Members of Fishing Cooperative San Jose bet on the direct sale of fish products

In Peru, the artisanal mahi mahi and squid fishing owners depend mostly on intermediaries, that is, a third party that helps them finance their fishing operations, but at what cost? not being owners of their fishing and, consequently, not having bargaining power.

This situation affects the economy and the development of fishing vessel owners by obtaining lower profits for their products. In addition to this, they also don’t have the appropriate channels to contact the plants and the logistics to transport their product. By changing this situation, fishing vessel owners can sell directly to the plants to access better prices.

In this context, WWF Peru, within the Por La Pesca project framework, has been promoting the members of the San José cooperative to agree to sell their catch directly to processing plants. As part of this work, a commercial agreement was signed between the fishing cooperative and the Ocean Seafood plant.

Thanks to this agreement, the coop. Pesquera San José has been implementing direct sales processes through its partners, obtaining good results. Among the main benefits of the agreement, are payments within 48 hours, product weighing through scales controlled by the Ministry of Production, acceptance of electronic invoices in the name of the shipowner or cooperative, and the possibility of receiving fishing in different docks, among others, standing out.

Of course, to access this benefit it is essential that fishing owners have all the necessary documentation (fishing permit, registration certificate, health authorization protocol) that proves that their fishing comes from a legal source.

“The objective is that once the formalization process is completed, they can progressively access new markets and directly sell their products as entrepreneurs to the processing plants, obtaining higher income compared to the “traditional process” of selling hydrobiological products. This will show that being formal has a real economic and social benefit,” explained Aaron Canepa, WWF Peru Markets and Fisheries Officer.


Rafaella Parodi, Coordinator of Sustainability and Environment of Océano Seafood, remarks that artisanal fishing owners will have social and economic benefits associated with formalizing and implementing sustainable fishing practices. "This process has been successfully completed, which will allow us to guarantee to the main export markets that the products we offer come from formal vessels and that they carry out sustainable fishing, which will allow us to better position ourselves as a country," he stressed.


PROFITABILITY IN THE FISHING ACTIVITY

Aaron explains that, in order to maximize the profitability of the fishing activity in the extraction of the giant squid resource, the acquisition of inputs for fishing operations in bulk is also being promoted through joint purchases, applying the principles of economy of scale, to reduce the operating costs that cooperative members invest to develop their fishing activities.

"The first important experience occurred at the end of May, where the cooperative acquired 50 buckets of oil to be offered to its members at competitive prices and with a clear reduction compared to the sale price of local stores or markets," added Aaron Cánepa.

It is expected to replicate these experiences of joint purchases on a regular basis so that the fishing cooperative constantly provides benefits to its members and increases its capital so that in each new process, a greater number of products are acquired and their reach is increased.

From WWF we seek to strengthen the institutionality and organizational capacity of the cooperative by improving internal processes for decision-making, the involvement of more managers, transparency in the management of the cooperative, and start managing benefits in favor of its members.
 

© WWF-Peru