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The owner of a small fish market in Jurilovca commune, Radu Manolache, announced on Monday that he is renouncing the property in favor of anyone who can make a profit of one leu per month under the current legislation in fish farming and has proposed to the national authorities the development of the Tulcea Fish Exchange Market.
His suggestions were made public during a meeting held on Monday by the National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture (ANPA) within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, attended by fishermen, presidents of fishermen's associations, and the ministry's secretary of state Gheorghe Stefan and ANPA head Marian Lixandru.
He proposed amending the legislation so that fishermen would no longer pay tax and be encouraged to legally sell the caught fish.
The owners of the first fish sales units in the county present at the meeting backed the development of the first fish sale center in Tulcea, known as the Fish Exchange Market.
They pointed out that the fish caught in the Danube Delta should be transported in ice and packed properly in Tulcea.
In his turn, the president of the Ro-Fish organization of fish processors, Marian Constantin Cuzdrioreanu, drew attention to the very high price that is charged for the Danube Delta fish.
The governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, Ion Munteanu, stressed the importance of the Fish Exchange Market for this area of the country.
"This exchange market is essential if it works normally, because a fish amount will come to the surface and we will be able to properly assess the status of the fisheries in the Delta," the Reserve's governor said.
In response, the Secretary of State from MADR, Gheorghe Stefan, one of the initiators of the Tulcea Fish Exchange Market, supported the processors.
ANPA President Marian Lixandru recalled that the purpose of the fish exchange market was to establish the traceability of the fish and the best price for both fishermen and buyers.
Also, the representatives of the Management Authority of the Operational Program for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs announced that they asked the European Commission for an additional audit on the fish market so that Romania should not return the funds received from the Union.
"The dialogue with the European Commission has been going on for more than a year, so I could not specify when the discussions will be finalized on the topic of the closure of the operational programs 2007-2013," said director Gheorghe Vacaru.
The Tulcea Fish Exchange Market project was announced by the authorities more than ten years ago, but the objective was inaugurated in April 2019. The project aims to eliminate the tax evasion in the fishing field, to monitor the real catches in the Danube Delta, to support fishermen, as well as the sustainable exploitation of the fishery resource.
