Tag Archives: China
The value of Canadian lobster exports has skyrocketed driving the wharf price toward a record high
Two weeks ago, at wharfs in Nova Scotia, the price of lobster was the highest it has ever been. Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Company, a live lobster exporter in Nova Scotia, said the shore price for lobster, the amount fishermen get from buyers, was $18 a pound. That’s more than double the regular pre-pandemic price. It has since gone down due to a drop in exports and higher supply. Lamont said this week lobster was around $12 to $12.50 a pound. While high prices mean more money for lobster exporters and fishermen, Lamont said he is scared that if lobster becomes too expensive, people and businesses will simply stop buying it. >click to read< 10:52
Trade war, Covid and now Ukraine invasion eat into Alaska seafood sales
First a trade war, then a battle against an infectious virus and now a real war are all affecting Alaska seafood exports. Shipments to China fell from as high as 30% of Alaska’s total seafood export value in the 2010s to 20% in 2020. “The U.S.-China trade war has displaced $500 million of Alaska seafood,” And though people bought more seafood to prepare at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, sales to restaurants and food services fell by 70%, Woodrow said. The food service market “still hasn’t fully recovered.” The Alaska product at risk in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is pink salmon roe. Eastern Europe is a major buyer of the product, he said. “It’s a regional preference.” Alaska in 2021 shipped to Ukraine about $20 million of pink salmon roe,,, >click to read< 11:37
Canadian lobster exports have biggest year ever, topping $3.2B last year
The value of Canadian lobster exports topped $3.2 billion last year, the highest ever and more than $700 million higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to new trade data. Soaring sales of Canadian frozen and processed lobster in the United States during 2021 accounted for most of the increase. “We had a very strong bounce back from the pandemic as people ate premium protein that they bought in grocery stores. They wanted healthy food, they wanted safe food and they wanted a treat. So they buy lobster,” said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, an industry trade group. >click to read< 07:57
U.S. lobster set to feed another Chinese New Year as demand booms
The week-long holiday, commonly known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, is typically one of the busiest times for the U.S. lobster business. Appetite for the crustaceans remains strong in China this year, despite pandemic-related challenges to transportation and logistics, according to U.S. lobster industry members. “I have orders every day. Whether I can get them all on the airplanes every day becomes a question,” Bill Bruns, operations manager at The Lobster Co. >click to read< 08:16
Chinese buyers snap up Maine’s lobster haul
Undeterred by biting winds as the temperature hovers around freezing, Maine’s lobstermen haul their traps out of their pickup trucks and onto their boats. It is shortly after dawn in the coastal town of Ogunquit, the start of another working day that will last about 12 hours. The tourists have gone and the “summer folk” have fled to the warmer climes of Florida. In Ogunquit’s Perkins Cove, a red icebreaker has been readied for the winter months, when it will make sure the lobstermen can reach lucrative fishing grounds in the Atlantic. >click to read< 07:14
A Preposterous Claim: Chinese media says Maine lobster shipment was ‘Pandora’s box’ behind pandemic
A recent article in the Sina news portal, one of the most read on China’s state-controlled internet, reported that in mid-November 2019, a batch of seafood from Maine was shipped to the “Wuhan South China Seafood Market,” also known as the Huanan Seafood Market, where the virus was first reported in late 2019. According to the translated Sina article, within a few weeks, employees in the market began experiencing “symptoms of pneumonia of unknown origin one after another.” Sina named “the Seashell Company” in York County as the original source of the lobster. >click to read< There was talk about that in 2019 during the trade war,,, US-China Trade Deal: US lobster dealers anxious to resume business with China –Hugh Reynolds, a lobster dealer from Stonington, Maine, was excited to learn that the China-US phase-one economic and trade deal came into effect on Feb 14., >click to read< >Search results for China, Lobster< 13:41
Pandemic, labor , product shortages, and supply chain issues disrupt Dungeness Crab market
Seafood distributors, sellers and processors point to a number of factors that converged to create a perfect storm: the coronavirus pandemic, labor shortages, product shortages, supply chain issues and market demands. All have contributed to drive prices up from the usual $25 or so per pound to as much as $52. This season was difficult for many in the industry. It opened late and yielded a mere 12 million pounds to date, compared to last year’s 20 million. On average, commercial crabbers land around 16 million pounds in Oregon, though the fishery can be cyclical, with boom and bust periods. >click to read< 19:13
Banned Australian lobsters are sneaking into China via Hong Kong
