OCI deadline on processing plan looms
Company asked for province to make decision by Dec. 31
Ocean Choice International's deadline for a government decision on the company's controversial processing plan is fast approaching, with no word from the province on how it plans to proceed.
OCI is seeking permission from the Newfoundland and Labrador government to export unprocessed fish, in return for nearly doubling the workforce at its plant in Fortune.
The OCI plan would see seven million pounds of yellowtail processed in Fortune, or roughly 25 per cent of the overall catch. The Fortune plant would employ 110 workers, up from the current 60, and their jobs would be year-round instead of seasonal. Another 150 would be employed at sea, largely in processing.
The other 75 per cent of the yellowtail catch would go to market without being processed on land.
The company has also asked for a continued exemption on redfish.
OCI wanted an answer from the province by Dec. 31.
Fisheries Minister Darin King could not be reached for comment Thursday and Friday.
Critical comments
The plan is not without critics.
The Fish, Food and Allied Workers union has castigated the government for being too soft on a company that shuttered two fish plants earlier this month.
And Gus Etchegary of the Fisheries Community Alliance says the province needs to take its time to weigh the options.
Etchegary believes the OCI plan will see other countries, such as China, processing Newfoundland fish and shipping it back into local markets — something he calls "fundamentally wrong."
Etchegary also has concerns about conservation. The fish would be harvested on factory-freezer trawlers, which he says have high catch rates of juvenile fish.
"The net result of that will be the destruction of the resource itself," Etchegary charged.