Fishermen have stopped all work activities at sea. They cannot earn enough to cover their expenses. For the last year and a half, there have not been enough fish and we are fishing at the limit of profitability. For the last six months, we have been operating in the red, and for the last month and a half, due to the appearance of the Salpa Maxima organism, we have not been fishing at all.
This is stated in a statement by the National Association of Fish Producers, signed by its president, Marko Kise.
Fishermen, the statement said, are wondering whether the state needs commercial fishing and whether fishermen are collateral for the sea and marine resources.
"The way in which the fisheries development policy has been conducted since 2010 has resulted in only a small number of unfortunate commercial fishermen encouraging themselves and the EU, trying to maintain commercial fishing. We wonder what the closure of Chapter 13 will do for the state of Montenegro, when the state does not address the fundamental reasons for the survival of fisheries. In vain does the directorate perform its duties well when the ministers, ministries of 2020 (Stijović and Jokić), with whom we have met almost 10 times, do not want to understand us and solve the fundamental problems that are exclusively within their jurisdiction. They justify themselves: "Well, we are not the ones who solve problems within the jurisdiction of other ministries". True, but you will not address our long-standing cries to the competent ministries and be persistent and protect fishermen at government meetings when problems in fisheries are being resolved. You gentlemen do not do that," the statement states.
Kise states that on May 14, almost 80 percent of Montenegrin fishermen agreed to address the media and to gather in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Resources as soon as possible to express their dissatisfaction.
"If we fail to resolve the problems, we will organize a strike and the law on strikes must be applied. On April 07.04.2025, XNUMX, we wrote to the Institute of Marine Biology in Kotor for an expert opinion. To this day, there has been no response, although we have spoken by phone three times," says Kise.
He adds that they have asked Minister Vladimir Joković to declare a state of natural disaster and to keep us scrubbing until Salpe Maxime disappears.
"Minister Joković is the president of the commission for natural disasters, and he doesn't even want to talk to us about natural disasters, let alone help us financially."
They say that "Albania is to us in fisheries what Spain is to the EU."
"The problems that we cannot solve with the MAFWM are the following: To have an official fuel price (which they pay) like in the EU, or H or Albania. We do not have fishing ports or the first landing of fish. For seven years now, we have been victims of a three-way game: the Government, the Port of Lazure in Meljine, and the Fishermen. The reason is that the state does not want to come before the Port administration and get acquainted with the established norms and the fishing port of Lazure in Meljine, and the status of the Port. The municipal government in Herceg-Novo is not helping us, but is putting its foot down and does not want to resolve the fishing port in this municipality for its fishermen. The state is developing fish imports, which are approximately 20 million euros or more annually, but we do not have a market for selling fish or for processing fish. We have nowhere to repair ships, especially wooden fishing ships. Our commercial fishing ships are outdated and the state must find a way to help us renew them so that they are ready to enter the EU. The state should pass a regulation that allows owners of fishing ships for commercial fishing, who already have a license, to import "new or used boats to replace an old fishing boat with 0% VAT. That the VAT for equipment and fishing materials imported with a customs declaration through Italy and Croatia be reduced to seven percent. Unfortunately, there are many problems and we will inform the Montenegrin public about all of this through the media during an upcoming gathering in front of the MAFWM," the statement reads.
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