Canada: Association of Seafood Producers wants to renegotiate snow crab size tolerance policy in Newfoundland in 2025

A recent dispute over snow crab tolerances in 2023 that led to arbitration favoring the Fish, Food, and Allied Workers Union (FFAW) over the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) has underlined a need to reexamine the longstanding policy, ASP Executive Director Jeff Loder told SeafoodSource. On 5 August, the arbitrator determined that processors failed to adhere to certain aspects of the 19 May 2023 crab agreement between the FFAW and ASP. According to the arbitration, some processors did not honor a 20 percent tolerance on smaller-sized crab, which was part of the policy the two groups negotiated after a six-week standoff over snow crab pricing. The tolerance agreement allowed for harvesters to get full price for 20 percent of the crab they harvested that were under 4 inches in size. The agreement is intended to prevent harvesters from “high-grading” their catch, which occurs when harvesters toss out legally sized crab that they would get paid less for. The arbitration ...