Since direct shipments to China virtually ground to a halt last November, Hong Kong has become the world’s largest importer of Australian lobsters, with monthly trade growing more than 2000 per cent from October to April. While lower prices will have spurred some increased demand from Hong Kong consumers, experts say the dramatic spike is more likely due to a grey trade as the tasty crustaceans are sent across the border to the mainland. >click to read< 09:22
Australian lobsters back on the Chinese menu as ‘grey trade’ fires up again
Australian lobster fishermen shut out of mainland China appear to be selling millions of dollars’ worth of crayfish to the once-booming market via unofficial “grey channels”, trade experts say. Commercial fishers across the country were left reeling in November when China appeared to impose an unofficial ban on Australian lobster exports that had been worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The suspension effectively stopped the trade with China, which had been buying more than 90 per cent of lobsters exported from Australia. >click to read< 11:48
A “heavy mental impact” – Tasmania’s rock lobster industry suffers in trade war
Beijing cancelled the China Australia strategic economic dialogue this week, effectively ending trade relations between the two countries. For Tasmania’s rock lobster fishers this trade war is real and destroying their livelihoods and businesses in less than 12 months. Lobster fisher Kane Ebel said there was a “heavy mental impact” to the trade war. “When you get out of bed in the morning and you’ve got big debts on your boat and your house and effectively can’t go to work, it’s got to take a toll,” he told Sky News. >click to watch< 18:48
Australia: From feeding a President to a food van – This is the reality of China’s trade war
From the barley fields of Western Australia, to the lobster trawlers of Hobart,,, In a shock move, Chinese authorities claimed a sample of a rock lobster contained excessive levels of the heavy metal cadmium. Trade was effectively shut down,,, Australian government agencies has found no evidence of contamination in southern rock lobster. Without China, prices have collapsed. There are about 150 boats in the Tasmanian lobster fleet, Mr Blake fears a third will have to exit the industry,,, only last night, I had a fisherman on the phone crying to me, wondering how he’s going to pay his bills, and this is only the start.” Lobster is just one of a raft of industries hit by China’s trade sanctions, including beef, wine and barley. lots of photos, >click to read< 19:31
U.S. lobster exports to China rebounded in 2020
While the coronavirus pandemic tanked U.S. lobster exports overall in 2020, international trade data suggests the industry’s once-thriving U.S. to China trade pipeline may be making a comeback. International sales of U.S. lobster fell by 22 percent last year, from $548.4 million in 2019 to $426.9 million in 2020. The market saw declines in sales to each of the country’s top 10 international buyers, with the notable exception of China, which bought more than $127 million of U.S. lobster, or a roughly 49 percent increase over 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. >click to read< 10:34
Coronavirus: Why the Lunar New Year matters for Maine lobster shippers
The Lunar New Year is typically one of the busiest parts of the calendar for America’s lobster shippers, who send millions of dollars worth of the crustaceans to China every year. This year the holiday is Friday, and industry members said the Year of the Ox won’t necessarily be the Year of the Lobster. That’s because shipping has been complicated this winter by the threat of the virus. Mike Marceau, vice president of The Lobster Company in Arundel, Maine, said he isn’t expecting much in the way of exports. >click to read< 08:44
China’s lobster ban helped lift Australian Christmas seafood purchases by 30 per cent
It was a difficult 2020 for Australian fishermen with COVID-19 affecting both food service and export markets. “We needed a bumper Christmas period to help us claw our way back,” Veronica Papacosta, CEO of Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) said. It seems that SIA’s campaign calling on consumers to support the struggling sector, by switching one meal on the Christmas table to seafood, worked. “We’re hearing from retailers and producers right across the country that they’re up, on average, 30 per cent from last year’s December sales,” >click to read< 07:49
New Zealand crayfish in hot demand in China, selling for $100, as China-Australia relations sour
Though this time of year is usually quiet a shift in global politics has made for a busier November and December than expected. A diplomatic stoush saw China refuse various Australian exports, including live crayfish, also known as kōura or rock lobster. Suddenly Chinese buyers are paying a lot more to get hold of New Zealand crays. The extra cash has been a welcome boost, after the industry’s $38m loss during lockdown. >click to read< 16:43
Western rock lobster head to supermarkets across Australia amid China trade woes
It is a deal that would have been unimaginable last Christmas, when Chinese customers were snapping up western rock lobster at jaw-dropping prices and locals in the port city of Geraldton, where they were caught, often missed out. But the fishers’ co-operative has now signed a contract with a supermarket giant to put the prized shellfish on retail shelves across Australia at the relative bargain price of $20 each for a cooked lobster. The coronavirus pandemic and worsening trade crisis with China has seen rock lobster fishers focus on the market closer to home. Video, >click to read< 11:05
