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Business English: Fish - a catch in Iceland's EU saga
One of the most efficient fleets in the world feels threatened by the EU's rulesFish, not finance, is Iceland's future. This at least is the vision of the savvy, gnarled fishermen of Dalvik, a community of 1,500 souls nestled on a fjord under snow-capped mountains just below the Arctic Circle.
Two years after Iceland's overextended banking system and currency exploded like one of the island's 35 active volcanoes, financial adventurism is out and fishing is back in fashion. "We are realising, after the collapse, that natural resources are the beginning and the end of our economy. Energy and fish are our greatest resources," says Gretar Thor Eythorsson, a political science professor at the nearby Akureyri university.
Nowhere is the return to tried and tested ways of living more evident than in Dalvik, where Samherji, one of Iceland's biggest fish companies, dominates the local economy. It employs one in 10 residents, including Poles, Russians, Filipinos and Thais.
Some smaller fish businesses, creaking with debt, suffered from the financial crash, which destroyed the value of the Icelandic krona. But Samherji, with operations from Germany, Poland and the UK to Mauritania and Morocco, is going from strength to strength. Its Dalvik plant markets 10,000-12,000 tonnes of fish a year. It specialises in niche products such as protein-rich fish heads which, extending a centuries-old tradition of Icelandic fish exports to west Africa, are sold to Nigeria.
All of which casts doubt on whether Iceland, despite having applied last July for membership of the European Union, will decide that it is really in its national interest to join the club. Several issues divide Iceland and the EU - agriculture, whaling and a dispute with the UK and the Netherlands over Icesave, a failed online Icelandic bank - but fish is in some respects the most slippery of them all.
"We would lose control of our fishing rights. We would lose control of our industry. All the decisions would be taken in Brussels and not in the interests of Iceland," says Gestur Geirsson, managing director of Samherji's land-based production.
To qualify for EU membership, Iceland would have to participate in the bloc's common fisheries policy, which sets national quotas for how much of each species can be caught. Rule-bending is rampant. France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain will each receive a reprimand this week from the European Commission for failing to curb unsustainable fishing.
Icelanders, who have fished the Atlantic since their Viking ancestors settled the island more than 1,100 years ago, believe their methods are better. Unlike many European fish businesses, Samherji and other Icelandic companies receive no state subsidies. Not without reason, they boast they are among the most efficient in the world, managing fish stocks as well as turning a profit.
The cost of EU membership
There is, of course, a catch. EU membership would require Iceland to accept the bloc's rules on free movement of capital, which would in theory enable European companies to buy their Icelandic competitors. At present, this is impossible under Icelandic laws. "This will be an issue right at the heart of the membership talks," predicts one Commission official.
Fishing is central not only to the Icelandic economy, providing 40 per cent of export earnings, but to the Icelandic identity. Long under Norwegian and Danish overlordship, the nation did not achieve full independence until 1944. "The resources issue is blown out of all proportion by the emotional sovereignty issue. We are such a young republic. All these nationalistic sentiments swirl around," says Birgir Gudmundsson, a politics and media professor at Akureyri university.
Volatile opinion polls capture this mood. When EU leaders gave the green light two weeks ago for the launch of membership talks with Iceland, one survey indicated that 58 per cent of the population wanted the government to withdraw its application. Fish supplies part of the explanation, says Pall Vilhjalmsson, a leader of the No movement. "To live in a modern society, we have to control our fishing rights. We are a resource-based economy," he says.
So why did Iceland apply to join the EU? "The short answer is that we had a national nervous breakdown," he says, referring to the psychological influence of the financial crash.
The fishermen of Dalvik are the first to admit that they, like many of their 320,000 countrymen, bought into the extravagant illusion that Iceland could be a financial empire of the north. "I won't lie. I was up for it when it was going on. Now we know of course that it was crazy, and we're angry with government about how it ended up," says Mr Geirsson.
Fishing represents a return to reality. "I am quite happy with how it has turned out," Mr Geirsson reflects. "We are strong. We are alive and kicking. We will survive."
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13.08.2010
© 2010 Financial Times Deutschland
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© 1999 - 2010 Financial Times Deutschland
Aktuelle Nachrichten über Wirtschaft, Politik, Finanzen und Börsen
Börsen- und Finanzmarktdaten:
Bereitstellung der Kurs- und Marktinformationen erfolgt durch die Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG. Es wird keine Haftung für die Richtigkeit der Angaben übernommen!
Über FTD.de | Impressum | Datenschutz | Disclaimer | Mediadaten | E-Mail an FTD | Sitemap | Hilfe | Archiv
Mit ICRA gekennzeichnet
VW | Siemens | Apple | Gold | MBA | Business English | IQ-Test | Gehaltsrechner | Festgeld-Vergleich | Erbschaftssteuer
G+J Glossar
Partner-Angebote