ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador has refused to allow one of its largest seafood firms to ship unprocessed groundfish to Asia, saying it wants more jobs and benefits to remain in the province.
Ocean Choice International has said it wants to ship the majority of its groundfish catch straight to the overseas buyers, saying the Far Eastern markets want less processed product.
But Fisheries Minister Darin King said Thursday he wasn’t able to reach a fair deal with the company.
He said the government is willing to consider future proposals but that the company has not shown a willingness to compromise.
“It is possible that (fish) quotas would be lost to the province entirely and the resource could be landed elsewhere without any value to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador,” King said.
King also said Ocean Choice has shown no sign that it may reopen fish plants in Marystown and Port Union that were closed in December, in part because of financial losses.
Ocean Choice had asked for a permanent extension of its redfish processing exemption, first granted in 2008.
It also asked for a permanent exemption on processing yellowtail flounder in exchange for creating 110 full-time jobs at its plant in Fortune, N.L., plus another 150 jobs at sea.
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Union leaders representing fish plant workers had urged the province to use minimum processing requirements as leverage to protect jobs.
King said it was a tough decision to reject the company’s offer in Fortune, his home community.
“I’m hoping they’re going to understand that this is about securing a future for the resource,” he said of those who hoped to get work.
“The proposal that we saw there, we were not convinced that that’s the best that we could get for the town of Fortune for the long term.”
Under the terms of a nine-year contract, Ocean Choice is required to land groundfish in the province under minimum processing rules unless it receives exemptions.
King said a major stumbling block in talks with the company was its refusal to renew that contract once it expires in about five years.
He also said the company has not topped up an employment-support program for fish plant workers who lost their jobs, and had refused to increase the amount of yellowtail it would process in Fortune to 4.5 million kilograms, up from three million kilograms.
Ocean Choice president Martin Sullivan said it would be unfair for the company to have to operate under the province’s processing requirements once the nine-year contract expires.
He said the company is still waiting for a meeting with the province and union leaders to discuss more help for unemployed workers.
And he said the company would lose $800,000 a year if it processed three million kilograms of yellowtail in Fortune. Losses would increase to more than $1 million for 4.5 million kilograms, he said.
The executive said the losses are particularly unacceptable given the company’s investment of $11.5 million in improved equipment and retrofits.
“There’d be no return on that investment, and a continuing operating loss.”
In an earlier statement, Sullivan said over-regulation is hampering restructuring of the struggling fishery.
“This is the only fishing jurisdiction in the world with restrictions which impede the growth of the fishing industry and make it uncompetitive in the global marketplace.”
The government’s decision Thursday came as Ocean Choice finds itself in a labour dispute with members of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union.
Twenty-three locked-out trawler workers were arrested early Thursday as they tried to prevent replacement workers from boarding an Ocean Choice vessel in Bay Roberts, N.L.
Some workers have since set up a protest at the headquarters of Ocean Choice International in Paradise, N.L., west of St. John’s.
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