The Turkish fishing sector closer to European regulations

European funding and the management of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) has made it possible for the training of fishery producers project in Turkey to have twinned the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Consellería do Mar (Marine Department) of the local Galician government. The two bodies have worked together closely for the past 19 months to improve the Turkish fisheries production sector.

The project has allowed the exchange of knowledge between specialists to bring the regulation of the Turkish fishing sector closer to European standards. To do so, it has carried out a total of 86 training activities in which 2,371 people have participated.

The actions carried out have been aimed, in the first instance, at improving the technical and practical knowledge of the provincial directorates of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey in 28 coastal cities to which 936 technical officials have had access. In addition, activities have been carried out to raise awareness of the need to improve the conditions of production structures to increase their profitability and sustainability. And a third line of action has also been carried out focused on disseminating the importance of data collection, with the formulation of 25 pilot production and marketing plans to increase the technical and institutional capacity of 25 producer groups.

In the words of Nezaket Cömert, from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey and coordinator of the project there, in an interview for the FIIAPP communication department, ‘the main objective achieved has been to contribute to the preparation of our fishing sector for an effective adaptation to the fisheries policies of the European common market’. She also emphasised that ‘the specific goal achieved has consisted of the institutional and technical improvement of the capacity of the provincial directorates, their staff, and the groups of Turkish fisheries producers’.