Senior reporter of The Paper, Wang Xuanhui, intern Ji Shujuan
More than 30 damaged blue plastic floats, some floating in the sea, some placed on the beach, Linze felt helpless, "do not know when someone will come to change." If these damaged floats are not replaced, it will be difficult to continue kelp culture this year.
Lin Ze is a fisherman in Daiqitou Village, Xi'nan Town, Xiapu County, Ningde City, Fujian Province, who operates more than 3 acres of kelp at sea. Previously, Linze, like local farmers, used white foam floats.
The white foam float is easy to cause a large amount of sea drift garbage, affecting the marine ecological environment. Since the end of 2018, Ningde City has decided to comprehensively carry out comprehensive improvement of marine aquaculture, large-scale mobilization of farmers to upgrade marine aquaculture facilities, and the white foam float is required to be replaced by a more environmentally friendly blue plastic float.
Can the quality be guaranteed after switching to a blue plastic float? Fishermen's confusion has also been considered by local governments, and many upgraded offshore facilities have been included in the fishery mutual insurance category of the Fujian Fishery Mutual Insurance Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Fisheries Protection Association").
Lin Ze said that under the mobilization of local cadres, all of his 70 white floats were replaced by blue floats, all from Ningde Zhicheng Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhicheng Company"), which was included in the first batch of quality inspection qualified list by the government. He said that more than 80% of the fishermen in his village bought the blue floats of Zhicheng Company.
After more than a year of use, the damaged blue plastic float was successfully replaced. However, in recent months, manufacturers have no longer given replacements, and damaged floats can only float at sea or be placed on the seashore.
Su Qinrong, head of Zhicheng Company, admitted in an interview with The Paper that what the fishermen said was true. At present, there are about 4,800 damaged blue floats that should be replaced but have not been replaced, involving more than 100 fishermen in 3 counties and cities in Ningde.
Su Qinrong said that the first 5 times the Fisheries Protection Association has made claims for the damaged floats, and from March this year, Cheng Company submitted the 6th claim application, the association no longer claimed the claim, and after nearly 5 months of communication, the association issued a notice of refusal of compensation. She said that the company has replaced nearly 7,000 floats for fishermen in advance, and has been unable to pay any more.
Jin Jinshui, secretary general of the Fujian Fishery Mutual Protection Association, told the surging news that it is not normal for a product to have such a high damage rate, and the association believes that there are quality problems in the products of Zhicheng Company, and there is a dispute between the two sides on the matter of compensation, and it is recommended to resolve it through litigation.
An employee of a fishery institution in Ningde told the surging news bluntly that in the past, a small number of fishermen who could not afford to replace the blue float even secretly changed back to the white foam ball, which no one wanted to see. Both production enterprises and fishery protection associations should clarify their responsibilities and solve problems as soon as possible.
In the open space outside the warehouse of Zhicheng Company, a large number of damaged blue plastic floats were placed. Images in this article are provided by respondents (unless attributed)
After two years of upgrading, fishermen encountered float damage and returned to the predicament of no one
At the end of 2018, Ningde City launched the upgrading of marine aquaculture facilities, replacing white foam balls with blue plastic floats, which is an important part of the upgrading.
The Surging News search found that on December 20, 2018, the Ningde Municipal Government issued the Implementation Plan for the Upgrading and Transformation of Offshore Fishing Steak and Algae Breeding Facilities in Ningde City (Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"). In the implementation plan, it is clear that the rectification and implementation of the feedback problems of the central environmental protection inspector will be further promoted, the upgrading and transformation of marine fishing rows and algae breeding facilities will be standardized, and the provincial subsidy funds and the supporting funds of cities and counties (cities and districts) will be effectively used, and the city has decided to comprehensively carry out comprehensive improvement of marine aquaculture from 2018 to 2020.
On June 4, 2020, in the sea fishing and steak farming area of Beibi Township, Xiapu County, Ningde City, Fujian Province, workers collected traditional foam floats and replaced them with new plastic floats. Xinhua News Agency Infographic
The implementation plan clarifies the upgrading of traditional fishing rows, cages, floats and other facilities, and different facilities are subsidized at different levels. Among them, for fishermen who are transformed by kelp farming, each plastic float can receive a subsidy of 100 yuan.
Lin Ze said that the cost of buying a blue plastic float is 210 yuan, and the government subsidy is 100 yuan, which means that each blue plastic float farmer needs to spend 110 yuan. Considering that it is for the sake of marine environmental protection, the villagers actively cooperate. He spent more than 7,000 yuan to replace all 70 white foam balls in his breeding area with blue plastic floats.
