Fishing union urge MSC to operate in Mar del Plata

The Argentine Council of Fishing Enterprises (CEPA) and the Argentinean Chamber of Fishing Industry (CAIPA) have requested the intervention of national and provincial authorities to prevent the MSC shipping company from suspending the services of its container ship, whose last landing was this Thursday at the Port of Mar del Plata, August 1st.

After the company announced that it would no longer provide the weekly service offered at Argentina’s main fishing port, the two unions warned several ministers and secretaries of the consequences of this decision.

All for export

The entities pointed out that “fishing activity is strongly linked to foreign trade” since “90% of its sales” are destined to markets “distributed across the five continents”.

In this context, they indicated that the weekly entry of the MSC vessel represented “an important advance for the activity” at the time, and stressed that this service was possible after “important public and private investments” were made, such as dredging the canal access and the internal port mirroring, which motivated the fishing companies to “adopt all their operations”.

For the entities, the fact that one of the two shipping companies that provide services in Mar del Plata will stop doing so “will mean a setback for which we understand that we would never return, as it will be necessary to rebuild inarticulate logistics.”

More costs

The entities explain that this decision will cause a significant increase in logistics costs, since the operation that includes loading trucks to the nearest terminal, in Buenos Aires, “must be resumed”, contradicting efforts to achieve authentic regionalization of port activity in Argentina”.

Describing the consequences of reduced export capacity at the port of Mar del Plata, they explained that companies will have to re-ship their goods by truck, with the usual impact on routes, higher costs, exposure to theft, delays in loading, and non-compliance with deadlines.

“In addition, fishing companies will begin to rely on the services of a single shipping company, which could lead to monopolistic attitudes,” they warned.

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