The "top dollar" paid by consumers for fish is not reflected in the earnings of those working at sea, the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation (IFPO) has said.
Instead, the catching sector is being penalised by ever-tightening controls and restrictions, while processors are reaping the benefit of cheap imports and over-quota fish, it maintained.
In a hard-hitting attack on the EU regulatory system, the IFPO said that fishermen must see some benefit from increased control: in other words, if they are to catch less they must get a better price. Otherwise they will not be able to afford to attract and retain skilled crew, and will not be able to afford to replace or modernise old boats, it said.
Processors and distributors have "too easy access" to unregulated supplies of fish, where "no questions are asked", the IFPO said.
They can draw on cheap imports from countries where fisheries are not properly managed, and on "black fish" caught above the quota.
This has to stop, the IFPO said.
European legislation agreed four years ago permitted the extension of controls to the sales chain. However, the brunt of monitoring still falls on the catching sector, the IFPO said. It has made a submission to the European Commission's advisory committee on fisheries and the Department of the Marine.
