November 26, 2007

Canada's Atlantic fisheries sector tackles economic challenges
 

The Atlantic Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers (ACFAM) met in Ottawa today to tackle challenges afflicting eastern Canada's marine industry.

Some of the main issues are the strong Canadian dollar, rising fuel costs and global competition.

Atlantic fisheries and aquaculture industries is a sector based in 1,200 coastal communities, employing almost 67,000 people with an export value of US$2.96 billion.

Attending ministers pointed the importance of a more integrated approach in managing the fishery sector --- which includes harvesters and processors.

Loyola Hearn, federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and co-chair of the meeting, said it is important to work together to address the new and emerging challenges confronting the industry.

Officials were tasked to identify the common elements arising from the summits and cite options to improve the value of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors.

A federal-provincial-territorial working group to be lead by Quebec was established to explore opportunities in strategic marketing of seafood products, with concrete analysis of the international market trends.

The working group will present its recommendations to Ministers at the next ACFAM meeting in 2008 in Nova Scotia.

ACFAM is composed of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers from the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, Nunavut and the federal government. These ministers meet regularly to discuss and work on fisheries and aquaculture issues of particular interest to Eastern Canada.