New Zealand expertise has helped the Argentine fishing ventures to boom. Fishing companies Sanford, Talleys and Sealord have all had co-investments in Argentina for years, targeting the abundant stocks of hoki in the southern Atlantic, but attitudes to the controversial market have started to diverge.
It is said that mid-term elections in Argentina hold a range of possibilities for continued volatility and political wrangling or renewed hopes for political stability. Talleys’ operations manager Andy Smith informed that in the South American republic’s fishing industry politics were everything.
Smith told that it is an unstable country. The whole Argentine system is corrupt from top to bottom. Boom-bust economic cycle and political instability makes Argentina a nation of pessimist attitude. Smith said Talleys was rethinking its involvement after its fishing boat sank recently. Managing director Eric Barratt said Sanford pulled out of Argentina in 2007 after six years, selling its interests to its Argentinian partner because it seemed an “opportune time to get out”.
Argentina offered great potential to New Zealand fishing companies, which were experienced in fishing and marketing one of the main local species, hoki. Smith said the market value had more than doubled in the time they had been involved. Daryl Smith, operations manager of Sealord’s joint venture company Yukon, said it was fishing 5 per cent of the total allowable commercial catch for hoki, but had potential to expand that to 15 percent.
