According to the leader of Newfoundland and Labrador’s key fisheries union plunging crab prices has increased the worries of the fishermen. The union also confirmed that crab harvesters would be better off on land than at sea, because prices are too low and it is going to stay. It is told that the crab season has only just started but the processors want to lower prices that were set only a month ago. The union informed that a government-sanctioned pricing panel set the price for crab at $1.55 per pound, but processors say they can only afford to pay $1.32, because of decreasing demand due to the global economic crisis.
Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union, explained that’s not the answer. McCurdy also said that if the market is oversupplied at the moment then the union would rather see some take a break and knock off producing for a couple of weeks, rather than their usual solution, which is lower raw material prices. It is fact that the crab fishery is the most lucrative catch in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Thomas Keough, a fisherman from the Northern Peninsula, said the current approved price is already too low. He opined that it is difficult to manage living in this price, but they are doing somehow. He informed that due to such a low price many fishermen are leaving as they aren’t going to stay at this for nothing.
