September 18, 2015 — VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Island-based B.C. shellfish industry briefly celebrated the lifting of a raw oyster ban in Vancouver restaurants on Thursday. But the industry then settled into damage control as it tallied the cost of the month-long ban and potential damage to its reputation.
The B.C. Shellfish Growers Association said the ban, prompted by a bacteria caused by hot weather and warm water temperatures, cost oyster growers about $50,000 a day, or more than $1.5 million. Despite the ban being restricted to Greater Vancouver, word travelled abroad and likely hurt global sales.
“This is a huge loss to our industry and we hope we can recover,” Roberta Stevenson, executive director of the Comox-based B.C. Shellfish Growers Association, said Thursday. “It’s an industry made up of small family farms. They couldn’t sell anything for a month. No income. People were laid off. How do you make up for something like that? You don’t. You lose it.”
Stevenson said the hope is that consumers will come back to B.C. oysters. “I just hope [consumers] don’t stick to a P.E.I. or a New Zealand product,” she said. “We’re a small industry and any lack of confidence in our product is damaging.
“I hope people go out tonight and tomorrow and the next day and eat some B.C. oysters.”
Stevenson said almost the entire B.C. oyster industry is centred on Vancouver Island, with about 50 per cent of production in the Deep Bay area. The growers’ association has 130 members.
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