The fishermen in Chiao Village, Beibi Township, Xiapu County, mainly farm abalone, and also began to upgrade the marine aquaculture facilities in 2019, and Chen Chun is one of the farmers' representatives.
Chen Chun introduced that the Rixing Aquaculture Cooperative, where it is located, consists of 56 farmers, with a breeding scale of more than 300 mu, and has purchased more than 2,000 blue plastic floats from Zhicheng Technology Co., Ltd.
The purchase and sale contract signed by the farmer and Zhicheng Company clearly states that the quality assurance period of the plastic float is three years, and when the plastic float is damaged, the Zhicheng Company should replace it in time. Since the purchase of plastic floats, the cooperative has replaced 600 to 700 balls from Zhicheng Company.
Chen Chun said that in the past two or three months, Zhicheng Company stopped replacing the damaged float on the grounds that "the insurance contract dispute has not been resolved". Many plastic floats are naturally damaged, some can not be used because of water inlet, and some cause breakage under the action of tension.
According to his understanding, there are currently about five or six hundred balls that have been damaged but not replaced by the cooperative. Some of the damaged balls piled up on the dock and took up a lot of space; some of the balls remained on the surface of the sea, in a semi-suspended state. Abalone farming is greatly affected by the insufficient number of plastic floats that can be used.
What worries Chen Chun even more is that typhoons may come one after another, and if there is no plastic float, the farmed abalone will easily sink, "If we don't replace it, our loss will be more serious." ”
The plight of Lin Ze and Chen Chun both points to the same production enterprise, Zhicheng Company. Su Qinrong, head of Zhicheng Company, admitted in an interview with the surging news that the fishermen's accusations are true, and now every day she will receive many calls from fishermen asking for the replacement of blue floats, and she bears a lot of insults, but she can also understand the angry feelings of fishermen.
According to the materials provided by Su Qinrong, at present, Zhicheng Company has received requests from farmers to replace 4802 plastic floats, and 137 farmers in ten organized villages such as Chiao, Panqian, Da'an, Zhujiang, Shuisheng, Gantang, Sandao and Other Ten Organized Villages in Xiapu, Fu'an, Andacheng, including Beibi, Xiahu, Shajiang, Yantian, Xi'nan, Xiabaishi and Sanduan, Panqian, Da'an, Zhujiang, Shuisheng, Daiqitou, Changwaist, Gantang, Sanduao and Xuewei.
Production enterprises: the first 5 claims were rejected for the 6th time, and they were unable to advance the replacement
"They all say I'm an unscrupulous company, but we're not." Su Qinrong explained that in the case that the Fisheries Protection Association did not pay the sixth batch of insurance claims, the company replaced 6912 plastic floats for 135 fishermen, and the advance funds have exceeded 1.8 million, and now it is indeed unable to advance.
The implementation plan issued by the Ningde Municipal Government at the end of 2018 required that the plastic float material be high-density polyethylene (HDPE) virgin material (no recycled material should be used), the float filler should not use polystyrene (EPS) foam substance, and the plastic float test was tested with reference to the national standard of "GB/T 13508-2011 polyethylene blow molding container".
According to the information released by the Ningde Municipal Bureau of Oceanography and Fisheries and the Ningde Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Zhicheng Company is one of the first enterprises in Ningde City to obtain the provincial product quality inspection and research institute plastic float product qualification inspection report, and in 2019, Zhicheng Company was recommended to local fishermen to buy blue floats after approval.
Su Qinrong said that he was not sure how long the float could be preserved according to the government's plan standards, so at the request of the local government, Zhicheng Company also insured the quality of the blue float in the Fisheries Protection Association.
The insurance policy signed by Zhicheng Company and the Fisheries Protection Association has a premium of 360,000 yuan.
According to the insurance policy, Zhicheng Company insured the float for 360,000 yuan, the insurance subject is 36 million yuan float, and the insurance period is from September 26, 2019 to September 25, 2022. The compensation limit of each accident in the insurance policy is 10.8 million yuan, and the annual cumulative limit is 27 million yuan, and the excess part is borne by the manufacturer.
According to the "Ningde Offshore Fishing Row Upgrading Project Insurance Pilot Program" (hereinafter referred to as the "Insurance Pilot Program"), the Fujian Fishery Mutual Insurance Association is the main underwriter of the insurance pilot of the Ningde Offshore FishIng Row Upgrading and Transformation Project. China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association, Chinese Insurance Fujian Branch, Chinese Life Fujian Branch, Dadi Insurance Fujian Branch, Sunshine Insurance Fujian Branch, East China Sea Shipping Insurance Fujian Branch, etc. are all co-insured.
