Tag: fish

This saucy but serious comparison of the pricing system for two NL staple foods was published in the St. John’s Telegram on March 26th. 2024

So the harvesters and  processers  have not been able to reach an agreement.

This is not a surprise to anyone who has been following this story and has some idea of the fundamental underlying issues.

The manner our processing industry has been run for over two or more decades is governed by two Acts. Of the province.

The Fisheries Collective Bargaining Act  And the Processers Act The actions of both harvester and processers are governed by the rules and policies laid down in those acts. A sober recognition of this FACT is a necessary first step in stopping (fixing) this farce (charade) that is called the “fishing industry” in Newfoundland.

In Newfoundland when we eat fish it is often accompanied by potatoes; Fish and chips, Fish n Brewis, fish chowder, to name but a few. Those two foods have accompanied each other for millennia. So why don’t we a Potato collective Bargainining Act and a Potato Processing Act.

We don’t because there is no need to have such silly rules and policies.

The price of potatoes, as well as all other foods we eat, result from the regulated market forces that govern our economy and society and it would also work for all fish products as well.

Harvesters know and well understand the vagaries of the market place and will accept and adapt to its movements. What they should not accept are laws and policies that manipulate the market for the advantage of the “middleman” and to the disadvantage of both the primary producer and the consumer.

The underlying concept of the current process implies that we can “set the price” of fish,despite the evidence of the past two years that shows that  the market set the price and efforts to subvert that market will continually fail. Harvesters have now fully realized that, hence the current protest at the Confederation Building. 

The issue of allowing outside buyers into the province is a bit of a red herring. All fish transactions in the province should include, in addition to direct sales, deals made by provincially licensed fish brokers, who could send some product out of the province unprocessed. This would entail extra costs to the buyer and would only occur when there would be raw material in excess of local needs. This exporting of unfinished product would also be temporary until extra capacity could be ramped up locally.

The ball is clearly in Premier Furey’s court. His government can either side with the working people of this province or continue the current monopolistic practices that current legislation perpetuates. 

Let’s have a recipe that combines fish and potatoes.