Turkish trout exporters could face 7-10% anti-dumping duties to EU

Europe’s trade commissioner has reportedly warned Turkey that its rainbow trout exporters will be imposed anti-dumping duties, as preliminary findings from an EU investigation indicate that the country subsidized its producers.

The news was reported by the Spanish news websiteMis Pesces, which said the commissioner had issued the warning in a letter to the president of the EU-Turkey Association Council, which Mis Pesces has seen.

According to the letter seen by Mis Pesces, the EU has reached a preliminary decision to impose anti-dumping duties, known as countervailing duties (CVD), on Turkish rainbow trout imports, ranging from 7% to 9.7%.

Kilic Deniz, Turkey’s largest aquaculture producer, will be imposed CVD of 9.7%, said Mis Pesces.Ternaeben could face duties of 9.5%; Ozpekler of 7.1%; GMS of 7%; and all others 8.2% or 9.7%.

Undercurrent News was unable to confirm the information with the European commission, which said it will only unveil its preliminary findings in mid November.

However, Taner Ciger, CEO of the Turkish fish farmer Agromey — which exited the trout business in 2012 —  said the news was correct.

Ciger added that Turkey has already started reducing the subsidy to the producers.

“Two thirds of the subsidy has been cut down already and only one third is remaining,” Ciger toldUndercurrent. “And the industry is discussing to ask the government to cut down the remaining subsidy voluntarily.”

The subsidy, he said, is given for up to 500 metric tons per license. An average license is around 2,000t, meaning just the first 500t of that would be subsidized, said Ciger.

“If you have a licence of 2,000t the maximum subsidy you get would be around TRY 0.16/kg for that complete 2,000t and that corresponds to around €0.06/kg.”

He was skeptical that this is enough to warrant claims of unfair competition. “​Please keep in mind that the Turkish exporters are paying at least €0.15/kg surcharge on transportation due to distance disadvantage to the market versus European producers,” said Ciger.

Sinan Kiziltan, executive vice president of Kilic and president of the Aegean Livestock and Fishery Exporters’ Union, did not return a request for comment to Undercurrent.

The EU started an investigation into Turkish rainbow trout production subsidies on Feb. 15, following complaints by European producers, led by Denmark, of unfair competition.

The commission will officially unveil provisional measures — contained in the letter leaked to Mis Pesces — in the case on Nov. 15. A period of comments will then be open, with the final measures due to be unveiled on May 15 next year.

In the letter, the commission reportedly said findings so far show the EU has suffered losses as a result of Turkey’s subsidies, citing injury to market share, employment, profitability, cash flow and return on investment.

Turkish trout exports to the EU almost doubled from around 15,700t (whole fish equivalent) in 2010 to 27,000t during the period investigated, said the letter.

This has seen their market share increase by 8.2 percentage point to 16.7%.

According to Mis Pesces, the investigation found that Turkish exports have affected prices, undermining selling prices in the EU by around 9%.

The EU’s case officer Kahraman Evsen declined to confirm Mis Pesces‘ news to Undercurrent.

“The anti-subsidy investigation is still on-going; no formal decision has been taken yet. In case the Commission will impose provisional measures, interested parties will be given the opportunity to comment,” Evsen told Undercurrent in a response.

“Provisional measures, if any, may be imposed by the Commission no later than [Nov. 14] 2014 and will be published in the official Journal of the EU.”

In March, the Spanish aquaculture association Esacua told Mis Pesces that Turkey’s trout market share was on its way to reach 18% in 2013, from just 7% in 2009.

Meanwhile, Russia’s ban on western nations has opened up new opportunities for Turkish trout exports, creating a gap in supply to Russia.

Fresh data from Customs Inform showed Turkey more than tripled its exports to Russia in September, year-on-year, through volumes remain small compared to the volumes that Norway would normally supply.

Source: UnderCurrentNews