Saving Seafood

As Maine’s Fishing Industry Flounders Amid Coronavirus, Lawmakers Look for Help

April 1, 2020 — With so many restaurants closed and much of life disrupted by the new coronavirus, fishermen in New England are trying to figure out how they’ll pay the bills this year.

Leaders in Maine say that they’ve found some specific ways to help at the local level but think more federal aid may be needed to help those in the seafood industry minimize economic damage.

Last week, Maine Gov. Janet Mills sent a letter to President Donald Trump explaining how dire the situation is.

She told the White House that “a $50 million loss in fishery value” in lobstering by June was a real risk at present.

Mills has provided pathways for Maine small businesses to apply for low-interest loans that could help offset cause during the virus outbreak.

Read the full story at NECN

Federal stimulus not too soon for Massachusetts fish, shellfish industry

March 30, 2020 — Stimulus funds made possible by the signing of the phase three coronavirus bill can’t come fast enough for finfish and shellfish harvesters and dealers in the US state of Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Times reports.

The newspaper on Friday, the day the bill was passed by the House of Representatives by voice vote and signed by president Donald Trump, recounted how multiple seafood sectors were being affected by the virus. COVID-19 has now infected over 143,000 and killed over 2,500 in the US and caused the closing or partial closing of foodservice establishments all over the country.

Industry leaders had informed Daniel McKiernan, acting director of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), in a March 20 conference call that 70% of all seafood sold in Massachusetts is consumed in restaurants. Especially hard-hit are “luxury” seafood species, such as lobster, scallops, swordfish and tuna, the newspaper noted.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Trump mulling pause in trade wars to ease economic stress

March 30, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a proposal that would allow companies to defer their payments on imported goods subject to tariffs for 90 days, as a means to ease the financial strain hitting the American economy as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Though Trump has denied he is considering the proposal, Bloomberg reported on 25 March his administration has debated the deferment program with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other government agencies. White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow in particular has advocated for the move to allow the deferral of tariff payments, Bloomberg reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishermen turn to direct marketing as demand for Maine seafood plummets

March 27, 2020 — For decades, lobster has been the symbol of Maine’s fishing industry, but at the moment the microscopic coronavirus is taking center stage.

As recently as Feb. 27, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the state. By Thursday, the public health agency reported 155 confirmed cases in Maine and the state was on virtual lockdown. All those who could work from home were staying away from their offices, “nonessential” businesses were shuttered, and bars and restaurants were closed except for takeout and delivery business.

While the economic news has been bad for all sectors of the economy, the fishing industry has been particularly hard-hit.

Last Friday, Gov. Janet Mills wrote to President Trump seeking “immediate assistance” for the Maine fishing industry. Harvesters, she said, “have only limited opportunities within their communities to sell small quantities … in hopes to earn just enough money to buy weekly necessities.” Likewise, she said dealers and processors reported there were “no markets for the product already in inventory.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

House passes COVID stimulus bill, Trump expected to sign soon

March 27, 2020 — The U.S. House of Representatives followed the U.S. Senate’s lead on Friday, 27 March, and passed the USD 2 trillion (EUR 1.81 trillion) Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (or CARES) Act, a stimulus package that includes hundreds of millions of dollars in aid earmarked for the seafood industry.

U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign the bill as soon as today.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

America’s Fishing Industry Appeals for Help During COVID-19 Shutdown

March 26, 2020 — The leaders of America’s domestic fishing industry have appealed to the Trump administration for help with the severe economic hardship created by the coronavirus epidemic. With consumers stuck at home and restaurants closed, the $100 billion-per-year demand for U.S. fishery products has evaporated overnight, according to the coalition – putting tens of thousands of well-paid jobs at risk. The coalition is calling for about $4 billion in federal assistance to maintain the fishery supply chain until the economy is back on its feet.

“Supply chains cannot be turned on and off like a light switch. Once lost, a supply chain and the infrastructure that supports it can be exceptionally difficult and costly to restart. Failure to act boldly now to preserve our country’s domestic seafood infrastructure will impose far greater costs on our economy and cause permanent damage to our nation’s ability to harvest, farm, process, and distribute seafood products,” the group wrote.

Their request includes:

  • Sustained USDA Section 32 funding at current levels, plus $2 billion for additional Section 32 activity supporting the domestically-produced seafood supply chain. The group asks for normal federal contracting rules to be lifted for these expenditures in order to accelerate disbursement. (Section 32 supports the purchase of food commodities, including fish, using customs tariff receipts.)

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

US seafood industry hopes for help from USD 2 trillion stimulus package

March 25, 2020 — The United States Congress is nearing finalization of a third COVID-19 stimulus bill totaling up to USD 2 trillion (EUR 1.85 trillion) in across-the-board relief.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the package on the afternoon of Wednesday, 25 March, and the House of Representatives – currently in recess – is expected to reconvene for its own vote “as soon as possible,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) told CNN. President Donald Trump has also expressed his support for the bill on Twitter.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Mills requests federal assistance for Maine’s seafood industry

March 23, 2020 — Gov. Janet Mills is asking President Trump for help to support Maine’s fishing industry.

In a letter to the president Friday, Mills pointed to a collapse of the markets for seafood both locally and globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the administration to consider direct financial assistance, subsidies, operating loans or loan deferment, or tweaking existing programs to make them more accessible to fishing and seafood businesses.

“In the short-term, harvesters have only limited opportunities within their communities to sell small quantities of product in hopes to earn just enough money to buy weekly necessities,” wrote Mills, calling the men and women who fish for lobster, herring, groundfish and shellfish “the very backbone of our rural coastal economy.”

In the long term, Mills said, “it is clear that the collapse of the international and larger domestic markets will devastate Maine’s commercial fisheries.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Tariffs on Chinese goods to remain in place, Trump says

March 20, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump will not suspend hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs his administration has imposed on Chinese goods, despite calls from U.S. business associations to do so to alleviate economic hardship brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.

On Wednesday, 18 March, more than 160 business belonging to the group Americans for Free Trade wrote a letter to Trump asking for the suspension of tariffs on Chinese-made goods, claiming that doing so would give the U.S. economy a USD 75 billion (EUR 70.3 billion) boost, equivalent to 0.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

Read the full story at Seafood Source