Fujian Fishery Mutual Insurance Association was established on December 20, 2011, is a non-profit social organization that implements mutual insurance. In 2012, with the approval of the Fujian Provincial People's Government, it began to host the province's fishery insurance, which enjoys government financial subsidies.
Su Qinrong introduced that on November 5, 2019, Zhicheng Company applied for claims to the Fisheries Protection Association for the first time, involving 497 blue plastic floats. After receiving the report, the staff of the Fisheries Protection Association conducted an investigation and determination of losses, and in the past 35 days alone, the claim payment of 94430 yuan was successfully received.
Su Qinrong said that after the blue plastic float was launched, she noticed that the degree of loss of use in different seas was different: the outer sea was more depleted than the inland sea, and the turbulent water flow was more depleted than the still water flow.
In the following year or so, Zhicheng Company has submitted 4 claim applications. As short as more than 1 month, as long as more than 7 months, the claim payment has been successfully received. The total amount of the first five claims reached more than 960,000 yuan.
On March 17, 2021, Zhicheng Company submitted its sixth claim involving 5,142 damaged blue floats.
After nearly six months of fruitless negotiations, the Fisheries Protection Association made a decision to refuse the claim.
Notice of refusal of compensation from AFS.
Fisheries Protection Association: There are quality problems in the product, and it is recommended to resolve disputes through litigation
Why is there such a high number of blue floats damaged, is there a quality problem? Su Qinrong explained that the market supervision and management departments of Ningde City, Fu'an City and Xiapu County have conducted spot checks on the plastic floats of Zhicheng Company four times, all of which meet the requirements.
Su Qinrong said that the blue float produced according to the standard, in the past two years, about 12,000 of the 60,000 balls have been damaged, and the damage rate has reached 20%, "If I knew that there was such a high damage rate, I would definitely not want to enter this industry, and I would not make a three-year warranty commitment to the fishermen." Of course, in this situation, it is necessary to go on hard. ”
The secretary general of the Fisheries Protection Association, Jin Shui, has different opinions. On September 8, Golden Water told the surging news that it is not normal for a product to have such a high damage rate, and the association believes that there is a problem with the quality of the product itself, and will coordinate professional quality inspection agencies to intervene in this matter.
From May to July 2021, Zhicheng Company and the Fisheries Protection Association held many consultations, but the two sides had differences and did not negotiate.
On July 6, the Fisheries Protection Association issued the "List of Information Required for Claim Settlement" to Zhicheng Company. The Paper noted that the list involves 14 certificates and related materials. At the end of the list, it is said that after the insured receives this list, please provide relevant information within 30 days according to the above requirements for our company to review, "if some information is missing and cannot be provided, please explain the reason in writing".
On July 13, Zhicheng Company replied that the original insurance policy, sales invoice, right holder claim report, product quality inspection report, and maintenance cost certificate are necessary elements for applying for claims, and other relevant materials will actively cooperate to provide, but whether to provide them cannot be used as a necessary element for claims.
On 13 August, IFE issued another notice stating that it had not received the complete materials contained in the List of Information Required for Claims and could not verify whether the application fell within the scope of liability.
On August 20, Zhicheng Company replied that all the information had been submitted to the Ningde office.
On August 27, the Fisheries Protection Association issued a notice of refusal of compensation. The notice stated that after the review and approval of the association, the claim application submitted by Zhicheng Company was not an insurance liability under its insurance policy number, so the association could not compensate Zhicheng Company.
Golden Water believes that there was an insurance contract relationship between the Fisheries Protection Association and Zhicheng Company before, the relationship between Zhicheng Company and the farmers before was a sales contract, and there was no legal relationship between the association and the fishermen.
For the first 5 times and the 6th time not to lose, Jinjinshui said: "We are now also pursuing responsibility internally, and the discipline inspection is also investigating to find out who should bear what responsibility for the mistakes made in the process of handling things." ”
For the refusal notice did not detail the reasons for the refusal of compensation, Golden Water said that the quality insurance matter is more complicated, there is no way to list the reasons for the refusal in detail in the refusal notice, "We also have some evidence, (no evidence) will not casually refuse compensation."
Golden Water believes that since it is a dispute, it is recommended to take the channel of legal litigation normally and handle it fairly and justly in accordance with laws and regulations, which is a good thing for both parties.
Su Qinrong said that he hopes to solve it through consultation first, and if it takes half a year or a year to take the lawsuit, enterprises and fishermen will not be able to hold back.
(In the text, fishermen Lin Ze and Chen Chun are pseudonyms.) ）
Editor-in-Charge: Cui Xuan
Proofreader: Liu Wei