Poor Rice Harvest Has Fishers Pleading Poor

Poor Rice Harvest Has Fishers Pleading Poor

Thursday, September 23, 2004 at 13:16

The poor wild rice crop in the North is affecting fundraising efforts for a proposed fish processing plant in Prince Albert.

Saskatchewan Commercial Fisheries president John Carriere notes that many fishers are also wild rice growers.

And with a wild rice harvest well below average, Carriere says many fishers are having trouble following through on commitments to buy one-thousand-dollar shares in the fish plant.

Carriere says his group has received 583-thousand dollars from fishers, but is still waiting for another 300-thousand that was promised.

He says the organization might have no other choice but to borrow money on behalf of the fishers, something they don’t want to do.

Overall, Carriere says they have received 3.2 million dollars in commitments for the 4-million-dollar project.

He’s hopeful the plant will finally get off the ground before the end of the year.