The recession conditions are the big factors that are driving the market down. I think I said earlier that we received a review from John Sackton of Seafood.com at the lobster round table at the end of January or in February. His research had shown that restaurant buys were off by 50% in the U.S. A lot of lobster goes to that food service sector. We had to reorient to the grocery chains. The price points for grocery chains are lower. They need to run specials to get people to buy them.
I don't know what we can do to stimulate demand. The federal government gave us some money. The Minister of Fisheries found approximately $300,000 and the provinces kicked in some money. We've produced some generic marketing material, but it takes time. It was a short-term thing.
We need to think about the future. We had our lobster roundtable meeting in Halifax. Quebec was represented, as well as Newfoundland and the three maritime provinces. We're going to form a steering committee. We're going to look at long-term promotion of the product. Marine Stewardship Council certification is another big issue. I know that P.E.I. has already done a pre-assessment on that.
I think the industry is very fragmented. We have to get together, buyers and harvesters, if there's anything the federal government can do to facilitate that. But I don't think there is a fix in the short term.
It's going to be supply and demand right now. If the supply is really heavy this spring, I expect the price will go down.
Other than playing around with supply, I really don't have any answer to that. I don't think there's anything the government can do.