Response to interpellation 2023/24:630 on fishing harbors in Halland
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD considers that a robust food production requires a strong food industry and sustainable fish stocks 1. KD wants more fish to be landed in Sweden by promoting Swedish-produced goods in order to reduce vulnerability during a crisis 1 2. KD emphasizes that commercial fishing is a priority issue 2 and that food that cannot be produced in peacetime can never be produced in a crisis or war 3. KD argues that the government has initiated many measures to strengthen society's preparedness 4. KD considers that a strengthened food preparedness requires robust food and drinking water systems 4 and that the work on the food strategy 2.0 is an important part of this 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! Christofer Bergenblock has asked me what my view is on commercial fishing as a part of Swedish food security in the event of crisis or war. He has also asked me what my view is on the need for a robust infrastructure for commercial fishing in the event of crisis or war and whether I intend to act to strengthen the same.
A viable country with good self-sufficiency needs both farmers, professional fishers, and aquaculture producers. For that, a strong food industry and a forward-looking grocery trade are required. A robust and sustainable Swedish food production is also based on a good marine environment and sustainable fish stocks.
Swedish food is, as is well known, good and climate-smart, and it creates jobs throughout the country. The Government Offices are now working on developing the food strategy 2.0, and I want it to make a clear impact across the entire food chain. It should contribute to an increase in total food production, create good conditions for Swedish-produced goods, and also reduce our vulnerability in the event of a crisis.
The Government has taken several initiatives to strengthen food and drinking water preparedness as a whole. The Swedish Food Agency, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and the Swedish Veterinary Services have been working for several years to rebuild food preparedness.
Regarding commercial fishing, the Swedish Board of Agriculture has analyzed reception capacity and production in our Swedish fish processing. The authority has identified both obstacles and opportunities for a larger share of the Swedish fishing opportunities to be landed and processed in Sweden. The report shows that better cooperation between the relevant actors regarding port infrastructure is important so that fishing vessels, ports, and processing companies can be developed and meet each other's needs.
The government has therefore given the Swedish Board of Agriculture a new assignment. Based on the agency's previous report, they are to develop a concrete action plan for the blue value chain in Sweden. The assignment is part of the government's policy aimed at ensuring that companies can grow along the entire blue value chain, Madam Speaker, from fishing and aquaculture via the processing industry and all processing steps to market and consumer.
The Swedish preparedness shall be taken into account, and through a combination of rural and infrastructure policy, the conditions for landing, cultivating, and processing fish shall be improved.
Christofer Bergenblock (C)
Madam Speaker! I thank Minister for Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren for the answer to my question.
We are living in a restless time. We have just left the pandemic behind us. A war is ongoing in our direct vicinity, in Ukraine. Sweden's preparedness has moved to the center in a completely different way than before.
In this, not least the food security has come to be at the center. Now it is no longer only the Center Party that talks about the fact that we need to have functioning agriculture and green industries in the whole country, but actually all parties in the Swedish Riksdag do.
Food supply is, naturally, largely about our farms, the green industries and a functioning primary production, as well as the food industry and processing and the subsequent sales chain. Good initiatives have been taken to secure production, and as I understand from the Minister for Rural Affairs, various measures are underway to secure this.
We know that we need a secured access to fertilizers, seeds, fuels, spare parts and, not least, agricultural land in the future – it must not be built away.
Food production in Sweden is not only about the green industries but also about the blue industries. It is from this point that my interpellation takes its starting point. The blue industries concern both aquaculture and commercial fishing. Now, I focus primarily on commercial fishing.
What has prompted this debate is a piece of work that the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management has been working on. Proposals have been developed to move from today's 55 national interest-classified fishing harbors in Sweden to 29. This would therefore mean almost a halving of the number of fishing harbors that are classified as being of national interest.
Then one might ask, Madam Speaker, whether it is so important what is written on a piece of paper regarding a fishing port in Sweden. The answer is: Yes, it is. If something is classified as a national interest, it has a different level of protection in relation to other societal interests. A fishing port that is a national interest for commercial fishing cannot be converted into a leisure port. One cannot build housing or facilities too close to such a port; instead, one must ensure that there is access to the port and that it functions for commercial fishing.
