Press Release
The Ministry of Fisheries

NR. 15b/96, 18. April 1996

Producer organisations in the fishfarming industry

The Ministry of Fisheries has on 18 April 1996 circulated to relevant bodies a memorandum proposing a legal basis for establishing producer organisations (POs) in the fishfarming industry. The memorandum requests trade organisations in the fishfarming industry to assess a Norwegian model for producer organisations.

The background to the proposal is that collaboration among producers in the fishfarming industry is in principle illegal under competition rules. However, both Norwegian and international legislation opens the way for collaboration among producers if producer organisations are established.

The Ministry of Fisheries proposes a system involving several independent producer organisations. The various producer organisations would in principle be free to pursue the activities they consider to serve their members' interests best. Such an organisational set-up would safeguard competition in the future.

The purpose of forming producer organisations in the fishfarming industry is to assign greater responsibility to producers for adjusting production to market conditions. The European Union, which is the main market for Norway's fishfarming industry, has repeatedly introduced minimum prices for Norwegian salmon. In 1991 the United States imposed an anti-dumping and subsidy tariff of 26%. A system of producer organisations may enable us to avoid further measures against the Norwegian fishfarming industry in the future.

The ministry stipulates that the system of producer organisation should be based on voluntary membership. Fishfarm operators should be free to choose whether they wish to join a producer organisation and which such organisation they wish to join. Equally, a member of a producer organisation would be free to withdraw its membership.

Nevertheless it is proposed that the producer organisations should be entitled to impose measures applying both to members and non-members in circumstances where there may be a risk of serious disturbance of the market. Measures would then be taken to avert lasting imbalance and pre-empt trade policy measures. However, the duration of any such measures taken by the producer organisations should be limited to a maximum of one year, and the Ministry of Fisheries must approve the measures in each case.

The consulted bodies are requested to communicate their comments and statements on the ministry's memorandum by 31 May.