Price-setting panel sets snow crab at $2.20 per pound down more than $5 from 2022 season

The price of snow crab has been set at $2.20per pound in Newfoundland and Labrador, a dramatic dropofffrom last season's price in the province's most lucrative fishery.

The price was chosen by a government-appointed price setting panel, and was submitted by the Association of Seafood Producers.

The Fish, Food & Allied Workers union, which representsNewfoundland and Labrador's inshore fishermen, had asked the panel for aprice of$3.10. They say fishing at $2.20 per pound is unsustainable.

FFAWpresident Greg Pretty said crab committees throughout the province have decided not to fish at $2.20 per pound and will review their stance in the coming weeks.

"There's no appetite to go fishing for nothing," Pretty saidThursday, calling the decision a catastrophe that rivals the cod moratorium of 1992.

"You can't get crew members for that. You can't even pay crew members on that type of money. There's a net economic point where it doesn't make any sense to fish, and that panel hit right on it. Spot on."

The fishery was the province's most valuable a year ago, with pricesnearing $8 per pound at the start of last season. Demand for the product has collapsed in international markets, however, which led to a steep drop in price.

A price-setting panel was established after months of negotiationsbetween the FFAW and ASP failed to produce an agreeable pricing formula.

The union first asked the panel for $3.48 per pound, and lowered their second offer to $3.10, said a press release from the FFAW. The Association of Seafood Producers initiallycountered with $2.18, followed by a two-cent increasethat was chosen by the panel.

Pretty says the decision to side with the ASP takes money out of the pockets of fishing communities and harvesters who will feel the greatest impact of a lower price.

"The end result now is a ridiculous price that actually downloads the hit of the market crisis onto the backs of harvesters. And the processors get away pretty, pretty neat on this one," Pretty said.

"An absolutely horrific decision that causes poverty and job loss and bankruptcy in this province."

Pretty says he'll meet with crab committees in the coming days to see their next movesbefore the scheduled start of the season on April 10, and hopes to bring his concerns directly to Premier Andrew Furey.

"If somebody said to you, 'I'm gonna take 70 per cent of your income off for next week' I don't think you're gonna show up," Pretty said.

The pricing panel had put negotiations on hold for a time after about 100 snow crabfishermen made their presence felt at the first meeting in March. They wereprotesting quota allocations and the precautionary approach implemented by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in December.

The protest centred around Zone 3L,ranging from Conception Bay to St. Mary's Bay as far as Bonavista Bay, which was divided into two different biomasses under the precautionary approach.

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