The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) has initiated an investigation into the fishing sector after allegations of price fixing related to quota usage fees surfaced.
The competition watchdog said it received information, on 18 August and 22 September 2023, alleging possible collusion amongst various vessel owners and operators in the country’s fishing industry.
“The collusion is allegedly in the form of fixing fishing quota usage fees that are paid to fishing rights holders when they enter into quota usage agreements with the vessel owners/operators,” the Commission Spokesperson Dina //Gowases said.
The operators allegedly offer fishing rights holders the same price and refuse to negotiate the fees when the fishing rights holders raise concerns regarding the offered quota usage fee.
This is because fishing rights holders do not own vessels, and thus find themselves in a catch-22 of selling their rights at any price offered by the vessel/operators.
Fishing rights holders receive annual quotas from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources which they are required to utilise fully by the end of each fishing season.
This necessitates those that have no vessels to approach the vessel owners and operators, and enter into quota usage agreements, for the latter to utilise the allocated quotas on their behalf.
“However, these owners and operators prioritise harvesting their own quotas and only thereafter endeavour to harvest the fishing rights holders’ quotas. At this juncture, it is alleged that fishing rights holders have no choice, but to agree to any quota usage fees that the vessel owners and operators are offering, also taking into consideration that, the vessel owners and operators also have access to their own fishing quotas as well as those of National Fishing Corporation of Namibia and Government objective quotas,” //Gowases said.
In the same manner, the Commission has vowed to be lenient on vessel owners and operators who may voluntarily approach the NaCC through its Corporate Leniency Programme on a first-in-the-door and or a would-be applicant basis, to apply for leniency by self-reporting themselves and handing over evidence regarding the alleged cartel conduct.
Namibia last year exported fish worth N$7.8 billion, a marginal decrease of 1.3% from N$7.9 billion recorded in 2021, according to Simonis Storm, the sector accounted for an average of 12.5% of total exports in 2022.
