The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Crawfish prices have held with no major depression, a Cabinet minister has said, confounding the expectations of fishermen who believed COVID-19 would produce a major margin decline.

Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture and fisheries, in his recent report to the nation said he was unaware of any major decline in crawfish export prices. He said: “It is my understanding that fishers are pretty much fetching a consistent price; a price that they have grown accustomed, and they are doing quite well with this season that is already under way.

"So I don’t know of instances where, in fact, the market is depressing prices. Prices have held according to fishers that have spoken to me.”

Gregory Bethel, The Bahamas' acting director of marine resources, said: “To date, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, our export markets with respect to exports of crawfish have not closed to us.

"As the minister would have alluded to just now, even the new season would have opened up on August 1, to-date we have been getting very good reviews. Based on the landing information we have received to-date, crawfish landings are up over last year, but again our export markets in the midst of this pandemic have not been closed. Fishers have been receiving very good prices for their product.”

Paul Maillis, director of the National Fisheries Association of The Bahamas, told Tribune Business: “I think a lot of our fears about the price being depressed may have been over-anticipated. You have to take into account that a lot of countries have not been shut down. Take, for example, Europe, which has not been shut down, and the US has opened up to a great extent to allow for consumption to resume as well.”

He added: “The issue of the prices has not been rehashed since we spoke last.” Mr Mailis said at that time fishermen felt the crawfish per pound price would be anywhere between $5 and $10, but certainly not as high as the $17 achieved last year.

Mr Maillis added: “The minister is generally correct in his assessment. I am sure there are still extremes going on where there would be a price lower than usual, but speaking to the larger commercial operations in the NFA things have been good."