The Draft Budget (PPEF) 2023 envisages a nominal resource growth of 5.2% compared to 2022, an increase that arouses diverse opinions about the support provided by the authorities for this economic activity.

The percentage change between the two years occurs when considering the budget of the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission (Conapesca) and the National Fisheries Institute (Inapesca) in 2023 in contrast to what was stipulated for next year.

Alfonso Rosiñol De Vecchi, vice-president of Fisheries of the National Chamber of Fishing and Aquaculture Industries (Canainesca), believes that this increase would not be enough to address the challenges faced by fishing in Mexico.

“We have been saying that this budget is insufficient for years. Basically, they are leaving it at the same numbers as it was being handled,” he said, after data shown by Journalism CN in which the budget increase would be 1.3% in real terms with base year 2022 (unlike nominal amounts, real terms take a base year and are compared without the effects of inflation).

If there were no further changes during the budget approval process in the Chamber of Deputies, the increase in real terms for Conapesca next year would be 5.4% compared to 2022.

José Luis Carrillo, president of the Mexican Confederation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Cooperatives (Conmecoop), explained that the conglomerate he leads has proposed that the budget cover the priority needs of the sector.

“To strengthen regional offices and the issue of inspection and surveillance, there must be a responsible and serious program of inspection and surveillance. Inspectors have to be provided with the necessary supplies to be able to carry out their activities and from this point of view the budget contemplates it,” said Carrillo.

Inapesca, in rumors of disappearance

The National Institute of Aquaculture and Fisheries (Inapesca), a unit that has been listed in a bill to be absorbed by Conapesca, appears in the 2023 PPEF with 517 million 668 thousand pesos, an increase of 4.3% in nominal terms compared to this year.

Rosiñol explained that there are voices outside the sector that have undervalued the work of Inapesca, without stopping to analyze the budgetary issue.

“Then it is said, either people who are far from the sector or a little further away from the sector say that Inapesca is useless, and that it does not carry out investigations and that it must be eliminated. And it's the other way around. This problem is caused because you don't have enough resources, so you can't, or (don't have) enough staff, so you can't carry out investigations. So it's being underactive, because of the lack of budget, not because it's not necessary,” Rosiñol explained.

Carrillo pointed out that there is confusion in the sector due to rumors about the disappearance of this institution, given the need for fisheries research studies, a field in which “much more needs to be done,” he said.

“Inapesca really lacks sufficient resources to be able to work in depth on the research topic in several fisheries,” said Carrillo.

Bienesca

The BienPesca program is the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's main social assistance commitment for fishermen. It consists of the delivery of 7,200 pesos annually to 188,969 people this year.

It is a component of the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Aquaculture Promotion Program of the Agriculture and Rural Development portfolio, which projects to have 1,688 million pesos next year, which is 5.14% more than last year. However, it is not yet clear if this increase will translate into the fishing program, or into the other components that comprise it.

“In the case of the Bienesca program, the intentions may be the right ones, but it is not having the expected results,” Rosiñol said, in contrast to the subsidies previously granted by the federal government to fishermen.

“That resource that used to be used so that boats could go out fishing to give them support and that they could go out when energy costs were high in some cases and in other fisheries helped keep the products at a lower price because because you had this stimulus that you had a lower expense, because you received the support to go fishing,” he explained.

For his part, Carrillo explained that at Conmecoop they are in favor of returning to having an outboard motor replacement program, in which the federal government, federal entity and fisherman contribute a third to the purchase of engines. Something that existed in the previous administration.

“It was a very effective program that benefited individual fishermen, there was no intermediary that could disperse it, but it was direct,” said Carrillo.

Industry Challenges

“If you ask any fisherman what the main problem is, they will tell you what that is, that of illegal fishing,” Carrillo said.

According to information from Pescando Datos de Causa Natura, in 2021, 105 million 375 thousand pesos were authorized in monetary resources for inspection and surveillance tasks, the lowest amount since 2016, according to data available by Conapesca.

In the first five months of 2021, 372 complaints were filed and 44,483 acts of inspection and surveillance carried out, resulting in six sanction files and 0 seizures at the national level.

Conapesca did not report information on the causes of the sanctions, the type of sanctions applied or entities where they occurred.

The fight against poaching has transcended Conapesca and has become a matter of national security, Carrillo said. “It involves other security institutions. The Navy, the National Guard, state police, in short. In addition to the fact that it is also necessary to coordinate the structure around this environmental crime, or the prosecutors' offices, customs offices, and so on.”

For his part, Rosiñol emphasized the need to make a new assessment of fishing, in which, in addition to considering raw fish, the costs of the commercial chain are also included, with the objective of determining the attention that the federal government should give to the fishing sector based on its economic value and the potential that aquaculture has to grow for global food security.

“So we need to make a real assessment of what the sector represents and then see how these institutions should work in the most efficient way, what staff they should have, how many people they should be serving the sector, so that it is not an obstacle but something that is the engine that drives it... It should be something efficient,” said Rosiñol.