The province’s lucrative seafood industry is in serious jeopardy should incoming US President Donald Trump make good on threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods.
The bulk of the province’s more than one billion dollars’ worth of crab is shipped south of the border, bound for American restaurant tables.
Executive Director of the Association of Seafood Producers Jeff Loder says they’re working with the FFAW and the provincial and federal governments to come up with a strategy on next steps.
Loder says right now, there are no other markets for snow crab.
He says the industry is largely set up to sell, in various product forms, to the US market. “Yes, we have the capacity and we do send some products to Japan,” says Loder, “however, with the dumping of Russian crab into Japan since the war on Ukraine, and the inability of Russia to send to other markets, but Japan allowing that crab in their markets, that has put us in a very difficult price and competitive position in Japan.”
The development is also expected to have a major impact on price-setting negotiations.
He says US consumers will not take an extra 25 per cent cost on snow crab, “so obviously that will impact everything we are doing.” That’s why stability in the fishery is so important says Loder. “This is not the year for there to be a lack of stability in the fishery.”