P.E.I.'s Lobster Marketing Board looking ahead to next season

It has been a year with some growing pains, but P.E.I.'s fledgling Lobster Marketing Board is already making plans to make 2017 better.

"We're off to a good start, I think. It took a little while to get the kinks worked out,"Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the board, said on CBC Radio's Mainstreet.

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McGeoghegan said the board needs to hire a full-time marketing person to handle social media,trade shows and to "get our story out there."

But the position would also be involved with market intelligence, such as following the price and demand for lobster around the world as well as following new markets in Asia.

Marketing professional

McGeoghegan wants to have the marketing position filled before the start of the spring fishing season. The position will help when the 12 volunteers who sit on the board are out at sea fishing.

The salary for the position will be paid from the one-cent levy on lobster that was collected for the board. McGeoghegan estimated that amount to be $300,000 based on 30 million pounds of lobster caught. He said that about 98 per cent of the moneyhas been collected.

"Mostly, it was the one cent for the fishermen's portion [that] was deducted at the buyer level, and then sent to a third party so it can be audited And, that way none of the board members know what the buyers are sending in, the amounts or anything like that. So, everything is confidential."

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