Two weeks after the publication of the Brexit compensation conditions, the shipping companies are thinking about it. At the tip of Brittany, a hundred fishing jobs could disappear.
Since the spring, the question has been on everyone's lips, on the quays of fishing ports. How many boats will be scrapped as part of Brexit-related aid? One month before the closing of the Individual Support Plan files submission(PAI), "not a single request has yet been formally submitted", according to information from the Brittany regional fisheries committee.
But, from Saint-Malo to Lorient, the outcome is beyond doubt. And not only because of the impact of Brexit on the Breton fleet of coastal fishing boats of the Channel Islands and deep-sea sailors accustomed to British waters. "The individual support plan is an opportunity for boats affected by Brexit and affected by the rise in the price of diesel", sums up Jacques Pichon, the president of the national association of maritime fishing producer organisations, director of the La Houle shipping line; ten offshore trawlers based in the port of Saint-Guénolé, in Penmarc'h (29).
“Margins are shrinking”
And for good reason, despite the announcement, on March 16, by Jean Castex, of a commitment by the State to pay 35 cents of aid per liter of diesel to all French fishermen, not all deep-sea shipping companies receive it. not in its entirety.
If the rise in the price of fish has made it possible to mitigate the increase in operating costs linked to diesel and the rise in the price of most equipment, "margins are shrinking", worries Christophe Collin, the director Bigouden shipping line, eleven offshore trawlers based in Guilvinec.
In this context, the manager does not rule out a reduction in his fleet, synonymous with a ban on building a new boat for five years. "Our decision has not been made," tempers the armament director.
The unanswered call for solidarity
The outcome of this new scrapping plan could lead, according to the profession, to the loss of a hundred direct jobs in the Bigouden region, for lack of a solution to the energy crisis and while the armaments have advanced the amount of aid diesel promised in the remuneration of their crews.
Especially since the call for solidarity from large retailers, launched by the Secretary of State for the Sea, does not seem to meet with a favorable response, in a context of declining fish consumption.
A second meeting scheduled for this week on the subject has been postponed, sine die.
Under these conditions, the La Houle shipping company, after commissioning a new boat almost a year ago , soon to be joined by a sister-ship, is seriously considering resorting to the scrapping plan. Two boats… or even four, while the shipowner's diesel bill has doubled in one year. “The PAI, we see it as a way to limit damage. A survival measure”, warns Jacques Pichon
Story by Jean Le Borgne