CLARIFICATION AROUND WEEKLY PRICES IN ASP’S FINAL OFFER

**Reminder, no decision has been made as of posting this at 12:05PM ON APRIL 10, 2025**

If the Panel selects ASP’s offer, fish harvesters would be bound to a weekly adjustment system – a system that has been tested and proven ineffective in the past. 

Bi-weekly pricing began in 1998 when market prices were provided by US consultant John Sackton and inputted into a formula that set the price for the following two weeks. That system did not work. Here is a direct quote from the government-commissioned Blackwood report in 2023: 

“At the time, differing bi-weekly pricing favoured harvesters that were able to fish early in the season. The snow crab fishery, starting in April, has a tendency to have a higher opening price than when the bulk of supply enters the market. When the entire harvesting fleet becomes active round mid-May, and other Atlantic Canadian supply is also coming on stream, market prices have the tendency to decline.”

The variable price was a disaster for harvesters. It took three years of arguing before the Panel to finally get rid of the bi-weekly formula. It disappeared in 2010. It cannot be re-instated in 2025.

Here is a quote from the Panel decision in 2010:

“The Panel repeatedly cautioned the parties, that unless issues related to the “price to market formula were addressed, it could result in serious problems. In its 2008 decision at p. 14 the Panel summarized its views as follows: 

‘This Panel is clearly of the view that this very serious issue of “price to market formula” has the potential to become the lightening rod for future unrest in the fishing industry. It is for that reason the Panel is strongly advising all parties within this industry to address the matter on a timely basis and in an appropriate forum. To simply ignore it will be to our peril.’

These issues were not addressed and the formula was set aside to ensure a fishery continued in 2008. The development of the “price to market” formula in 1997, revised in 1998, was intended to assist the parties in reflecting market volatility in the raw material price. It did not resolve the major issues between the parties in the intervening years in their attempts to set the opening price.”

Despite boats being on the water, fish harvesters are encouraged to seek a buyer willing to pay the FFAW offer. The Union is currently mobilizing efforts to locate buyers willing to pay the FFAW price – regardless of the Panel outcome today.