About 75 American and Canadian lobstermen and scientists met here in April to discuss the lobster industry at the annual Lobstermen’s Town Meeting. With an agenda covering several topics, most conversation focused on three issues: lobster certification, lobster product traceability, and joint U.S.-Canada marketing.
Certification for lobster remains a controversial issue in the United States, especially Marine Stewardship Council certification. There has been controversy over the issue for Canadian lobstermen as well.
There was a vote taken at the meeting on whether lobstermen were in favor of seeking Marine Stewardship Council certification or for lobstermen to establish their own certification. The 50 or so who voted, U.S. and Canadian, unanimously preferred to do their own certification.
Traceability of product has become an issue recently, at least in the context of certification. This is a public health issue, not a marketing issue. Lobster Institute director Bob Bayer likened it to the value of knowing the source of peanuts in the event of a public health emergency related to a food product.
Certification companies point to this as one of the data bases they could provide.
The Town Meetings, which annually alternate between locations in Maine and Canada, usually deal with topics on the front lines of debate in the lobster industry.
The third of the most discussed topics at the meeting was joint U.S. – Canadian marketing of lobster. Since they are dependent on each other in some ways the two countries might be considered to already be in a joint operation.
The proposal met with a “very favorable response,” said Bob Bayer. Early in the season the U.S. has soft shell lobster, which does not ship well. The Canadians have processing facilities in place to freeze soft shell tails, cook the rest, and solve a major marketing problem for Maine lobstermen. Competing with the established Canadian processors on softshell could be difficult for Maine, said Bayer.
Maine lobstermen have a good supply of hard shell lobster when the Canadians are needing them late in the season.
At the meeting was a graduate student who is working on a business thesis on the feasibility of joint U.S.-Canadian lobster marketing plan.
A joint marketing plan has come up before at Town Hall meetings. The recent price collapse has directed more interest toward it. Lobster dealer Dana Rice of Gouldsboro, Maine, said it made no sense to be trying to promote lobster in contention with Canada. He said, “We should be promoting and marketing North American lobster,” not Maine or Canadian lobster.
It could be done between two countries, but the question being examined at this time is whether two governments can, since government money is spent in both countries to promote lobster.
