Business View Magazine | June 2019

236 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 various parts of the island. For snow crab, we sell to the U.S. in various product sizing – whether it’s an innovative 10-lb. pack that we created, or the normal 30-lb. master. We use a broker to handle that. We’re a smaller organization, so using a broker makes sense for us to access other purchasers of snow crab, increase our margins, and get a higher price. Some of the Greenland halibut we process is sold in the U.S. and Canada, but depending on the year, most of it can be shipped overseas to China or Japan.” BVM: What are the biggest challenges? Watts: “In our area, we have no road access to bring people in and very few accommodations where our plants are. We’ve seen a decline in workforce due to aging for 15 years now. It’s just becoming a reality in southern Labrador and Newfoundland, but we’ve always had to deal with this and it’s very difficult. We’re highly mechanized now; we’ve put a lot of money into high-tech equipment that reduces labor. We used to run the crab plant in Makkovik at a maximum of 60 people per shift. We’ve managed to knock that down to 30 with the introduction of very efficient equipment. It takes away from the more laborious tasks, as well. “Transportation is an ongoing concern. We are only accessible by sea. And the provincial government is responsible for the ferry service; in effect, that’s our TransCanada highway, but it’s not great. They’ve just announced a 15-year contract – a new vessel with a quicker turnaround operating out of Goose Bay, rather than Lewisporte, so, a quicker turnaround for our product. We hope it’s going to be an improvement. We’re working closely with the service provider –Woodward Group of Companies – and the provincial government to ensure this works. Having said that, we are in the final stages of designing and awarding work to build a cold storage and dry storage facility in Goose Bay, so we will sell our product F.O.B. at Goose Bay instead of Lewisporte.” Johnson: “Other stumbling blocks are the declining resource that varies depending on the species; a shortage of fishers with vessels and licenses; and politics of the fishery. Also, how