The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) has initiated a second investigation in the fishing sector against various fishing companies which own vessels, for allegedly imposing an unfair purchase price when negotiating quota usage fees with fishing rights holders without vessels in the Horse Mackerel sub-sector.
According to the competition watchdog, fishing companies which own vessels allegedly imposed lower quota usage fees on the fishing rights holders, well below the minimum government reserve price, instead of matching it or offering more.
“The Respondents have participated in the auction since its inception by buying certain amounts of quotas at the set reserve price without any negotiations, by way of submitting closed bidding tender documents. At the same time, the Respondents negotiate quota usage fees to be paid to the fishing rights holders, before concluding quota usage agreements,” NaCC Spokesperson Dina //Gowases said.
“The Commission is therefore of the view that, as a result of the Respondents’ conduct of negotiating Horse Mackerel quota usage fees with the fishing rights holders, whilst offering non-negotiable prices to the Government at the auction, the Respondents are engaged in potential anti-competitive conduct by imposing an unfair purchase price to the fishing rights holders in possible contravention of Section 26 (1) read with Section 26 (2) (a) (directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions) of the Act.”
The Namibian government introduced a fish quota auction system in 2020, setting minimum prices for quotas at N$3,000.00 per quota for the freezer quota and N$750.00 per quota for the wet quota.
The minimum prices have since been increased for the 2024 fishing season to N$3,500.00 per quota for the freezer quota and N$850.00 per quota for the wet quota.
Namibia, according to the NaCC findings, has 11 fishing companies that harvest Horse Mackerel, 128 Horse Mackerel rights holders, 20 Horse Mackerel rights holders’ joint ventures without vessels, and 20 operated Horse Mackerel vessels in the Namibian Horse Mackerel fishing sub-sector.
Furthermore, the Commission has also established that there are about 10 fishing companies that operate/charter Horse Mackerel vessels in Namibia.
