Accusing union of refusing all offers, ASP warns crab tie-up will soon have an economic whammy

Association of Seafood Producers executive director Jeff Loder says the current crab tie-up is getting to a point where it is going to negatively affect the market for the rest of the season — and other fisheries after that.

It's been nearly a week since the snow crab season was scheduled to begin. Fish harvesters have tied up their boats, however, refusing to fish under the pricing formula that an independent panel set just before the start of the season.

Loder said it's lining up to be a repeat of last season, in which harvesters tied up their boats for six weeks.

"We are now reaching the point where [we] were to last year where there will be negative implications if the crab fishery does not start," he told reporters Thursday.

"We are already losing opportunities both in the service industry and the Japanese market. The food service industry does not buy crab in June to sell in July."

Loder said the ASP has been trying to negotiate a more appetizing deal for the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union but all their offers have been met with rejection.

That includes a willingness to set a fixed price to start the season, which would be around $2.80 — 20 cents higher per pound than the floor price set by the panel earlier this month. 

"Over the last week we have sent some very serious signals to the union that were flat-out rejected. and those signals were around what the starting price should be," Loder said.

At the core of the issue has been the market share paid to harvesters. The FFAW insists they're being offered a 37 per cent share this season, while the ASP insists it's actually 53 per cent.

Loder says the difference is because the weight of crab landed is not the same as the weight of crab once it's processed and sold to market.

"We're using two different logic. One is correct, and one is not," Loder said. "Whole crab is not what's sold into the market. It's based on section prices."

 WATCH | From Wednesday, the FFAW's Greg Pretty says crab season is on the line: 

The FFAW has said it wants to use a formula put forward by the Blackwood report, which was done by a price-review committee chaired by Glen Blackwood after crab season last year. The report came in an attempt to cool the issues between the FFAW and ASP and plot a less controversial path forward.

The price-setting panel said there were departures from the original formula that made it an unacceptable option. 

Still, FFAW president Greg Pretty said the panel's decision to choose the ASP formula was a "departure" from the Blackwood report.

Loder said he isn't interested in having those debates and would rather get back to the table and come up with a new agreement.

"We are not revisiting an independent decision by a panel. I said that last year and we didn't. We adopted an incremental hybrid formula to get a fishery going. It's time now to do something similar to that."

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