APPENDIX IV APPENDIX IV 
The groundfish processing industry of the Atlantic 
coast is the major employer for Atlantic Coast fisheries 
but is quite fragmented resulting in inefficient operations. 
Vessels based at 2,000 locations deliver groundfish to over 
1,000 landing points which then send the fish to more than 
300 plants. Many of these plants are merely collection 
stations which partly process fish for delivery to larger 
plants. Generally, the groundfish processing plants are 
small, supply only frozen fish, and are subject to restricted 
periods of operations. Some plants operate less than 5 
months of a year. Because of this only about one-half of 
the annual groundfish production capacity of 750 million 
pounds is currently being used. 
The groundfish processing plants are owned by about 120 
private companies. Twelve of these companies own 50 process- 
ing plants which account for about 80 percent of Canada's 
fresh and frozen groundfish production and 45 percent of 
the. total £ish preduction.on the, Atlantic Coase: 
Competition is keen among Canadian processing companies 
exporting fish products to foreign markets. For example, 
80 companies compete for the U.S. groundfish market and 30 
companies compete for a very small part of the U.S. crabmeat 
market. Moreover, efforts to develop export markets have 
been sporadic and uncoordinated. For these reasons, by 1975 
many companies faced imminent bankruptcy and appealed for 
Government assistance. 
DOMESTIC USE OF (FISH PRODUCTS 
Preliminary 1974 figures indicate Canada used 87 per- 
cent of its catch for human consumption and 13 percent 
principally for oil and fishmeal. Most fish used for food 
was processed in a frozen form as shown in the following 
EaoMer 
Type of fish product Percent of total 
Frozen 53 
Fresh PAL 
Cured 16 
Canned 80) 
Total 100 
290 
