May 27, 2012 – New England groundfishermen have been invited to participate in a new business and model for selling part or all of their catch through a system similar to commodity market contract sales.
The term used by the founders of Open Ocean Trading is "forward market contracts."
Keith Flett of Duxbury, who comes from a Montauk, N.Y,. fishing family, introduced the commodity approach last week at the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange on Harbor Loop in Gloucester, which has agreed to offload fish sold in contracts brokered by Open Ocean Trading.
In his briefing, Flett said the new system would provide an option to sellers (fishermen) and buyers to agree in advance to virtually any transaction — small or volumes single or multiple species, daily or monthly or even longer, depending on the desires and matches of the two sides.
The approach was said to provide price stability to a market that has been plagued by wild swings of landings and price fluctuations.
The "market volatility," Flett told the attending fishermen, "was caused by "lack of market information."
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.