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Friška Riba, a fishermen’s cooperative and producer organisation
by Eurofish
EU-funded projects improve life on board
The fishermen’s cooperative Friška Riba was recently recognised as a producer organisation. This gives benefits in terms of the co-funding fishers receive when they apply for support to upgrade the safety or security on board their vessels
Getting fishermen to work together is no easy task at the best of times. In countries where there is no tradition of organisation within the sector the task is made doubly difficult by mutual suspicion, and the strong individualistic streak that fishermen exhibit. In Croatia fishers have come a long way since the country’s independence in 1991 and since they joined the EU 22 years later. Several cooperatives, associations, or producer organisations have been established partly in response to the incentives offered by the EFF and later the EMFF, and partly in recognition of the fact that more can be achieved through collaboration than as individuals.
The Friška Riba fishermen’s cooperative was established in 2007 by professional fishermen from Split and the surrounding areas including from some of the nearby islands. Today the cooperative comprises 22 professional fishers using purse seines, trawls, and longlines to catch a wide range of species from small pelagics (sardines, anchovies, mackerel) to high value demersal fish (hake, monkfish, octopus etc.), and shellfish such as deepwater rose shrimp and nephrops. Catches in 2021 amounted to about 5,000 tonnes valued at roughly EUR3.3m. The cooperative buys and sells fish, promotes the production on domestic and foreign markets, does the bookkeeping, purchases equipment for its members and keeps them informed about changes in laws and regulations, and lobbies on their behalf to promote and defend their interests. The cooperative was recognised as a producer organisation in 2020, one of only three in the country. The PO coordinates the supply and marketing of the members’ products and by collectively managing the members’ activities, encourages more sustainable fishing.
Today the cooperative is based at the fishing port of Brižina near Split, where the construction of a modern new facility for the collection, storage and processing of fish landings was inaugurated in August 2021. The construction cost some HRK37m (EUR5m) of which about a quarter came from the state budget and the remainder from the EMFF, while the Port of Split also made a small contribution. The building hosts the offices of the cooperative and was designed to meet all the requirements of the fishermen as far as possible. It is thus equipped with refrigerated as well as frozen storage and a large room where the fishers can repair their nets. In addition, there are couple of ice machines with a capacity of 6 tonnes/day. The entire facility is monitored by closed circuit television for the safety and security of the staff and the products that are stored there. Lina Zanki Duvnjak, the manager of the cooperative, is responsible for the sales and marketing of all the fish caught by the fishers; she also applies for EMFF funds to support the fishers in their operations, for example, in improving the safety or comfort on board fishing vessels. As members of a PO these investments are co-funded by the EMFF to the extent of 75, while as individuals the limit is 50.
Linda Zanki Duvnjak, Manager, Friška Riba, a recognised producer organisation and shing cooperative of professional demersal and pelagic shermen.
Plans to start processing operation to add value
The fish is currently not processed, but the cooperative would like to build a processing plant to add value to the product. The cooperative owns a plot of land located some distance from the port but close to the highway which will favour the rapid distribution of the product to the market. The plant will start by producing individually quick frozen (IQF) small pelagic fish and crustaceans. A project to construct the processing plant has been approved by the competent authority, but since then prices have increased and Ms Duvnjak fears that the estimated price of EUR1.35m has increased significantly.
Fishers are still joining the cooperative. To do so they must pay
Neven Žuljevic´, the skipper, and Toni Šimic´, one of his crew members, with Linda Zanki Duvnjak in front of Mr Žuljevic´’s vessel as it is prepared to sail to catch tuna for a tuna farmer.
EUR180 per year and then one percent of the annual turnover (for trawlers it is 2). The fishers are kept informed of the possibilities offered by the EMFF and if they are interested, for example, in a vessel upgrade such as an ice machine on board, Ms Duvnjak and her colleagues in the PO administration will complete all the necessary paperwork. Not all projects are approved though. For example, an application to stick solar panels on the roof of the building was rejected. The cooperative offers a list of services, each with a certain price, for example, a kilo of ice costs HRK1.5, leasing a refrigerated vehicle is HRK437.5, and so on. Members of the cooperative get a 20 discount, while non-members can avail of the through the cooperative, though a fisher may occasionally have a private arrangement with a buyer.
facilities but pay the full price. Compared to the other two POs, Friška Riba only has a port with storage facilities, while the other two have processing facilities too. They are also bigger in terms of the number of members.
The issue of discards is not one that affects the pelagic fishery, but the demersal fishery does land some fish that would otherwise be discarded. This fish is sold to other companies who process it into fish meal and fish oil. Fishers will go out on a fishing trip but may not come back to their home port. They will land the catch at the nearest port and then either send it by land to the PO or deliver it directly to the customer. Whatever the fishers catch is sold
Tuna skipper is pleased with his membership
Neven Žuljevic´, the skipper of tuna purse seiner, who has been a member of the cooperative since 2010 has found it very useful. Being able to repair his nets indoors and the availability of ice are very useful. In addition, he got support to mount a crane on his vessel, and to switch to thermal windows all of which was worth some EUR133 thousand, and all the paperwork was completed by the PO secretariat. Mr Žuljevic´ is supervising the preparation of his vessel to catch bluefin tuna for fattening. An observer is on board the vessel to make sure that all the ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) regulations are observed and that the fishing is in line with the recovery plan for the species. The vessel will operate all around the coast of Croatia and in international waters in the Adriatic Sea until about the end of June. It has a quota of 3.5 tonnes and is part of joint fishing operation with a few other vessels that are all catching for the same Croatian farm. The observer estimates the volume of tuna that is transferred to the farm by reviewing the video that documents the process. The footage is taken with a stereoscopic camera equipped with special software that enables the number of tuna to be estimated as well as the approximate weight. He will make sure that all the steps that ensure the legitimacy of the operation are followed. In the Adriatic, fishers may catch tuna of 8 kg and above and any smaller fish may be no less than 6.4 kg and cannot make up more than 7 of the overall catch. This is different from the rest of the Mediterranean where the fish have to be a minimum of 30 kg in size. This is because tunas are caught in the same period over the entire region. And at this time only smaller tuna can be found in the Adriatic, the bigger ones have migrated to the Mediterranean. All the information that the observer collects will ultimately end up with ICCAT. The duration of the fishing operation depends partly on the weather. When it gets windy then fishing is abandoned because there is a high risk of mortalities.
Mr Žuljevic´ is just one of the members of the cooperative who is satisfied with its performance. According to Ms Duvnjak other fishers show an interest in joining the cooperative as well. The benefits membership confers seem to have overcome some of the resistance to organisation that fishers have exhibited for many years.
Friška Riba
Fishing Cooperative and Producer
Organisation Put Brižina 5 21212 Kaštel Suc´urac Croatia
friskariba1@gmail.com https://www.friska-riba.hr/ Members: 22 Gears: Purse seines, trawls, and longlines Catches: Demersal, pelagic Species include: Hake, monkfi sh, octopus, deepwater rose shrimp, nephrops, sardines, anchovies, mackerel Volume: 5,000 tonnes (2021) Value: EUR3.3m (2021)
