The first page of a report on the Maine lobster industry, created for the governor’s lobster task force, talks about the tensions among different parts of the industry.
“Maine’s lobster industry has significant potential to strengthen its economic sustainability and overcome current market conditions, given its uniquely beloved brand and products,” it is stated in the summary of “Maine Lobster Industry Strategic Plan,” prepared by The Moseley Group, a consulting firm to the worldwide food and beverage industry, and dated June 8. “But this opportunity is hindered by the vast rivalry among its constituents, caused by market forces.”
This rivalry “pulls profitability out of the industry,” according to the report, and eliminates a “strategic focus on the marketplace.” The industry as a whole cannot determine what the customer wants, because of these tensions, according to the Moseley report.
The Moseley Group’s plan was prepared for the Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of Maine’s Lobster Industry, which sent its recommendations on what to do to help the industry to Gov. John Baldacci on August 20.
But it appears that industry leaders cannot agree to take any significant action regarding the recommendations made by the task force. A meeting was held in September with a group of dealers and processors. Peter McAleney, president of the Maine Import-Export Lobster Dealer’s Association, said the task force did a good job but that he does not agree with all of the recommendations. He also felt the task force was hampered by its composition. “There wasn’t one dealer on there, there wasn’t one lobstermen on there,” he said. When the task force was created, one criterion for serving was that a member could not earn their living from lobstering.
Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said more outreach has to be done in order for everyone to understand how these recommendations will help them. McCarron was vice-chair of the task force.
“Given that the recommendations are based on the rivalries in the industry, we need to go out and really talk to people in order for them” to understand it “and potentially support it,” McCarron said. “When you ask people to do something, it’s scary because people are broke,” she said.
So no bills were filed by the September 23 deadline for the next legislative session.
Instead, George Lapointe, commissioner of the state’s Department of Marine Resources, said he hopes to hire a full-time coordinator who would talk to those in the industry about the task force’s recommendations and find how to address concerns those in the industry may have about the recommendations. “It would be easy to let uncomfortable issues go away, and we don’t want that to happen,” said Lapointe, who was on the eight-member task force. “Our job now is to move them forward,” he said, of the recommendations.
Task force Chair Ron Philips said he thinks the work and recommendations of the task force will “stimulate a new future for the industry.” At the end of the task force, processors and, “I believe, dealers, to a great degree saw potential in some way of innovating,” Philips said. “So I don’t believe the ‘delay’ in the legislation or concept should be interpreted as an unsatisfactory conclusion to our work.”
“In fact, given some of the ideas and leadership at all levels of the industry that stepped forward during the study, I should think there’s momentum and good information to build on,” Philips wrote in an e-mail.
The lobster task force was appointed by Baldacci in the wake of the collapse of boat prices paid to the state’s lobstermen last October. (Philip Conkling, president of the Island Institute, which publishes this newspaper, was also a member of the task force).
The Maine lobster industry had a terrible summer, with the boat price paid to lobstermen the lowest since 1990.
The task force held three public meetings across the state to get input from lobstermen. It also hired The Moseley Group that prepared a strategic plan for the lobster industry. An initial draft of the task force’s letter to Baldacci was dated July 1. The task force’s final, four-page letter to the governor is dated August 20.
The task force’s recommendations must be implemented to keep the industry sustainable and profitable, according to the August 20 letter. “Clearly these recommendations are bold, and set the stage for a fundamental shift in the way Maine handles its most precious brand” in order to sustain all those who rely on the industry, write the task force members.
“The road ahead is not easy and the temptations to take half measures to appeal to the very deep concerns of one sector over another of the industry will be very real,” write the task force members. “However, we strongly believe that the best way forward is a united and cooperative effort to establish a new marketing entity and reinvest in the Maine lobster brand. A rising tide floats all boats.”
The task force focused on five recommendations contained in The Moseley Group’s plan.
The first is to develop a public-private institution, with a $10 million annual budget, to come up with research and marketing strategies and to implement a business plan for the entire industry.
The second recommendation is to come up with a strategic investment strategy to encourage innovation for the industry.
The third suggestion is to do a better job defining and developing the Maine lobster brand and differentiating that brand from competitors, such as Canadian lobster.
For the fourth recommendation, the task force states, “there is an immediate need to fully explore an array of harvester reforms which could lead to improved profitability.”
And the final recommendation calls for an immediate, $2.2 million Maine Lobster Harvest Campaign, with a pilot version conducted this fall. Lapointe said there is about $200,000 from the license-plate fees provided to the Maine Lobster Research, Education and Development Board that could be used for a Thanksgiving and Christmas marketing campaign.
Among specific tasks suggested by the task force was the filing of a bill to help create this new research and marketing entity that would bring the different sectors of the lobster industry together to increase the value of Maine lobster for everyone. Right now there are 22 different research, marketing and advocacy groups that work for the industry, according to the The Moseley Group’s strategic plan. The new institution would consolidate the work of these different groups “and provide a unified vision to implement a business plan for the benefit of the industry as a whole,” according to the strategic plan.
McAleney said that the problem with the industry right now has to do with the recession. He does not believe a new marketing institution is the right way to go. “Bigger is not better in this business,” he said. He also doubts the state can find the $10 million to fund it.
The Board of Directors of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association on September 3 considered a proposed bill that would create the marketing and research institution, and provide about $6 million annual funding, according to McCarron. Funding would have been provided by a combination of higher license fees and a tax on lobster pounds landed.
“We get the need for a marketing entity,” said McCarron. “But we have too many questions about the funding, and would we know that the investment would pay off?” So the board voted that it could not support that particular proposed bill.
Lobsterman Jim Dow, who fishes out of Bass Harbor, thinks the marketing institution is crucial. “I think everybody needs to invest in the marketability of lobster, and the marketability of Maine lobster as a premium product,” Dow said. “I think that investment will only benefit us in the future.”
When asked about concerns about how to fund this new entity, Dow said, “Lobster is a supply and demand commodity-if we can increase markets by paying for this marketing [institution], therefore increasing demand, we will see an increase in price.”
“There is no question that this has to be pursued,” said Dow, who is an MLA board member. He said that the board on September 3 was not ready to make a decision on the spot about the proposed legislation. “But the board hasn’t, by any means, denied the need for it,” he said, about the proposed marketing and research institution.
David A. Tyler is the editor of Working Waterfront.