(Ecofin Agency) - Mauritania and the European Union (UE) signed a new agreement on industrial fishing. The new document comes in replacement to the previous one which expired in December last year. According to the terms, Mauritania will receive €100 million yearly from the UE to allow them to catch 225,000 metric tons of fish in its waters.

If the royalties are €13 million less than the previous agreement, the quantity of fish mentioned in the contract has also been reduced (-75,000 metric tons). The crews aboard the vessels fishing in the Nouakchott waters must have 60% Mauritanian seamen aboard while 2% of the catch will be levied by the state for redistribution to underprivileged families.

In Mauritania, industrial fishing accounts for 12% of GDP, over 40% of export revenues and is the second source of foreign currency for the country after mining, indicated APA.