OCI: Time to lift redfish, flatfish restrictions

Ocean Choice International (OCI) on Friday submitted to the Newfoundland and Labrador government a plan that it says will result in year-round employment for 300 plant workers, a 40 percent increase in wages and CAD 750,000 in economic value to the provincial economy over the next five years.

The plan involves redfish and flatfish, and St. John’s based company is asking the provincial government to change its rules to allow it to export more redfish and flatfish.

The plan for redfish would allow OCI to catch and process redfish at sea and sell it directly to markets worldwide. The plan for flatfish would allow OCI to process some flatfish on shore and export the balance. The company is calling for an increase in its export option for flatfish combined with landing about 7 million pounds of flatfish a year for processing at its Fortune plant.

Existing processing restrictions make fishing for both redfish and flatfish “uneconomical” and prevent OCI from unlocking the potential economic benefit of the province’s fishing sector, said OCI president Martin Sullivan. The market is changing, he explained, as are the economic circumstances in which the company operates.

OCI said it awaits a speedy response from the government on the two plans so it can prepare its operations for 2012.

Just over a week ago, OCI announced that it is restructuring its Newfoundland and Labrador operations to better compete in the marketplace, including permanently closing two processing plants and laying off hundreds of workers.

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