[ISL] On the marketing of Prince Edward Island lobster

[rfmcdonald]

I came across, via an approving quoted friend(hi Christine!), Steve Sharratt's article in the Charlottetown Guardian describing a proposal for a marketing levy on Prince Edward Island lobster (Atlantic Canadian lobster more generally, I think.)

This kind of forward-thinking investment is essential, especially at a time when there are dropping prices for fishers' catches. Moving up the value-added chain is only a good thing.

The creation of a $3-million marketing campaign for the king of seafood will get the claws of the Canadian lobster industry into lucrative international markets and generate payback, says the executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada.

“Other marketing levies have generated as much as a 2-1, to a 9-1 (dollar) payback in sales and revenue,’’ said Geoff Irvine about the proposed penny a pound lobster levy from his office in Halifax.

Irvine said he was pleased to see a recent test vote on P.E.I. show 75 per cent of northside fishermen support a penny a pound marketing levy, which if matched by processors and buyers, would raise $500,000 on the Island alone.

“In Canada, we land about 150 million pounds of lobster . . . so if we had a marketing levy that collected a penny a pound from two sources (fishermen/processors), we would have a $3-million fund for marketing and promotion,” said Irvine.

The idea of a marketing levy for the tasty Atlantic crustacean has been bobbing in the waves for the past few years and the industry would love to see the lobster as popular as the Bluenose or Anne of Green Gables.

But only now, after two Maritime panels cited a lack of potent marketing, is the levy being discussed.

Many observers say the lobster fishery could become a hot tamale by taking a page from the P.E.I. potato industry.

The spud sultans have marketing down to a science with a smiling Olympic gold medal winner Heather Moyse doing the endorsing.