Seafood companies are disputing the FFAW on all counts after the union accused them of illegally refusing to buy cod and squid.
The FFAW said five big companies are running the industry like a monopoly and telling harvesters what they will get for their catch. One harvester says they stand on the shoreline and watch fish swim by because seafood companies refuse to buy. However, the Association of Seafood Producers says that’s not the case, and that processing of squid is already up by about 50 per cent over last year.
Derek Butler, executive director of the seafood producers, says they have lots of processing capacity in the province to handle the product being landed.
He says they don’t have enough fish to put plants in every community or on every wharf. They have around 60 plants in the province—more than enough to process the fish being landed from the time the season starts in April until it ends in November.