\u201cWe would prioritise roles for our hard-working wetfish and coated factory staff during hoki season should these proposals go ahead and they wish to come back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of closing our Nelson site completely, which would impact significantly more permanent employees and be a major economic hit for the region, this seasonal proposal would mean that we\u2019re able to retain the majority of our Nelson-based operations and the jobs associated with them. This also includes our coldstore and dry store, and office-based support roles.<\/p>\n
The proposal would retain 81 permanent jobs and 400 seasonal roles during the hoki season. Photo \/ Sealord<\/p>\n
\u201cIn total we would retain 81 permanent jobs and 400 seasonal roles and save over 90% of the economic benefits to the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paulin blamed the current economic climate.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt is driven by the need to adapt to the challenging economic environment with escalating operating costs, deflated global commodity pricing for frozen fish, decreasing volume and ever-increasing regulatory compliance costs over the last 10 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe export commodity products produced in our wetfish factory in Nelson are loss-making in every month except for in hoki season. This loss has been exacerbated in recent times with price drops at the same time as costs have risen sharply and the volume of fish available to be harvested and processed outside of hoki season has fallen.<\/p>\n