Background

On April 23, 1997, Mr. Fred Mifflin, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, announced a 57 per cent increase in the total allowable catch of northern shrimp. As part of the 1997-1999 management plan, Mr. Mifflin granted: "A special allocation of 3000 tonnes for the northern part of the Great Northern Peninsula, which takes in communities from Big Brook to Goose Cove."

St. Anthony Basin Resources Inc. was established in the following weeks to manage this special allocation. The management Board is made up of 15 volunteers with 5 fisherpersons, 4 fish plant employees, 4 Community representatives and 2 representatives from Development committees in the area Big Brook to Goose Cove. This Board then had to make some tough decisions on what to do with this 3000 metric tonnes of shrimp; how will it be caught?, who will catch it?, how will it be processed?, who will process it?, and where will it be processed?. But one thing had to remain true, the shrimp had to be caught in such a way that it would provide the greatest benefit to residents of the area.

An advertisement was then placed in newspapers requesting proposals for the short-term(1 year) and long-term agreements. One of the stipulations of the long-term proposal was the establishment of a processing facility in St. Anthony to process shrimp and other species. The short-term proposals would have to be dealt with immediately as the shrimp had to be out of the water before year-end. After reviewing many proposals, the Board chose 4 companies who proposed to offload their shrimp in St. Anthony and to hire local fishermen to fish the shrimp for 1997. In return SABRI would receive a royalty on a per tonne basis.

The long-term proposals took more consideration and deliberation. The Board narrowed it down to 3 companies and from there had extensive discussions with each. On October 31, 1997 a 15 year contract was signed with 10635 NF Ltd, a partnership formed by GNP Fisheries and Clearwater Fine Foods Incorporated. St. Anthony Seafoods Limited Partnership was then established to operate the inshore multi-species processing plant which was 50% owned by SABRI and 50 % owned by 10635 NF Ltd. It was decided that the best place for the processing plant would be at the former FPI plant which was then owned and operated by Chianti Food Processors Inc. After several months of negotiations with Chianti, an agreement was reached whereby St. Anthony Seafoods would lease the portion of the site which was not being utilized by Chianti.

During the months of negotiations with Chianti, interest was shown by two Icelandic Companies to become involved in the shrimp processing plant. So the agreement between SABRI and 10635 NF Ltd. was changed to include the Icelandic companies. SABRI now owned 25%, two Icelandic Companies 25% and 10635 NF Ltd. 50%(which was now exclusively owned by Clearwater after GNP Fisheries bowed out).

The new agreement saw a commitment of $12 million to be invested by the partners. A new multi-million dollar technologically advanced shrimp plant and renovations to the multi-species plant and production to begin in May of 1999.