Event eyes lobster market’s future MICHAEL GORMAN PROVINCIAL REPORTER What a difference a year makes. A year ago, lobster catches were pushing record highs while prices slumped amid a supply glut and surging Canadian dollar. But this year, with catches down a bit and prices generally stronger, it is proving to be a successful season for many. Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, isn’t interested in talking about individual seasons anymore, but what he will talk about is the efforts to create an industry that thrives from year to year, one where everyone is working togeth¬er to promote the product. Those efforts will be the focus of the Lobster Value Recovery Summit, set for March 26 and 27 in Halifax. It will include repres¬entatives from the Atlantic provinces and Quebec. Irvine said talking about prices and the season doesn’t help the industry because it provides in¬formation about internal industry workings to customers. “It’s just not what any other organized industry does, so why would we do it? He is, however, happy to talk about the summit and efforts to roll out a generic marketing cam¬paign for Canadian lobster. Irvine said all provincial gover¬nments in the Maritimes are reach¬ing out to various industry players, trying to encourage interest and support for the recommendations from the Maritime Lobster Panel report. The summit’s goal is to workshop the panel’s 33 recom¬mendations and try to build con¬sensus and plans for implementa¬tion , he said. “Anybody who’s involved in making the lobster industry go will be invited to the summit, Irvine said. He said he hopes to see con¬sensus on key issues such as the value-recovery strategy, support for a levy on catches and support for a generic marketing campaign . Marc Surette, executive director of the Nova Scotia Fish Packers Association, said he hopes year¬-to- year results don’t distract people’s focus from the overall goal of better industry organiza¬tion and a renewed emphasis on product quality. Marketing efforts would benefit from both steps, Surrette said. “I think, at the end of the day, having solid generic marketing for Canadian lobster is certainly a step in the right direction for long-term stability.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 13:37:39 +0000
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