in Finistère, concern about the consequences of Brexit is increasing

Charles Guyard, edited by Yanis Darras
11:00 a.m., February 25, 2023modified to

11:05 a.m., February 25, 2023

The cows are in the aisles, the exhibitors are unpacking the last boxes of products… No doubt, the Agricultural Show begins this Saturday, Porte de Versailles in Paris. For the occasion, Emmanuel Macron will stroll there almost all day in the corridors of the event, meeting the public, farmers… But also fishermen.

The latter are particularly affected by the consequences of Brexit. With the drop in the number of fishing licenses, nearly 90 vessels will have to be scrapped in the next three months, including 45 in Brittany alone. “It’s worse than if we closed a factory”, assures Stéphane Le Doaré, president of the community of local communes of Guilvinec. So, a demonstration is planned for this Saturday to denounce this situation deemed abject.

Fish arrivals soon reduced

No less than 26 trawlers will be scrapped by this summer, and nearly 700 jobs on land may also be destroyed. A real social tsunami in this basin of 40,000 inhabitants, alerts the elected official: “whether in ship repair, transport … It’s a whole sector that is collapsing”, continues Stéphane Le Doaré.

In fact, with half as many boats in operation, fish arrivals will also plunge and lead to a whole economy in this fall. “To think that we can potentially be half impacted is catastrophic for companies”, reacts Jennifer Leroux, who represents a hundred wholesalers within the Breton Association of Fishery Product Buyers.

“It scares us for our job”

“The first reaction of companies should be to simply reduce their number of employees to lower the volume of activity,” she continues. And that is precisely what fears Loïc, carrier. “We transport directly from the auction to the Rungis market, but also to Nantes, Bordeaux or even Spain. So if we have less activity, it scares us for our job”, he underlines.

Allowing the remaining boats to fish more would save jobs, according to industry players. But this requires the lifting of fishing quotas. A point that will be rightly claimed during the mobilization of this Saturday.