ASP Cartel Resorts to Intimidation & Bad Faith as Industry Control Slips
May 9, 2025
ST. JOHN’S, NL – FFAW-Unifor, representing over 13,000 professional fish harvesters and processing workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, is condemning the actions of the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) and its member companies for escalating intimidation tactics. In recent days, ASP has blocked Newfoundland and Labrador harvesters from offloading snow crab in other Maritime provinces and pressured a non-member buyer to disclose private business information and comply with baseless demands.
“ASP’s recent actions expose a desperate cartel struggling to maintain its grip on an industry opening to competition,” says FFAW-Unifor President Dwan Street. “Their attempts to undermine an independent buyer and their blatant threats to companies against purchasing from Newfoundland and Labrador harvesters reveal a corrupt system fighting to suppress fair market practices.”
On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, fish harvester Dennis McCarthy attempted to land his snow crab catch in Nova Scotia but was refused by local buyers.
“I had a guy call me who said ‘You should have had your AIS turned off because you’re going to have issues getting in. Some of the buyers have got together and they’re stopping you from offloading’,” explains McCarthy. “My mainland buyer called and said Labrador Shrimp Company blocked the wharf. They weren’t going to let us in,” he says. “Eventually we got the go ahead for one landing and that’s it, and we’re not allowed to come back here anymore. Security said don’t come back here to even get water, ice or anything – you’re not allowed to the wharf.”
“What’s going on here is extortion. Someone should be charged with this. This really tells me what kind of cartel Newfoundland processors have going,” McCarthy says.
Inshore fish harvesters, as independent owner-operators, are not legally bound to sell to specific buyers. Current policy allows them to seek markets outside the province if local opportunities are inadequate.
On the buying side, Matthew O’Leary of Rough Water Traps in Placentia Bay received ultimatums from ASP, including letters dated May 5 and 7, 2025, demanding private business information and compliance with grading and monitoring services. ASP’s Executive Director, Jeff Loder, repeatedly threatened to revoke O’Leary’s access to these services, informing O’Leary his access to dockside monitoring would be revoked by 9 am May 8th, despite lacking authority to do so.
“Rough Water Traps is paying top dollar for snow crab and has no need for grading services,” Street says. “Their success is drawing business away from ASP members unwilling to match these prices. ASP’s bad-faith tactics are a blatant attempt to stifle competition and a last-ditch effort to maintain their stranglehold on independent owner-operators in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Grading services allow plants to adjust payments to harvesters based on quality scales, but licensing conditions do not mandate their use. Companies are prohibited from processing dead crab, which is their responsibility to report to government, not the grading service’s.
“ASP’s threats to suspend monitoring or grading services are baseless, as they hold no authority over these processes,” Street states. “Their aggressive stance toward Rough Water Traps for not requiring grading services is hypocritical, given that ASP member Quinlan Brothers was charged with processing dead crab in 2024 and continues to contest the ruling. If their stance is fair, Quinlan’s should also face suspension of services. Loder’s actions seem driven by bias, not policy.”
Street is emphasizing the broader crisis in the province’s fishing sector. “ASP’s grip on the fishing industry is being challenged. From sales reporting to free enterprise, policy reforms are urgently needed to curb this behavior.”
FFAW-Unifor is committed to continuing to work with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Fisheries, Gerry Byrne, to address these systemic failures and protect inshore fish harvesters from exploitation by ASP and its member companies.