What is the POAY?

“Mostly it is loss that teaches us the value of things.”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

What is POAY & why it is a threat to Greece and our marine environment?

In 2011, during a financial crisis and on the eve of a government collapse, Greece enacted a controversial and poorly understood law establishing 25 planned zones for aquaculture, known as the POAY. The acronym ΠΟΑΥ (POAY) stands for “Περιοχή Οργανωμένης Ανάπτυξης Υδατοκαλλιεργειών,” which translates to “Areas of Organized Development of Aquaculture Activities” in English. This legislation dramatically increased the permissible areas for aquaculture, expanding them 24-fold from 9,800 stremmata to 240,000 stremmata, effectively granting vast stretches of the country’s coastline to private companies for their exclusive use and self-monitoring. While the overall POAY plan has been approved, each designated zone must undergo a multi-stage process, culminating in a decree by the President to finalize its establishment.

Key facts

  • 24x Increase: Area dedicated to fish farms will increase from 9,800 to 240,000 stremmata.

  • Six areas will have more than double the area dedicated to fish farms in all of Greece today.

  • Companies which are primarily multinational, will have exclusive rights to both the land and sea and sole responsibility for self-monitoring and reporting their environmental impacts.

  • Rent is currently set at 150 Euro/Stremma/Year for only a small portion of the area allocated for the POAY. For Poros, this is 300 stremmata of 2870 stremmata allocated to the POAY.

Complete list of POAY areas

History of Fish Farming in Greece

In the 1990’s,Greece began taking steps to enter the aquaculture economy,which was spearheaded in Norway with salmon.Today, approximately 140,000 tons of fish are farmed in Greece,mostly two carnivorous species:sea bass and sea bream.The vast majority of farmed fish is exported from Greece to other parts of Europe And the government has pinned its hopes on an even more dramatic expansion of this market.Approved In 2011,a plan-known as POAY is set to expand the footprint of the current fish farms across Greece by 24 times so production can be increased to more than 450,000 tons annually.

Sales and exports have grown over time. Yet despite extensive subsidies and EU grants, the Greek Aquaculture industry has been plagued by financial struggle and even the largest, foreign-owned fish farm company in Greece, Avramar, is widely reported to be near financial collapse. Jobs in the sector are shrinking as demand falters and efficiencies in production increase(on average, there are 3.9 jobs per fish farm). Despite this dismal bottom line, the push to finalize the POAY plan moves forward.