The FFAW says shrimp harvesters across the province are outraged with what they see as the paltry amount set by the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel.
The union says the decision to side with the Association of Seafood Producers’ final offer of 90 cents per pound, something it says is unsupported by market realities.
Many harvesters are telling their union that they will not be able to fish at that price.
Last summer’s shrimp price was set at $1.16 a pound, this year the FFAW’s Shrimp Negotiating Committee was seeking $1.36 a pound—that, it says, is in line with reports from the provincial government indicating the market had improved 36 per cent over last year.
FFAW President Keith Sullivan calls the panel’s decision “incomprehensible,” and questions whether elected members will stand up and say “enough is enough?”
(File photo: Derek Butler)
The Association of Seafood Producers meanwhile says the panel’s decision was the right one. ASP Executive Director Derek Butler says Quebec’s arbitration panel recently arbitrated a similar price for the Quebec shrimp industry.
Butler says the price was a “correction downwards” from spring pricing.
The province’s shrimp was overpriced says Butler, and as a result, the province had no spring fishery, and there was no fishery last year, harvester chose not to fish.
Butler says harvesters didn’t fish in the springs of 2020 and 2017 as well, but when producers can’t buy, there is an uproar.
He accuses the union of misrepresenting a number of other factors behind the panel decision.
