Quota management in a context of non-transferability of fishing rights: The French case study

The Common Fisheries Policy reform proposal is aiming to generalise the principle of individual transferable fishing concessions (TFCs) to all EU member states. In France, the transfer of quotas is prohibited by law. This paper considers the quota management system being implemented in this context. It demonstrates the originality of the French system as regards quota management, and how it has evolved to adapt to constraints associated with non-transferability. We show how the current system in practise allows producers to manage and exchange their landings track records while giving significant prerogatives to Producer Organisations (PO) in the collective management of quotas. The pooling of quotas by Producer Organisations in fact allows them to compensate to a large extent for the absence of transferability. The allocation of vessel quota is still quite limited insofar as many quotas are still under-utilised.