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File photo / Ematum boats docked in Maputo
Mozambique’s Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries, Agostinho Mondlane, told AIM on Wednesday that the boats of the Mozambique Tuna Company (EMATUM) now meet European Union specifications, and hence the tuna they catch can be exported to the EU.
He was speaking in the wake of remarks made by Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane in May to the parliamentary plan and budget commission that the fishing boats did not meet the specifications demanded by the EU, and so had to be refitted by a South African company.
EMATUM itself denied Maleiane this Monday, by placing a small item on its website saying “Unfortunately, misinformation led to statements from the Ministry of Finance, and then misleading press articles, concerning the building standards of EMATUM’s trawlers”.
The company, it added, “wishes to confirm its utmost satisfaction with the quality of the fleet that was delivered as well as its building standards that fully satisfy EMATUM’s operational and commercial needs”.
Mondlane told AIM there had been what he called “a minor problem” related to lifting gear on the boats. He said this had now been corrected and the 24 EMATUM fishing boats are fully EU compliant.
As for the boats obtaining the relevant licences from the Mozambican authorities, Mondlane said half the boats were licensed in 2015 and the licensing procedures continued this year. There are two licenses, one on the seaworthiness of the vessels and the other on health and hygiene. Without these licences, boats are not allowed to fish.
Maleiane confirmed to AIM that he had indeed told the parliamentary commission that the boats did not meet EU specifications. But if he was “misinformed”, then he was “misinformed” by EMATUM itself. He said that the information he passed on to the commission came from EMATUM sources.
The original report on Maleiane’s remarks was published on 23 May by the Maputo daily paper, “Noticias”. The reporter who wrote the story, Mussa Mahomed, confirmed to AIM that Maleiane had indeed said that the boats needed to be refitted to meet EU requirements.
Mahomed added that Maleiane told the commission that, since it was too expensive to send the boats back to the shipyard where they had been built, in the French port of Cherbourg, it had been decided to call in a South African company to fix the problem.
A representative of the media relations interests of Privinvest, one of the main shareholders in Abu Dhabi Mar, the company which owns the Cherbourg shipyard assured AIM that “The vessels left Europe, where they were constructed, in accordance with the agreed specification, with appropriate Bureau Veritas and other classifications confirming compliance with French (and therefore European) regulations”
The “Bureau Veritas” mentioned is a global company in testing, inspection and certification services, headquartered in France.
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