The Association of Seafood Producers (ASP), the trade association that represents seafood processors in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), is seemingly warning that its members may choose to pass on the shrimp being landed in the Canadian province if the price doesn't budge from the minimum set recently by the NL Standing Fish Price Panel.
Processors "face some difficult decisions in response to prices set for [coldwater] shrimp in recent arbitration sessions, and it is not clear what might actually transpire at this point", said Derek Butler, ASP's executive director, in a statement issued Tuesday.
The message seems more than a cryptic threat following the decision, announced last week by the review panel to go with the minimum price of CAD 1.08 ($0.80) per pound recommended by the Fish Food and Allied Workers' (FFAW), the union that represents harvesters in the province, instead of the CAD 0.85 ($0.63) suggested by ASP.
The ruling, which followed an ASP appeal, represented a downward adjustment from the CAD 1.18 the panel agreed upon on July 2, and it is 32% below last year’s minimum price of CAD 1.65/lb.
Coldwater shrimp Photo: Shinsuke Ikegame
Still, Butler said the new price is a nonstarter, noting that shrimp sales were up against "high global inventories and falling markets" before the coronavirus pandemic.
The prices set in the latest arbitration round are "simply not economical, and producers risk undermining their entire operations if they run at such high losses", he said.
Similar fisheries in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, nearer the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec, started the year under a Canadian dollar per pound, with less additional costs on top of that, while Nova Scotia’s cold water shrimp fishery just ended with prices reported around CAD 0.75, Butler said.
“That’s a long way from the price set here, at CAD 1.08,” he said. "...We talked about whether it is better to leave the shrimp in the water this year, but we recognize that has serious implications as well. So all around, it is not a good situation.”
He said the difficult decision over prices is why the parties postponed the beginning of negotiations from April to the end of June, and it’s why they earlier gave up on a spring and early summer fishery.
Harvesters standing fast
Harvesters, meanwhile, aren't budging.
In a meeting held Monday in Anchor Point, NL, shrimp fishers from the 4R zone voted unanimously to refuse to sell their shrimp for anything less than the negotiated price of CAD 1.08, FFAW reported. Almost the entire fleet (98%) was in attendance, according to the union.
“Harvesters in the shrimp fleet can’t accept that a company who has the privilege to operate in this province are buying shrimp from factory vessels to process and put on the market but refuse to buy from local inshore harvesters," Rendell Genge, chair of the 4R shrimp fleet, is quoted as saying. "The panel selected a fair price and buyers here need to step up and let this fishery go ahead for both harvesters and plant workers alike.”
The majority of processors have refused to buy at the negotiated price, undermining the collective bargaining process and putting thousands of harvesters and plant workers out of work during an already difficult year, FFAW has reported.
Shrimp processors in New Brunswick and Quebec, including Ocean Choice International and Royal Greenland owned plants, have been buying shrimp from harvesters in that province while refusing to purchase from NL harvesters, FFAW has charged.
"All indicators suggest buyers in other provinces are paying similar prices to the negotiated price in NL, yet they refuse to buy in our province".
Currently, the only processor buying inshore shrimp is the Labrador Fisherman’s Union Shrimp Company, in Charlottetown, NL, according to FFAW. Also, several plants aren't open, including OCI's plant in Port aux Choix, Royal Greenland's plant in Old Perlican, Barry Group International's plant in Anchor Point, and Fogo Island Co-Op's plant in Seldom, FFAW reported.
Royal Greenland is currently processing industrial shrimp, FFAW said.
But Butler said FFAW is wrong to say producers have short-changed the industry with the postponed start-up and also wrong to say OCI, one of its members, operates a plant in NB.
“ASP and the FFAW postponed negotiations, and we agreed on a start-up in July. So we have not delayed the start unduly,” Butler said.
“But we also agreed that if the price was not economical for plants, assuming the FFAW price position prevailed, or not economical for harvesters, if ASP’s positions prevailed, then it might mean the shrimp was left in the water,” Butler said. “That was repeated over and over, even though I think we both had good intentions, certainly ASP did, to set the right prices and to get a fishery. Sadly, to date, we have not gotten there.”
As to whether processors are violating collective bargaining rules, Butler asserted that they clearly are not.
July 21, 2020 at 10:46PM
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Newfoundland processors issue cryptic warning in coldwater shrimp price fight - Undercurrent News
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