By Andy Walker
FOR THE SOU’WESTER
As Fisheries Minister Ron MacKinley continues with his efforts to establish a seafood development agency, he can count on the strong support of Mike McGeoghegan.
“I think it is an idea that is long past due,” said the president of the president of the PEI Fishermen’s Association.
MacKinley told the recent annual meeting of the Prince County Fishermen’s Association his department is working on the concept. McGeoghegan was at the meeting of the western local and he agreed fully with the minister’s contention that ,“There’s one problem.We all know what it is: Fishermen aren’t getting paid.”
McGeoghegan said the model fishermen use to sell their products is “broken” and added work has to start immediately to construct an alternative. The veteran fisherman added, “I don’t know whether it is a marketing board, or single desk selling or what but I would like to see the process start immediately – the spring fishery is right around the corner.”
He said fishermen in Australia and New Zealand consistently get over $20 a pound for their catches while prices for European catches tend to vary between $10-$15 per pound. McGeoghegan said if there are markets in the world that are willing to pay those prices “I don’t understand why we are getting $3 or $4 a pound.”
The association president said there doesn’t seem to be a clear rationale for the prices paid to Island producers. He fishes out of port of Pinette and can often see his fellow fishermen from Pictou. Despite fishing essentially the same lobsters, he said the Nova Scotia fishermen often get paid over a dollar a pound more.
McGeoghegan said it is often two or three weeks into the season before fishermen know what they will be receiving for their product. He added, “There is no other commodity sold like that.” The association president said the industry must have access to market information from around the world not only price but who the consumer is so marketing campaigns can be tailored to them.”
MacKinley said essentially the same thing at the meeting telling the industry, “The day of coming in to the shore with a boatload of lobsters and saying, ‘Here’s my lobsters. What are you going to pay me?” is not working. It’s ridiculous. When I got elected first, in 1985, they were paying $4 (per pound) for shore price. You know where costs have gone since then.”
The association president said he was in China on a trade mission last year and was asked the price of lobsters in PEI that day. He added, “I just couldn’t tell them and I felt stupid, we have to change that.”
He said China plans to increase its exports by $10 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. If the PEI lobster industry wants a piece of that market, we have to have that market information available.
However, McGeoghegan said the process won’t be easy.
“We have to take the secrets out of the industry, some people may get their feelings hurt and that is too bad but we need all of the cards on the table,” he said.
He also said the industry simply has no alternative but to act now. The current model is not economically sustainable and the average age of PEI fishermen is now closing in on 60.
“Many people who would otherwise be in the fishery are working in Alberta and there has to be something there to entice them back,” McGeoghegan said.
