The Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands allocates, through the European and Maritime Fisheries Fund (EMFF), a direct subsidy of 600,000 euros to the 35 points of first sale of fresh fish to support their production and marketing as an extraordinary measure to mitigate the consequences of Covid-19 in the sector.
Authorized establishments for the first sale of fresh fishery products are responsible for guaranteeing traceability and comprehensive control of the production and marketing of fishery products. In addition, they carry out important health prevention work, since they are the places where the ciguatoxin prevention protocols are applied, which are of vital importance to guarantee the health of the final consumer. The Ministry, within the framework of its strategy to increase food sovereignty, considers it necessary to reinforce local primary production, contributing to the financing of the operating expenses of the 35 authorized establishments, which is why this subsidy has been articulated, which is awarded based on the historical number of premium labels issued and the volume of fish mobilized.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Alicia Vanoostende, explains that “first-sale points are an essential service to guarantee supply to the population, and we allocate aid that will affect production, distribution and sale with due health guarantees.”
First-sale points carry out an activity of public interest, and in most cases they are linked to fishermen's guilds. Until the activation of the state of alarm, they covered their expenses through the provision of this service and with the income that the fishing guilds received from other activities such as the sale of ice, or catering. This subsidy aims to reinforce the maintenance of the activity that has been damaged by the decrease in income as a result of the current pandemic.