If the protection is removed, there is a risk that other interests will take precedence within a few years, and then we will no longer have functioning fishing harbors for commercial fishing.
In Halland, where I have my home port, we have three fishing ports: one in Glommen, one in Träslövsläge and one in Bua. I happen to live in Träslövsläge myself, so I am well acquainted with commercial fishing and its conditions.
According to the proposal from the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, two of these ports will disappear. Only the commercial fishing port in Träslövsläge will remain. This means that the redundancy for the Halländ fishing risks being significantly hindered. Above all, if one ends up in a crisis or war, there will be less possibility to land fish, which we will need for our food supply.
The Minister mentioned in his answer better cooperation and new action plans, but in the meantime they are being developed, these fishing harbors may disappear. My question is: Does the Minister consider the ongoing development to be reasonable? If not, what initiatives is he taking to counteract it?
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I thank the member for the supplementary questions regarding matters that are important for our ongoing work in this issue.
As I mentioned, the government is working to ensure that total food production increases. We will promote Swedish-produced goods, which generally reduces Sweden's vulnerability in the event of a crisis or, ultimately, in the event of a war.
Commercial fishing is no exception in this context. It is a priority issue for me and the government. The most important thing is, on the one hand, that a larger part of the Swedish fishing opportunities should be able to go directly to human consumption, and on the other hand, that more fish than today are landed in Sweden.
The work for both commercial fishing and aquaculture requires a holistic perspective so that we can create robust companies. In this context, it is important that the chain between the fishing and the land-based operations functions well.
In addition to the assignment to the Swedish Board of Agriculture, which I mentioned in my introduction, the government has recently referred the report Food Preparedness for a New Era. We expect important input, not least from professional fishing.
Furthermore, the government has recently referred the partial report Simplified conditions for a sustainable aquaculture, which contains proposals on how the regulations for aquaculture can be simplified to promote a more competitive and sustainable aquaculture.
The two assignments that we are preparing now, together with the Swedish Board of Agriculture's assignment with a concrete action plan, are important parts of the government's policy aimed at ensuring that companies can grow along the entire blue value chain, from fishing and aquaculture to the processing industry and also in all processing steps to the market and out to the consumer.
This holistic perspective is crucial for the survival and profitability of Swedish fishing companies. The food sector, as is well known, creates an important link between city and countryside and between city and coastal areas. Better conditions for the food chain, where the fishing industry is included, as so stated, provide better conditions for more jobs and increased growth that contributes to making all of Sweden function better.
Christofer Bergenblock (C)
Madam Speaker! I think much of what the Minister for Rural Affairs says sounds very good. We hear that companies should be able to grow along the entire blue value chain. But it also requires that we maintain a functioning infrastructure for commercial fishing in the future as well. A functioning infrastructure naturally concerns fishing vessels, which the producers provide themselves, but it is primarily about having access to landing and home ports throughout Sweden, along our entire 200 nautical miles long coast. It also naturally requires access to shipyards and the possibility of maintenance of the vessels, as well as access to both storage and processing facilities for the fish and the shellfish that are landed, and naturally transport thereafter.
In response to the interpellation, the Minister points out that cooperation is important. I share that view. It is important that all parts of the chain cooperate, and that naturally does not hold if the foundation in the form of ports is starting to erode and disappear.
The Swedish ports are the very prerequisite for a functioning fishing industry. I perhaps guard above all the small-scale coastal fishing, which is the fishing where we have the most fishing vessels today. Of 960 licensed fishing vessels in Sweden, three-quarters are linked to small-scale coastal fishing. At the same time, it is precisely their home ports that are disappearing as a result of the initiative from the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. This is not sustainable.
Furthermore, it is the small-scale coastal fishing that, for the vast majority, fishes for human consumption, while the larger pelagic fishing fishes to a much greater extent for feed. For that reason, it is particularly important to ensure that we retain the infrastructure for small-scale coastal fishing. In the event of crisis or war, it is indeed part of our preparedness.
