Peru’s Production Ministry (PRODUCE) has announced it will open the North-Central zone of its anchovy fishery on 16 April, establishing a quota of 2.475 million metric tons (MT) for the first fishing season of 2024.
The total allowable catch (TAC) is significantly higher than the North-Central zone’s two seasons in 2023.
In January 2024, PRODUCE closed the country’s second anchovy season early owing to the effects of El Niño, with only about 75 percent of the 1.68 million MT permitted quota caught. The premature closure came after the cancelation of the first season of 2023, also due to El Niño, where the TAC was set at 1.09 million MT. The decision to cancel that season cost the fishery an estimated USD 1.4 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) in lost revenue.
Peru’s TAC is highly important to the global seafood industry, considering that the country accounts for about 20 percent of global fishmeal production in an average year, according to IFFO – The Marine Ingredients Organization, a trade group representing several leading fishmeal and fish oil companies.
In fact, there was a 23 percent drop in fishmeal production and a 21 percent decline in global fish oil production in 2023, which was primarily attributed to Peru's lower anchovy fishing in 2023 and early 2024, IFFO previously reported. In the first two months of 2024, cumulative fishmeal production dropped by about 26 percent when compared to the same period in 2023.
“Such a decline was primarily influenced by a significant decrease of around 80 percent in Peru, where January 2023 still saw significant landings due to the second fishing season of the year 2022. On the contrary, the early commencement of the second fishing season in Peru's North-Central region in 2023 left less catch available for the start of 2024,” IFFO’s Market Research Director Enrico Bachis said in a release. “Typically starting in November, the season commenced in October 2023, concluding on 13 January 2024.”
However, the industry is now positive that PRODUCE’s latest announced quota signals a rebound, Bachis said.
Peru divides its anchovy fishing areas into two regions – South and North-Central – with different capture limits and seasons set for each. The North-Central is Peru’s main fishing region, with capture measuring several times that of the South region. The fishery, which targets both Engraulis ringens and Anchoa nasus anchovies, is the largest anchovy fishery by volume in the world.
