The Administration Board of Fundopesca decided today to activate this salary compensation fund for fishing professionals on all the islands of the archipelago of the Azores.
Through written consultation, the members of board decided that the conditions for the activation of Fundopesca are met, after analysing the number of unloadings registered in the archipelago between March 2 and 25.
During this period, there was an income drop on 15 alternate days, resulting in a daily fish auction value of less than 35%, compared with the daily arithmetic average value of the last three years, which is calculated per island.
The beneficiaries of this fund will receive an amount corresponding to half of the regional minimum wage (333.37 Euros) for income losses due to the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in that period.
In coming days, 215 thousand Euros will be paid to the approximately 650 fishers who are beneficiaries of this salary compensation fund.
The drop in fishing income will continue to be monitored on a daily basis in order to verify the eventual need for a new activation of Fundopesca by the end of April.
The Regional Government, through an ordinance published Tuesday, increased the appropriations of Fundopesca by about 350 thousand Euros.
The Government continues working on the procedures to anticipate the granting of aid under the Compensation Scheme for Additional Costs in Fisheries, commonly known as POSEI-FISHERIES, in collaboration with industry associations.
Moreover, the Regional Government is also working with competent institutions to streamline the access to some of the financing measures provided for under the current framework of the European Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) with the aim of channelling other funds to support the sector, given the current pandemic situation.