Record crab and lobster prices drive value of N.L. landings past billion-dollar mark
Rural N.L's 'megaproject' has had a banner year as the value of fishery landings soar
Tony Doyle is not one to get excited, but the veteran Bay de Verde fisherman couldn't contain a smile when asked about the 2021 fishing season, which will likely go down in history as the best ever.
"It was remarkable," Doyle says, referring to the $7.60 per pound — more than double last year's price — Doyle and his son Thomas received for the roughly 16,000 pounds of snow crab they landed with their under-40-foot vessel, Tango Delta, this year.
"In regard to prices, it's better than I've ever seen it," adds Doyle, adding that they also received record prices for their lobster landings.
It's not hard to hear upbeat language like that when talking to Newfoundland and Labrador fish harvesters this year, because their bank accounts were likely swollen by incomes that were 40 to 50 per cent higher than past years.
"This year was phenomenal. It's the best year we ever had," notes Glen Winslow, owner of the Roberts' Sisters II, a 65-foot vessel based in St. John's.
Big incomes, big spending
It's a scenario that has injected much-needed enthusiasm and financial flexibility into hundreds of coastal communities, and resulted in a windfall for the business sector as this newfound wealth filters its way into everything from shipyards and metal fabrication shops to car dealerships, home improvement stores and restaurants.
"We're not able to do that without the big increase this year," Doyle says of the engine work being done on the Tango Delta, which is high and dry at a shipyard in Harbour Grace.
The same is true for the Roberts' Sisters II, which is at the shipyard in Triton, where a new and expensive stabilization system is being installed on the 21-year-old vessel.
"It's the most amount of money we've spent on the vessel since we got her," says Winslow. "This year we'll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the boat, which we could never do before."
Doyle says the mood has changed in his area of the Avalon Peninsula.
"I don't hear so much grumbling now as we did other years because people … they've been doing good. They've got some extra money to spend," he says.
Investments paying off, says union
Based on preliminary data compiled by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which monitors fishing landings in the province, the amount of money paid to fishing enterprises in the inshore and offshore fleets this year is just over $1 billion, a new record.
The previous benchmark of roughly $850 million in landed value was recorded six years ago, but typically, landings are in the $800-million range.
"They've made big investments, and now they're paying off," says Fish, Food & Allied Workers union president Keith Sullivan, who represents some 12,000 inshore harvesters in the province.
"It is the megaproject that goes to every nook and cranny of Newfoundland and Labrador, and I think people recognize that this year."
While the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery is rooted in the cod harvest, shellfish is now king: namely, crab and lobster. When markets are hot, the fishery is successful, and right now the steam is still rising from a harvest that put smiles on thousands of faces this year.
"I see some of my [crew] now getting new vehicles, doing stuff to their house," says Winslow. "They're spending money because they got a few extra dollars to spend this year. It's unreal and it's nice to be able to see them be able to afford to do things they couldn't do in the past."
Pandemic set the stage for high prices
It's all happening as the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and as other sectors in the province, such as tourism, struggles to recover from a period of unprecedented upheaval.
And in a twist of fate, it's the pandemic that has set the stage for a boon in the fishery.
Last year, with public health measures at their peak, the restaurant industry collapsed, which meant the seafood buffets that were so famous at hotels and places like Denny's and Red Lobster all but disappeared.
In order to save the industry in 2020, companies began marketing their products to the retail sector, and homebound consumers responded, drawn by the fact that pre-cooked crab can simply be thawed and served.
This year, the retail market remained strong, but the restaurant industry also made a comeback, which meant the market was hungrier than ever for Newfoundland and Labrador shellfish like crab and lobster.
As a result, landed values soared by about half a billion dollars this year over 2020 levels, helped as well by larger quotas and impressive catch rates.
But it's snow crab that's pushing the growth, with landed values up by more than $300 million over the pre-pandemic era, and Sullivan believes this year is not just a blip.
"I think we're poised for high-valued fishery going forward," he says.
Landed value versus production value
One of the other consequences is the rise in value of fishing enterprises. With no new licenses being issued, the only way to become an enterprise owner is to buy one, and Tony Doyle says a fishing business like his can now fetch nearly half-a-million dollars.
"It's a lot better than having the doom and gloom," says Doyle.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen what the spike in prices to harvesters will mean for seafood processing companies, because that data is controlled by the provincial government, and those numbers are still being tabulated.
Typically, the so-called production value, which is the combination of landed value and market value, is somewhere from $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion.
But Derek Butler, executive producer of the Association of Seafood Producers, an industry trade association that represents more than two dozen seafood processing companies in the province, would not be surprised if production value surpasses $2 billion this year.
"It's a great news story; not just a good news story," says Butler.
In the past four to five years, Butler says, member companies have invested roughly $150 million into their operations, which are located in rural areas of the province.
He says those types of investments will need to continue in order to improve automation in the face of a declining workforce, and successful years like 2021 will allow that to happen.
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