Lobsters Are A Prawn In The Trade Wars
American lobster and lobster fishers got caught in a trade war being fought on multiple fronts. The United States is battling China on one major front and the European Union (EU) on another, but as is typical in trade wars, it’s lobster production in another country that’s winning the war. In this case, Canada. If that weren’t enough, tariffs are the root cause of the trade war, but not in the way you might think. China’s tariffs on U.S. lobsters are in retaliation for President Trump’s China tariffs over intellectual property. The EU didn’t raise its tariffs on U.S. lobster, but rather lowered them on Canadian ones as part of their free trade agreement. In other words, U.S. lobsters were never meant to be the target of either Chinese or EU,,, How the lobster trade war started isn’t nearly as interesting as the efforts to stop it. >click to read< 10:28
Trade minister says she’ll keep eye on U.S. probe of Canadian lobster industry
The Canadian industry gained most of the Chinese market that the Americans lost after China slapped a 35 per cent tariff on U.S. lobster exports. Canada also saw its lobster exports grow in Europe after it signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, with the European Union, giving it a tariff advantage over its U.S. competitors. The Trump administration, however, has recently signed an agreement with China that removes the 35 per cent tariff. And a separate deal with Europe also removed tariffs on American lobsters that had provided the Canadian industry an advantage. Executive Director Geoff Irvine (Lobster Council of Canada) said Monday the lobster industries of Canada and the United States are now back on an even playing field. >click to read< 07:17
USDA trade aid for lobster industry using coronavirus coffers
The Trump administration is committed to starting an aid program to help the struggling lobster industry, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday, but the funds to do so will come from the coronavirus stimulus package, not the aid used to bail out farmers after President Trump’s trade war with China. The lobster industry, like many others during the coronavirus outbreak, has seen losses as markets on cruise ships and restaurants evaporate.,, Trump has began paying considerable attention to Maine’s lobster industry starting this summer, traveling to Bangor in June to announce he would reverse protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. >click to read< 18:07
‘Okay, so what do we do?’ – New Markets Reshape Crab Industry
“China shutting down was when we first started to feel the impact of the (coronavirus) pandemic, then the closures of restaurants and stores hit us full blast,” says Novotny. “All of a sudden nothing was going out.” “But necessity is the mother of invention. Everyone from the crabbers to the processors to the mom-and-pop places started saying, ‘Okay, so what do we do?’ and you started to see Pacific Seafood start shipping crab all over the country.” Until the pandemic, flash-freezing techniques, which freeze crabs in a briny block of ice to maintain flavor and texture, was a niche market, used primarily for small orders. >click to read< 10:37
New Beijing coronavirus outbreak deals blow to China consumer confidence with seafood sales dropping 70%
The new COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing has dealt a heavy blow to the nation‘s seafood sector, pushing sales down 60-70 percent compared with pre-pandemic levels, and analysts said it‘s the worst time for the industry in decades. Seafood orders are canceled and marketplaces are shut in Beijing, where about 25 percent of China‘s seafood consumption takes place. Consumers elsewhere in the country are cautious, too, and it‘s taking a heavy toll on the sector. >click to read< 12:50
N.S. Premier Stephen McNeil: China not ‘reasonable’ requiring lobster shippers to assume Coronavirus liability
“I don’t believe that the requirement to accept liability on live seafood going into that marketplace is a reasonable one,” McNeil told reporters in Halifax Thursday. China is the second largest market for Canadian lobster, with exports of live lobster alone in 2019 valued at $457 million, most of it supplied by inshore fishermen from Nova Scotia. That demand has upended traditional economics in the fishery. Even as landings soared in recent years, the increased demand from China helped keep prices up. Earlier this year, it came crashing down when China shut down because of the Coronavirus pandemic. >click to read< 09:50
Memorandum on Protecting the United States Lobster Industry
Protecting the United States Lobster Industry By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. On May 22, 2018, the United States Trade Representative (Trade Representative) concluded an investigation under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2411), finding that China had engaged in multiple unreasonable and discriminatory trade practices that had harmed American intellectual property rights, innovation, and technology development. In response to China’s unfair and unreasonable conduct, the United States imposed tariffs on several categories of Chinese products. Rather than reform its practices, China responded to the Trade Representative’s findings with unjust retaliatory tariffs designed strategically to inflict financial harm on America’s farmers, fishermen, and workers in other industries. >click to read< 10:02
