Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and committee members. I certainly want to thank you for the opportunity to present to you today on this very important issue.
We are, of course, an industry association representing Nunavut fisheries, and we operate out of Iqaluit. Mr. Chairman, it's indeed encouraging to see that we've been given the opportunity to speak to your committee, knowing that you have spoken earlier with representatives from the Atlantic and the west coast and so on.
I'd like to start the presentation by giving you some demographics with regard to Nunavut, so that you can see how difficult it has been developing a fishery. It's a territory of two million square kilometres, with 25 communities and a population of only 35,000. The only mode of transportation is by airplane and during the summer by boat. We have a lack of marine infrastructure. There's nowhere to land our vessels on shore, and for a significant period of the year, of course, the land is covered with snow and the ocean is frozen.
The Inuit up north have been fishing for thousands of years, but it's only in the last 30 years that we've begun to commercialize our industry. We consider ourselves clearly the new kids on the block, but that said, Nunavut's production of seafood product is about $120 million today. That's not substantial if you compare it with the east and west coast fishing companies and the industry there, but it's an absolutely essential part of the Nunavut economy when you consider that the industry employs some 300 Inuit in various communities. These are isolated communities, so those jobs are very valuable, of course.
Over the last 20 years, we've increased our share of our adjacent resources, going from 19% of our shrimp resources to today some 38%. On the turbot side, we've gone from 27% to 73%, and overall we now have about 50% of the allocations that are fished in our adjacent waters.
The export markets are essential to the Canadian seafood industry. As you've heard from prior speakers, 75% of Canada's exports, and in particular the total production of seafood in Canada, is about $6 billion. If you look at Nunavut specifically, more than 95% of our fish production is exported internationally, and a significant portion of that is to the countries within the TPP.
Mr. Chairman, as a seafood industry association, we fully support TPP, and we feel this is a good deal for our industry. We support it for a number of reasons, as follows.
First, as I just indicated, we're an export country. We export internationally, and we export more than 95% of our seafood production.
Second, the current tariff rates in TPP countries range anywhere from 4% to 34%, and these tariffs at times put us in a non-competitive position.
Third, countries in the TPP are established markets for seafood and a growing sector of key markets for seafood products overall. The growing middle class in these countries provides a great opportunity for us to sell more of our product.
Fourth, as tariffs change in given markets, then trade flows in other non-TPP countries may benefit us as well. As they pay more and we gain more access to their market, more demand is created for us in other markets.
Mr. Chairman and committee members, as I've indicated, we fully support TPP, and it will over a period of time eliminate tariffs on seafood in these countries. The reduction and elimination of these tariffs will put us on a more level playing field and make us more competitive.
These are my opening remarks, and I look forward to any questions that the committee may have. Thank you.