Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for inviting us to appear before your committee.
Each of you should have a document that I had printed in English and in French. I will make my presentation in French, and it will only take three or four minutes.
In New Brunswick, snow crab is landed by four distinct groups of fishing enterprises: first nations fishing enterprises, with 15% of the catch; new access fishing enterprises, with 12% of the catch; fishing enterprises from Prince Edward Island, with 9% of the catch; and traditional fishing enterprises, with 64% of the catch.
New Brunswick has three major associations of traditional crabbers. The Association des crabiers acadiens, of which I am president, brings together the majority of traditional crabbers in New Brunswick.
On page 2 of my document, you can see what our fishing areas are. In 2016, the second largest snow crab quota in Canada came from the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, with about 22,000 metric tons, 90% of which came from fishing area 12.
New Brunswick landings represented 62% of the total catch allowed in that area, or approximately 14,000 metric tons. Fishing enterprises that are members of our association produced approximately 30% of those landings.
On page 3, we have a chart representing the world snow crab landings—for Canada, Russia, the United States, Greenland and Japan. Canada is the world's largest snow crab producer. American landings of snow crab have decreased significantly since 2000. Snow crab is also produced in Russia, Japan and Korea.
Page 2 provides information on the Canadian snow crab landings. Newfoundland accounts for more than half of Canada's snow crab landings. Fluctuations in the value of snow crab landings are due mainly to fluctuations in the Canada/U.S. exchange rate.
In chart 3, you will see what the Canadian crab and snow crab exports are by province and importing country. Canadian exports of snow crab mainly go to the U.S. and Japan. Those are the two main buyers of our crab. Since the decrease of American landings in 2000, most of Canada's snow crab exports have been going to the United States. Prior to 2000, a large portion of our production was exported to Japan.
New Brunswick exports more snow crab to Japan than the other Canadian provinces. A portion of the Newfoundland snow crab exports go to China. Over the past two or three years, China's interest in luxury products, including snow crab, has increased.
On page 5, you will see a chart that outlines U.S. and Japan snow crab imports. As that chart shows, Canada accounts for a very large share of U.S. snow crab imports. Japanese imports of American and Canadian snow crab have diminished significantly since 2000. Japanese imports of Russian snow crab did increase significantly between 2000 and 2009, but they have dropped off since 2010. It is difficult to be specific on this, as there is a lot of illegal fishing in Russia.
The figures we currently have may not be the most accurate, but they give some idea of what Japan buys from Russia.
For us, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and any other steps or improvements that would help our product find its way to other countries and other markets would be a positive development. In other words, the elimination of the 4% tariff on Canadian snow crab exports to Japan is an excellent measure. Moreover, since none of the other TPP countries produce snow crab, we would benefit from a lack of new competition against Canadian snow crab exports and from the potential development of new markets.
Thank you.