Chinese tabloid blasts Canada over lobster dispute
Communist Party media in China rebuked and threatened Nova Scotia lobster shippers this week for expressing concerns over new roadblocks to getting products into China. The party tabloid Global Times says recent border measures are about food safety after a COVID-19 outbreak was linked to a Beijing food market, “rather than an excuse to target any specific country.” “It’s Canada’s choice to export to China, and Canada needs to abide by Chinese regulations, which may be adjusted when necessary in accordance with the COVID-19 situation,” Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation, >click to read< 09:28
Global Affairs Canada takes no stance on whether lobster exporters should sign Chinese liability form
Chinese customers want Canadian shippers to sign a declaration their lobster is free of COVID-19, and assume liability if it’s detected in China. The stipulation has alarmed shippers like Osborne Burke of Victoria Co-op Fisheries, a Cape Breton company that ships frozen lobster to China. “Absolutely under no condition would we sign anything,” he said. Burke, who is also president of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, does not recommend members sign anything either.,, The province declined comment on the matter Monday. >click to read< 07:52
Canadian lobster to China hits another roadblock, demand a signed declaration live lobster is Coronavirus free
Canadian businesses that export lobster to China have run into another border roadblock. On Friday, Chinese importers started demanding a signed declaration that Canadian live and processed lobster is free of COVID-19 before it can enter China. “It’s a bold thing to ask and we as Canadian exporters should push back,” says Stewart Lamont of Tangier Lobster in Nova Scotia. His company flies lobster to mainland China. Lamont has refused to sign the declaration, which makes Canadian companies liable in the Chinese court system if there is a problem. >click to read< 18:52
Can we really break the China habit?
China is a hard habit to break.Even after its early mishandling of the coronavirus disrupted the country’s ability to make and buy the world’s products, further exposing the faults of its authoritarian system and leading it to ratchet up its propaganda war, China’s economic power makes it the last best hope for avoiding a protracted global downturn.“When this all started, we were thinking, Where else can we go?” said Fedele Camarda, a third-generation lobster fisherman in western Australia, which sends most of its catch to China. “Then the rest of the world was also compromised by the coronavirus, and China is the one getting back on its feet.”“Although they’re just one market,” he added, “they’re one very big market.” >click to read< 10:56
‘Nothing is normal’: LFA 34 & 33 lobster fishery draws to a close in southwest N.S.
The commercial lobster fishery in southwestern Nova Scotia and along the south shore, draws to a close May 31. Crews are bringing gear back ashore at the conclusion of a season that saw a promising start with catches and the price paid to fishermen, but then hit rough waters due to the coronavirus pandemic. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of people that are already hauled up. Some five days early or more,” said Yarmouth County fishing captain Shawn Muise, following a day of fishing on his vessel, Force Awakens, on May 29. “Nothing is normal.” “The season was going so well at the start. Finally the prices were reflecting the market. But when COVID started, and as the price started to drop, you could see it in the fishermen’s faces,” Lots of photos, >click to read< 07:29
Two Hands blockchain marketing alternative to wet markets for SA southern rock lobster fishers
SA Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishermen’s Association executive officer Kyri Toumazos said SA fishers would welcome the new system. “To some degree we are behind when it comes to product traceability and have a long way to go,” Mr Toumazas said. “Any time the consumer knows their product come from a sustainable fishery then we have a win.” He said the coronavirus pandemic had caused huge disruption for the industry, but demand had picked up and boats were back fishing off Kangaroo Island now that the northern zone season had been extended out to October 31. Perhaps the Two Hands system could help get more product on limited air freight available, he said. Video, >click to read< 08:46
Coronavirus: Seafood industry post COVID-19, an overhaul to trigger growth of small fisheries
The coronavirus outbreak spread through the planet at an unprecedented scale and brought the whole world to a halt, plummeting demand in the majority of the sectors including the seafood industry. Seafood producers across the world are without a market for their product as demand slumps and supply chains cripple due to restrictions imposed to contain the outbreak. The seafood sector is known to have some of the most complex and repressive supply chains but the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for change that would benefit fishermen as well as consumers. >click to read< 19:01
