B.C.’s farmed seafood industry predicts ‘stable’ growth
By Brian Morton, Vancouver SunAugust 15, 2011
Stellar Bay owner Keith Reid shows off one of his world famous Kuushi boutique oysters in the company's grading room.
Photograph by: James Clark, Vancouver Sun
Keith Reid may have found the way to flourish in B.C.’s shellfish industry: Think small.
The owner of Stellar Bay Shellfish Ltd. near Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island ships 100,000 smaller kusshi oysters a week throughout North America, with many showing up in the finest restaurants and oyster bars.
“It’s a boutique oyster [and] we ship to San Francisco, New York and for us it’s good,” Reid said in an interview. “We’ve identified a niche in the marketplace for small, high-quality oysters. And we get a premium [price] for our oyster. Over the next three years, we hope to increase [production] by 50 per cent.”
Despite Reid’s success, for the immediate future at least, strong growth may not be in the cards for B.C.’s farmed seafood industry as a whole.
High production and transportation costs, a lengthy regulatory process, and the return of Chilean farmed salmon to the U.S. market are just some factors that add up to reduced prospects.
As well, B.C.’s salmon farmers are fighting a campaign by critics to link the industry with the collapse of wild salmon stocks.
Reid, who also sells clams, knows things aren’t booming in B.C.’s shellfish industry, which is predicted to see slower growth in the near term.
“The problem with oysters is the cost of shipping,” added Reid, who also sells in Japan, South Africa and Dubai. “Farmers selling oysters today don’t get a reasonable share of the selling price.”
Reid said B.C. shellfish farmers should work more closely to identify specific markets. He cited Tasmanian oyster farmers, who got together and honed in on the southeast Asian market — with great success.
He also noted that the high Canadian dollar is hurting clam exports to the U.S., where they compete with U.S.-farmed clams.
Roberta Stevenson, executive-director of the B.C. Shellfish Grower’s Association, which represents about 150 of B.C.’s 220 shellfish farmers, said the $38-million B.C. shellfish industry – which includes oysters, clams, scallops, mussels and geoduck — will see declining growth for the foreseeable future.
“The cost of doing business is going up, while prices haven’t risen in accordance with that,” added Stevenson, who also noted the high cost of freight. “The profit margin is shrinking.”
However, Stevenson said that while most B.C. shellfish is sent to the U.S., there’s growing domestic sales and potentially new lucrative markets in Asia, especially China.
In the meantime, she said, “we’ll see a decline in sales. This won’t be a quick fix.”
Mary Ellen Walling, executive-director of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said that while salmon farming remains a strong industry on B.C.’s west coast, she expects growth to be “stable” in the coming years.
“Market demand is very strong for [farmed] fish,” said Walling of salmon farming, which represents the bulk of B.C.’s seafood farming. “And there’s growing interest in our fish in China and India. But because of the constraints on production, we haven’t been able to capitalize on it.
“We’re not going to be growing in the next couple of years.”
Walling said B.C. salmon farmers produce about 80,000 metric tons per year – worth between $430 million and $450 million annually — with 80 per cent exported to the U.S.
But with Chilean farmed fish returning to the U.S. market after a virus decimated output in the South American country, the B.C. industry may be impacted.
“Prices are starting to drop because the Chileans are moving back into the U.S. market in a fairly aggressive way.”
She noted that farmed salmon is now concentrated into four major companies and a collection of smaller, niche players, with Marine harvest, Mainstream, Grieg Foods and Creative Salmon the industry leaders.
Most salmon are grown in the ocean in net pens, which critics including scientists say are responsible for dangerous parasites and pathogens hurting wild stocks — a connection that salmon farmers dispute.
Meanwhile, the inquiry of Justice Bruce Cohen into the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye fishery continues , with fisheries scientist Kristi Miller scheduled to speak later in the month.
According to documents obtained by Postmedia News, Miller was recently muzzled by top bureaucrats in Ottawa from talking about her research, which could help explain why salmon stocks have been crashing off Canada’s west coast.
