PEI to hold unprecedented lobster fleet vote on creation of a marketing board
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Guardian] Dec 22, 2014
An historic plebiscite will be held this spring to gauge support for the creation of a marketing board for the Island's seafood king — lobster.
The chairman of the P. E.I. Marketing Council says a mail-in ballot in March will be held following a series of January public meetings to ensure all eligible voters in the fishery understand the proposal.
“The first step in the plebiscite process will be the creation of a Register of Lobster Fishers by Marketing Council, ” says Gordon MacBeath. “The register will identify those fishers who will be eligible to vote on a marketing plan being developed by lobster fishers and the P. E.I. Fishermen’s Association. ”
The plebiscite for all lobster licence holders follows on the heels of an Island wide vote this fall that indicated there was enough support among fishermen to endorse a penny a pound marketing levy to promote P. E.I. lobster worldwide. The penny a pound would be paid by fishermen – and is expected to be matched by processors – to create a marketing fund of about $500,000 annually.
Never before has the lobster industry - traditionally a sell to the company store business - taken such steps to become involved in the marketing and promotion..
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