ASP Claims Water Loss in Squid to Lower Price

The Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) is trying to achieve through economic threats what it chose not to achieve at the negotiating table.

For the past month, members of ASP have insisted that a deduction on the per pound price of squid was needed to account for water loss. Last week, ASP had the opportunity to make this argument in front of the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel and did not do so, even though the Panel selected the ASP price position. To now claim that the squid fishery is in peril because there is no water loss provision is hypocrisy of the highest order, and could only be uttered by a trade association whose primary purposes are to control the fishery, eliminate independent harvesters, reduce wages, and rob coastal communities of the benefits of the ocean resources that are on their doorstep.

Here is the truth about water loss:

• Only DFO can set an amount for water loss. One party cannot impose a water loss amount on another.
• Last year, when more than 1200 tons of squid was landed in the province, there was no deduction for water loss. There was also no deduction for water loss in 2006 when more than 6000 tons of squid was landed, and such a deduction existed in 1998 when 12,000 tons of squid was landed.
• In fact, there has never been a deduction for water loss in the squid fishery.
• In the cod fishery, where fish are packed in a similar way on the vessel, there is no deduction for water loss.
• The current argument by processors for a deduction for water loss is an attack on the price of squid and the livelihoods of harvesters. It is not based on fisheries science or independent testing. It is arbitrary and will not be tolerated by harvesters and FFAW.