Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has boosted snow crab quotas by 29 percent in Newfoundland, and prices – which are set by special provincial panels – have been set much higher than last year.
On 29 April, the Newfoundland and Labrador Standing Fish Price Setting Panel adjusted prices for snow crab up to CAD 7.60 (USD 6.19, EUR 5.10) per pound for larger crab, citing “significant price improvement in crab markets” in overturning its previously-decided price of CAD 5.73 (USD 4.66, EUR 3.85) per pound.
“Markets are up from the unprecedented winter prices that preceded the spring fisheries,” the panel wrote in its decision. “The market updates note that these prices are based upon limited sales activity in a market with strong demand and tight inventories.
While the snow crab season opened earlier this month in many of the Maritimes’ fishing zones, many harvesters have held back in making trips, citing bad weather. The Association of Seafood Producers said it expects a surge in landings starting in May, and predicted the landed value of crab caught in Eastern Canada in 2021 will approach CAD 600 million (USD 488.3 million, EUR 403 million).
“It appears the market is exceptionally strong and continues on an upward trajectory,” the panel wrote. “Last year, all parties felt the pandemic represented a serious downside risk. What we have seen since June 2020 is that the opposite is true. Demand for crab products and market prices have continued to grow. In the past month, this steep upward trajectory has continued unabated.”
Keith Sullivan, the president of the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor), which requested the panel reconsider its March pricing decision, celebrated the reallocation, as well as the recently-released DFO management plan for the fishery, which includes a 29 percent quota increase
“[This]is very welcome news for both fish harvesters and plant workers who were cautiously optimistic following the positive science assessment this year,” Sullivan said. “We are very pleased with the management plan for 2021. Harvesters have taken significant cuts in the past to ensure a healthy fishery and, overall, the management plan for the 2021 snow crab fishery shows that DFO is listening to the concerns raised by harvesters.”
DFO’s 2020 snow crab assessment indicated increasing crab biomass and stability of the stock in the long term, according to FFAW. It increased the quota by 16 percent in the 3K zone, by 34 percent in the 3LNL zone, by 35 percent in the 4R3Pn zone, and by 53 percent in the 3Ps zone. One zone, 2HJ, has received a 20 percent decrease in its quota, and the collaborative post-season trap survey will have the same quota total it had in 2020.
“There are good signs of young crab coming into the fishery for most areas in the next two to four years,” Tony Doyle, vice president of the FFAW Inshore Council and a member of the crab committee, said. “It looks like we are on a trend to better quotas and fishing for the next few years.”
Legal-size crab, with carapaces under four inches in length, will bring in CAD 7.30 (USD 5.94, EUR 4.90) per pound. Last year, after a contentious process, the panel set the price of snow crab at CAD 3.50 (USD 2.50, EUR 2.29) per pound.
The panel said it had decided on the higher prices, despite the unpredictable nature of the market as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, because of robust sales of snow crab through retail channels in the United States, an expected recovery of the world’s foodservice segment, and strong interest from Asia.
“There is a strong economic growth forecast in the U.S. supported by significant stimulus spending. The downside risk is that the pandemic worsens with the emergence of vaccine resistant variants, but this is not a reality at this point. In any event, there is the 2020 positive retail experience to draw on should shutdowns return,” the panel wrote.
The panel said worldwide crab inventories are at historic lows and that it expected Newfoundland processors will sell most of their production by the end of July.
“This management plan is proof that by science and lived experience working together, we can get results and build a sustainable fishery that works for harvesters, plant workers, and their communities,” Sullivan said.
Photo courtesy of Meagan Careen
