Price offsets landings decrease
Spring value’s up 22 per cent
Despite a 13.5 per cent decrease from last year’s record landings, the landed-value of Prince Edward Island’s 2016 spring lobster fishery is actually up by about 22 per cent over last year.
The P.E.I. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries reports the fishery benefitted from strong demand which resulted in strong shore prices, helping to push the estimated value of the 23.5-million-pound spring catch to $148 million.
“Overall, it was a very positive fishery,” said Bob Creed, director of Marine Fisheries, Agrifood and Seafood Services for the province.
Creed said it’s hard to put an average price per pound to the catch as the shore price started off at $5 a pound for canners and $5.50 to $5.75 a pound for markets and rose throughout the season. Not only was the price getting adjusted throughout the spring season, but some buyers were adjusting it retroactively. By the end of the season the price had climbed to $7.25 for canners and $8 or higher for markets in some ports. Creed said the spring’s landed value comes close to the $150-million landed value for the spring and fall fisheries combined last year.
Craig Avery, president of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association and a spring fisherman out of Northport, said the figures the province is reporting are in line with what he has been hearing from fellow fishermen. He said he was expecting catches overall would have been down by 15 per cent, and he knew the value had taken a big jump. Avery acknowledges the strong American dollar helps, but he said fishermen can take some of the credit for the price increase.
“I’ve always stressed that Prince Edward Island fishermen, for sure, played a big role in prices going up here.” He said the industry has put a big focus on quality and promotion and it’s paying off. Avery added a resolution on the temporary foreign worker program was also beneficial as it allows plants to have enough employees on payroll to work on higher-value processing
Creed said the fall fishery, currently underway, is recording higher prices than last year, with the shore price currently at $5.50 and $6 or higher.
There are just over 1,000 boats in the spring season in Lobster Fishing Areas 24 and 26A-1 and another 225 in LFA 25 currently fishing in the fall season.
“I hope it continues,” Avery said of the emphasis being placed on quality and marketing, “because, the minute you let your guard down, it will go right back to where we were at before. “Don’t stop. When something’s working, don’t change it. Keep on going and keep doing more. To me, the end results are showing right now.”