When the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management made its assessment, which is still out for consultation, a list of criteria was established based on weight, value, and segment where the top ten within each area would be highlighted. The list thus landed on 29 ports. It was stated that one could not take into account crisis and war in the assessment made. On the contrary, it was written as follows regarding national interest: "Against this background, for example, a speculative future function is judged to be too vague a motive for highlighting."
The speculative future function was precisely about Sweden potentially ending up in some kind of crisis where we would need these ports again. But in the meantime, they are instead scaling them back.
The government must take responsibility in this matter. One cannot let the authorities take responsibility if they are unable to do so, and therefore I return to the question of what initiatives the government intends to take to secure the infrastructure.
I understand that it will be a task for the Swedish Board of Agriculture to look at the whole, and that cooperation is important, but while these investigations are ongoing, our ports will disappear. What is the minister doing here and now to prevent that development?
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! We can observe that the food that we cannot produce in times of peace when all is calm and peaceful, we will never be able to produce in times of crisis or extreme war, regardless of whether it comes from blue or green food production. This also characterizes much of the work that takes place at my department these days. We are trying to strengthen our preparedness, and the basis for that is an even more robust agriculture at the bottom with even more robust parts also of the blue food chain.
With that said: A robust infrastructure is important both in peacetime and in times of unrest. However, it is the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management that has the mandate to provide information on the areas that are deemed to be of national interest for commercial fishing. The agency carries out recurring assessments of the national interest for commercial fishing, which also includes the ports. This means that the authorities will also carry out new future assessments.
I know that ports and logistics solutions are absolutely crucial for raw materials to be transported into the food chain, and the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, where community planning issues are included, has many areas that are crucially interrelated. The assignment that the Swedish Board of Agriculture is now working on, which aims to be able to contribute to better cooperation between the actors involved regarding port infrastructure, is of course important so that fishing vessels, ports, and processing companies can develop and meet each other's needs, precisely so that we can create an even more robust chain for seafood to the consumers.
As mentioned, Madam Speaker, this proposal is still out for consultation. I believe the member knows very well that an individual minister does not govern the authorities. It is the government that does. The authorities have extensive powers, but of course, we maintain a constant dialogue with the authorities that one is responsible for in one way or another.
Christofer Bergenblock (C)
Madam Speaker! It is certainly true that the authorities have far-reaching powers and that one as a minister cannot step in and direct an authority. We are all well aware of that. But the government can look at the overall picture and see if there are problems in the authorities' way of acting. The government can steer the authorities via regulatory letters, and one can also strip the authorities of activities that one perceives they are not managing in a satisfactory manner or give them other directives regarding this. There are therefore possibilities to act, even though one naturally cannot step in and change a direct decision.
Before this debate, I have received from people back home in Halland that I should also highlight the cultural-historical value of the harbors that risk disappearing, because such a value exists. Halland is an old county with strong fishing traditions, and for example, Glommen, Träslövsläge and Bua have great such values.
I did, however, say that this debate is not about that, but about Sweden's food security and food preparedness in crisis, in times of unrest, and in the worst case in the event of war. That is precisely why it is so important that we, in these times when we see unrest in the world but still have peace, security, and stability here in Sweden, also ensure that we preserve both the agricultural land for the green industries and the port infrastructure for the blue industries.
My final question is: Will those who fish professionally feel secure when they read the food strategy? Is this addressed in such a way that it truly secures the conditions for the blue industries?
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! The Government has, as stated, initiated many measures to strengthen our preparedness in society. This applies in particular to food production.
A strengthened food preparedness presupposes that there are robust food and drinking water systems at the foundation. This is why our ongoing work with the food strategy 2.0 is an important part of the work. I expect that it will contribute to an even more robust food production, where commercial fishing is, of course, included.
Madam Speaker! With this, I would like to thank you for a good discussion on a very pressing and important issue. I would like to thank the member for highlighting the importance of the blue nutrients in our food chain.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.