Government Home Search Sitemap Contact Us

The following statement was issued today by John Efford, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture at a news conference held at Confederation Building:

At the request of Mr. Earl McCurdy, President of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, today I am announcing a temporary 30 day lifting of the restrictions on the export of unprocessed crab from the province. This measure will be implemented through the issuance of buyers licences on a temporary basis, to existing licensed buyers. This measure is being taken at the request of Mr. McCurdy, who speaks for the majority of fishers and fishplant workers in the province. It is intended to allow fishers to engage in the crab fishery and to receive the going market price for their product, when the crab fishery reopens for the season.

At the same time, I am announcing the issuance of eight new crab licences to various processors in the province. This measure will allow for greater price competition in the short term. In the next two weeks I will also recommend to my Cabinet colleagues further measures to address and normalize the crab price situation in the province. These measures are necessary to permit the functioning of the crab processing industry in this province in the current season.

These temporary measures will provide the necessary environment to allow the crab processing industry to function on a temporary basis until further, more permanent management and licensing measures can be put in place.

Together with my colleague the Honourable Kevin Aylward, Minister of Environment and Labour, we will be recommending an industrial enquiry into the manner and method of setting crab prices in the future.

I would note that it is not in the province's greater interest to have unprocessed crab exported on a permanent basis. In this context, the province, as a matter of policy wants to maximize employment from the crab fishery in the province. For this reason, we will not permit crab to be exported other than within this 30 day period. These proposed measures are temporary in nature.