports from the UK when in fact this is indicative that there isn’t enough available raw material at home.
And all of this without addressing the fact that Ireland’s inshore sector is hanging on by a thread, the demersal fleet has been reduced by one third and still don’t have enough quota, and the pelagic processing industry has shrunk in operational size by some 35%.
Speaking of the processing sector, it was a poor effort by the author of this report in stating that 6% of jobs in Irish coastal communities are in the fish processing sector and that this “increases” to 14% in Co. Donegal —— a sentence formulated just to get the word “increases” in there for those who only glance over the report….
This is purely a demographic statistic and is in no way related to any form of an increase or a positive in this sector - - the reality is that the numbers of days worked and the numbers of people employed in such factories is plummeting downwards over the past two years due to these factories having a major lack of raw material as a result of the combination of Ireland’s ever-dwindling pelagic quotas and the reduction of landings by non Irish pelagic vessels.
Meanwhile, claiming “increased Government spending in 2023 as part of the BAR was at a record level” is surely a contradiction in terms as BAR money came from the EU / Brexit fund and is therefore not Government investment - - so saying you ‘spent’ the BAR money cannot and should not be confused with Government ‘investment’ in the industry.
Summary
It was recently brought to my attention that those of us in the industry who attempt to cut through the BS and shine a light on the true facts and the critical state of this industry are seen, and often described, by such semi State bodies as ‘being negative’ - - personally I find it tragically comical that these people put such great effort into political spin in attempting to play down the crisis in our fishing industry when everyone who actually works in the same industry are suffering reduced income, if not complete unemployment, barely able to put food on the table in some cases, and yet are subjected to manufactured PR pamphlets telling them not to worry that “amid challenging times” the industry is enjoying unprecedented Government investment…
Most of us in the industry can recall a time when the business of such semi State bodies was ‘seafood development’ and a time when these bodies worked for the fishing industry and were not employed as a political PR mouthpiece. . . Sadly, from the perspective of the factory owners or workers or the vessel owners and crews, there’s not much progress or ‘development’ in evidence these days.
Wouldn’t it be an interesting exercise if all marine civil servant and seafood semi State body employees had their salaries index linked with the average fisherman or fish factory worker, and have to endure the same financial reductions and fears of job security as the people at the grassroots level of this industry?
I wonder if then they’d be less inclined to try to tell everyone what a positive state this sector is in?
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The latest BIM seafood report as follows: BIM - Government spending boosts Irish seafood industry in 2023 amid challenges
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