The very strong increase in the price of diesel has set off the alarms in the Asturian fishing ports. All shipowners are scandalized by the cost of filling ships’ tanks these days and some, especially the owners of ships with large fuel consumption, take stock and weigh the advisability of mooring while the energy storm subsides, because going out to fish can lead to losses.
The average price of fishing diesel (subsidized) was 63 cents in December 2021. Even then, as this newspaper published, the fishermen were crying out loud because the fuel had become 72% more expensive between November 2020 and the same month of 2021. But since then the evolution of the price has not stopped getting worse: in January of this year it was paid at prices between 69 and 74 cents; in February, between 75 and 80 cents. And yesterday, at 1.23 euros per liter. Not only has the psychological ceiling of the euro been broken, but it has shattered.
Thus, the president of the Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds, Adolfo García Méndez, anticipates the possibility of a general tie-up and market shortages. “Who else who less is doing accounts of the cost of going out to fish and with such diesel prices, the most sensible thing is to stop the boats,” warns the fishing leader.
In other autonomous communities, such as Galicia and Andalusia, strikes in some sectors of their fleets are already a reality. Given the panorama, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds, to which the Asturian belongs, has requested an emergency meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to expose the problem and seek possible solutions, which would have to go through articulating compensatory formulas that reduce the cost of refueling.
The National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds advocates extending the moorings of boats that are already taking place in some ports throughout the country in the face of the escalation in diesel prices, “because it leads to an unviable situation for the fishing sector.”