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 Workers move caribou carcasses during the 2003 Southampton Island caribou harvest. - photo courtesy of the Coral Harbour Development Corp. |
The money will come from a premium on the meat purchased from the Coral Harbour Development Corp. by the NDC, says NDC spokesperson Darrin Nichol.
The meat is shipped to Kivalliq Arctic Foods in Rankin Inlet for processing.
The Nunavut government has also kicked in $100,000 towards this year's hunt, as well as paying off $200,000 the Coral Harbour Development Corp. owed from previous years.
Nichol says because the NDC is paying more for the meat this year, it is being forced to test the market. He says only time will tell what sort of price increase the market will bear.
"The danger is the market might tell us to go take a hike," says Nichol. "Our customers might tell us they can't afford to put our caribou products on restaurant tables because people won't buy it at that price.
"Or, they might say people are still lining up to buy it and we'll still purchase it at the new price."
Nichol says while the NDC enjoys the advantage of being the only company in North America producing premium caribou products, it's expecting 2005 to be a struggle.
He says hopes are high the company will recoup a good percentage of the price increase through its prime cuts of caribou.
"There's other parts of the animal that may be looked upon as less desirable, such as ground meat, that we're going to have difficulty with.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to do more value-added items like jerky, but, let's face it, to go to the market with an average 25 to 30 per cent price increase is tough in any situation."
Nichol says how the market reacts to the product's price increase during the next six months may very well dictate whether the NDC goes ahead with the project beyond this year.
"I expect we'll make a decision by summer's end as to whether this project goes forward. There are huge costs associated with walking away from the harvest, but we're not committed to it at all costs."
