Good practice:

Fishermen and municipality join forces to set up a local fish and aquaculture products market

Located on the banks of the Danube, in the south of Olt County, the city of Corabia has more than 170 small scale fishermen. While the city’s fisheries sector has traditionally been reasonably profitable, most of fishermen were unable to sell their catch locally due to a lack of a physical fish market. Confronted with the challenges of long marketing chains and difficulties accessing other markets in the region, fishermen have seen their livelihoods decline in recent years.
The Olt Fisheries Association asked the local municipality to support them in planning a local fish market to sell their catch. Construction of a building for the market with facilities meeting European standards soon followed, allowing fishermen to sell their catch directly. More than 1.200 kg of fish per day is now being sold here including species such as: wels catfish, northern pike and zander. The local market also serves as a handling area and auction, including for the neighbouring villages.
The main beneficiaries of this project were: the fishermen, the producers in fisheries and aquaculture sectors and the local community.

The project received funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) in the form of a FLAG grant. Overall budget: EURO 594.320; EU contribution: EURO 360.467; Public contribution (national): EURO 120.156; Public contribution (local): EURO 113.697.

The fish market has considerably improved conditions for the sale of fresh fish products, processed fish and aquaculture products in the town of Corabia, thus encouraging the competitiveness of the local fishermen. It also provided 12 new jobs of which 3 were for fishermen.
Moreover, it led to another investment from a Spanish company who, in partnership with the FLAG, opened a nearby fish processing unit that prepares products for the local market.

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Local fish markets can be a solution for many fishermen in areas where they are unable to access other markets and want to shorten supply chains. This project illustrates how good collaboration between the fisheries and aquaculture sectors and public stakeholders can benefit a local community. In this case, the location and equipment were provided by the municipality but other forms of collaboration might be found depending on local needs.
Moreover, the project is an example of how the FLAG can act as a catalyst to strengthen the relationship between local fishermen and public authorities, in order to create the necessary synergies to empower and increase the competitiveness of the fishermen. Even though this is a smaller initiative, it could, in the long run, inspire other public European entities to support local producers and try to achieve Policy change.