The Newfoundland and Labrador price-setting panel has selected the Fish, Food, and Allied Workers Union’s (FFAW) proposed price formula for the 2025 snow crab season.
The price-setting panel sets a minimum price for snow crab in the fishery each year and typically decides between proposals made by the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP), which represents processors, and the FFAW. This year, the panel went with the union’s proposal, meaning snow crab harvesters will start out getting a minimum of CAD 4.97 (USD 3.57, EUR 3.15) per pound for snow crab to start the season.
“The formula set today is historically significant; today’s panel decision is finally putting a system in place that gives harvesters a sense of fairness and transparency,” FFAW President Dwan Street said. “Our negotiating committee’s offer was fair, reasonable, and very well thought out. It establishes a starting price that carries through the season, followed by a settlement at the end of the season based on market performance.”
The new pricing structure creates a settlement price for crab harvesters based on the actual sales prices of 5- to 8-ounce sections. In 2024, the FFAW achieved a similar structure from the start of the fishery through three weeks after the fishery ended, and the new agreement expands on that and will see harvesters receiving sales receipts until 1 November. It also sees that harvesters will be paid directly by the company.
“This decision positions us well for years to come,” Street said. “We’ve made significant strides in ensuring a stable and fair fishery, but there are still battles to be fought. This is a big step forward for harvesters across the province, and we’re committed to continuing this momentum in all our future price negotiations.”
The price-setting process has been contentious in recent years. In 2023, a disagreement on the price led to a six-week standoff that was resolved in a deal between the FFAW and ASP. There was another disagreement over the pricing formula in 2024, which led to protests and a one-week delay to the start of the fishery, which was later resolved with the updated agreement that first introduced the settlement price.
Street told the CBC that the latest pricing agreement is thanks to the negotiating team that represented the union.
"The negotiating team that was put together I think is probably the best team we've ever had," she said.
The price-setting process did not come without controversy. The ASP took the provincial government to court in early April citing delays in the price-setting process that it said jeopardized the fishery. According to the FFAW, “exceptional and unforeseen circumstances” involving its lead negotiator led to the delay in panel proceedings, but the ASP said the delay was unacceptable and was associated more with politics.
“The industry cannot function when decisions are delayed and disrupted by politics and pressure,” ASP Executive Director Jeff Loder said. “Families, harvesters, plant workers, and entire communities depend on this fishery. This is about more than prices – it’s about stability, trust, and the rule of law.”
Ahead of the price-setting panel’s decision, the FFAW was also openly critical of the ASP’s proposal, which would have set a weekly adjustment system the union said did not work the last time it was tried in 1998.
“The variable price was a disaster for harvesters. It took three years of arguing before the panel finally got rid of the biweekly formula,” the FFAW said in a Facebook post.
The FFAW said it was also calling for snow crab harvesters to seek out buyers willing to pay the FFAW’s minimum price proposal, regardless of what the price-setting panel’s decision ended up being.
“The union is currently mobilizing efforts to locate buyers willing to pay the FFAW price – regardless of the panel outcome today,” FFAW said on Facebook.
Ultimately, the price-setting panel went with the harvester’s price formula, eliminating the need for mobilization.
