Turkey strengthens its fishing sector following the Galician model

Within the framework of the project “Promotion of the capacity of fish producer organisations and of the provincial agricultural directorates”, financed by the European Union and managed by FIIAPP, Galician specialists from the  Consellería do Mar will present to their Turkish counterparts how they work with the fish producer organisations (POs), thus providing knowledge and good practices to improve the Turkish fisheries sector. All this will be in line with the common organisation of the markets for fishery and aquaculture products.  

For this project, which will last one year, Galicia has been chosen because of the experience of this community in marine/fishing matters, as well as the similarities between the structure of this sector in Turkey and in Galicia, marked by their artisanal fleets and the geographical dispersion of ports.   

“We are going to show how we work with the POs. Reviews will be done on the ground and there will also be visits to Spain by the Turkish counterpart”, said Antonio Basanta, the head of the Spanish project. He also said that the tasks will be focused on transiting all the operation of the administration in the area of fisheries “to the European model”.   

In the project, the FIIAPP will work together with the Consellería do Mar and will have the participation of the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and specialists from the Region of Murcia.  

Thanks to this project, Turkey will take another step forward in its ambition to join the European Union. Regarding fishing, according to FAO data, the catches of the Turkish fleet reached 321,800 tonnes in the period 2014-2016.