Knitting Fishing Nets for a Profit

In Galati city, a Danube river port, a one of a kind company in Romanian economy thrives. Fishing nets of various specialized destinations are made at the Plase Pescaresti company. During its heydays, the company produced 23-milion dollars worth nets per year. But this was between 1965 and 1990, when the Romanian ocean fishing fleet was thriving and the demand for fishing nets was high.

Once the Romanian fleet was sold out, the demand for nets dropped dramatically.
This is why the company started in 1992 to diversify its production, making nets for sports like soccer, handball, hockey, polo, volley, tennis, and for use in agriculture.
It also exports its products in neighboring Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Republic of Moldova, but so far only 10% of its production goes abroad because the prices offered are sometimes lower than the costs of the raw materials.

The turnover of the 60-workers strong company was last year 60 billion lei (about 1.8 million dollars) and is forecast to rise this year at 65 billion lei (about 2 million dollars). Some 60% of the company’s production consists of rope and lines, and the rest of nets.
The company first started to produce in 1927, as a collection of private enterprises which manufactured and traded nets for the fishermen on the Danube.
In time the natural fabrics were replaced by modern polyamide, polyester and polypropylene threads. The company is back into the private hands of the workers here, since 1996.