SEA CUCUMBER NEGOTIATION UPDATE

June 2, 2021 – The Standing Fish Price Setting Panel released its decision on sea cucumber today, and accepted the price of ASP. The price per pound is $0.60, and a new schedule has been introduced to assess water loss. FFAW-Unifor’s position was $0.80 with no schedule, as the parties were not given sufficient time to establish a schedule.

This is another terrible decision by the Panel. Like cod, it flies in the face of the evidence presented to the Panel. The decisions for both cod and sea cucumber highlight is that poor arrangements are made when there is no transparency. The processing sector has all of the information on the market available, while harvesters have little. We have asked the province on many occasions to require more transparency in collective bargaining. To date, the request has been denied and the cost to harvesters is high. We have asked the Panel to draw negative inferences against processors for failing to disclose information, but the Panel does not do that consistently.

Like shrimp and cod, the price for sea cucumber is not fair. Fishing at this price will only benefit processing companies. We will do what we can for a reconsideration, however, that will require more export data, which will take a few months.

Thank you to the Committee, who did excellent work during this process.