Devastated economy first target lobster prices then comes crab and now it appears there will be no shrimp fishery at all this summer. Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte MP Gerry Byrne estimates 1,000-1,200 people at the peninsula’s four shrimp plants will be out of work and the draggers that harvest the small crustacean. It is estimated that across the province 3,000-4,000 people could be without seasonal employment.
Shrimp plants have shut their doors after the province’s Fish Price Setting Panel refused a request from the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) to lower the price it pays to harvesters by 10 cents, bringing the price down to around 32 cents per pound. Anchor Point’s Gary Genge, owner of the 65-foot Newfie Pride, opined that everything is shut down. The Newfie Pride averaged about 50 cents per lb. last year and Genge said he could have managed at the current 42 cent per lb. rate, but a further 10-cent cut would be impossible.
ASP executive director Derek Butler noted that decreasing prices are the result of a strengthening Canadian dollar and weakening shrimp markets. Since the panel set shrimp prices in March, the Canadian dollar has risen from 81 cents to 92 cents American. He told that the only expectation now is that currency will continue to strengthen and markets will continue to decline.
According to Mayor Gros the whole province will be hit pointing out to the two-thirds of employees at the shrimp plant come from surrounding communities. He added that if the season can’t be salvaged, Anchor Point will be looking to the province for community enhancement projects to help its plant workers and dragger crews qualify for Employment Insurance benefits.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Tom Hedderson opined that it is difficult to put money directly into the industry as the government can’t interfere with open trade because of the trade agreements our country is in with other countries. Gerry Byrne, meanwhile, was pointing his finger at processors.
