A report produced by media outlet Ojo Publico has stated that four Peruvian companies -- Pesquera Hayduk, Pesquera Diamante, Tecnologia de Alimentos (Tasa) and Pesquera Exalmar -- hold more than 70% of the Peruvian fishmeal market, even though some 400 have exported the product in the past year.

The four firms also pay less than $5 per metric ton of anchovy extracted in fishing rights; equal to about 0.25% of fishmeal market price, based on a formula set in 2016, according to the report.

"Currently, businessmen pay less than $5 per [metric] ton of anchovy extracted from the Peruvian sea. Concentration of the market, opacity, thin royalties and tax havens characterize the fishing sector," the report reads.

The current management system is planned for review in June 2018.

Next year the legislative decree that establishes a system of quotas and the formula with which the payment of fishing rights is calculated is due, Ojo Publico said.

"It will be an opportunity to review what is being paid, because what they are paying now is insufficient," said former fisheries minister Patricia Majluf.

However, the president of the Peruvian national fisheries society (SNP), Elena Conterno, told Ojo Publico, it was "a myth to say that little is paid" by the industry to fish anchovy.

"In 2014 we hired Ernst & Young because there is a myth that we pay little. They concluded that fishing pays 48% of operating profit, while mining pays 42%," Conterno said. She added that on top of fishing rights, fishing companies also need to pay for satellite tracking and control and monitoring programs.

"We consider that we pay a reasonable and even high price if you compare it with other activities and other countries," she said.

Click here and here to read the full report, and the interview with Conterno (in Spanish).