Tag Archives: China
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
Lobster back on the menu for recovering China
In a welcome sign that life in China returning to normal, tonnes of rock lobster has left Perth for Shanghai in the past few days.The lobster left on return flights after mining billionaire Andrew Forrest and the West Australian government organised the delivery of medical equipment from China.Separate to those flights, it is understood the first air shipment of seafood and other fresh produce under the Morrison government’s $110 million rescue package for exporters will depart on Thursday.The indications China has regained its appetite for high-end Australian produce comes with local consumers set to enjoy an abundance of seafood at rock bottom prices on Good Friday. >click to read< 16:39
How Effective Have China’s Agricultural and Seafood Tariffs Been?
There is a case that viruses (bird flu, swine fever, and now the coronavirus) have had almost as big an impact on Chinese-American agricultural trade as the trade war. (And more than most want to know on trade in crustaceans) The actual impact of the tariff though isn’t always quite as clear as many think, Take chicken feet (or chicken paws). Guess what really led to a fall in U.S. exports of chicken paws? Bird Flu. There may be a lesson there. Now consider one of the more prominent—at least judging by the press coverage—industries that has been hit by Chinese retaliatory tariffs in the recent trade war: lobster. But there are, in fact, markets other than China for U.S. lobsters, and suppliers other than the United States for China. Given the large two-way trade in lobsters between the United States and Canada,,, >click to read< 16:21
Coronavirus: ‘We’re trying to stay alive’ – Santa Barbara fishermen sell straight to the consumer
Instead of selling to fish processors, who then sell to restaurants, Mr. Cheverez resolved to get his product out to the public directly. With the help of other fishermen who have joined the operation, Mr. Cheverez now offers fresh seafood immediately out of Santa Barbara Harbor – no restaurant, grocery store or processor needed. “We’re trying to stay alive,” said Mr. Cheverez. “We’re selling what we sold before, just without the middle-man. We have one- to two-day old products that we’re selling, and the local community is buying from us right away.” >click to read< 14:39
Coronavirus pandemic exposes China’s venality
China makes almost all our medical personal protection equipment. Who knew? It also came to light that much of our most widely used and critically important pharmaceutical drugs are also being made almost exclusively in China.,, Meanwhile the Lunar New Year Holiday was in full swing in China. Millions of people were preparing for the upcoming celebration. In Wuhan, tens of thousands of people were attending massive shopping fairs to purchase gifts. One such event was a potluck dinner held in downtown Wuhan that brought in more than 40,000 families from all over China. These people carried the virus to the world. It was almost seven weeks from the appearance of the coronavirus before the Chinese government was forced to admit its existence. If the government had acted even three weeks earlier, the world would have been spared the horrific pandemic., by Marvin F. Dugger >click to read< 09:56
Economic Resumption? Business Picks up Pace in China, Global Recovery Pace Uncertain
China’s business and travel activities are steadily recovering after being disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, but rapidly rising infections globally will pose a challenge to the country’s broader economic resumption. Nomura estimated in a research report on Monday about 61.6% of the firms hardest hit by the health crisis in China have resumed work as of March 8, and 74.1% in the broader economy. China reported on Monday no locally-transmitted cases of infection on the mainland outside of the central province of Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, for the second straight day. >click to read< 19:28
Coronavirus: The day our world changed
Coronavirus has changed everything. We just haven’t noticed it yet. But those changes will become more apparent by the day. Where COVID19 is taking us is uncertain. It appears contained in China. South Korea seems to be on top of its rate of spread. But Italy, the US and Europe may soon be overwhelmed by the contagion. But Flinders University change ecologist Professor Corey Bradshaw says that, ultimately, its impact will not be counted in human fatalities. Nor in the cost of treating the sick. It will be in our minds. It’s in our economic system. >click to read< 07:45
Coronavirus: International turmoil keeps the lobster at home
Commercial fishing is a notoriously condition-dependent occupation. As of early February, however, in addition to the changeable sea and the here-today, gone-tomorrow nature of the work—as well as ongoing tariffs—local lobster fishermen like Brian Aresco of Carpinteria also had to contend with a ban on seafood imports due to the COVID-19 outbreak in their best market, China. Aresco said the price for lobster went from $16 a pound to $8 overnight. After expenses, he would be left with about $100 for 16-hours of work. more>click to read< 18:18
Coronavirus: Perfect storm?
What no one could foresee when the sun rose in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) on Jan. 23 and everything seemed so normal was that the planet was already hurtling toward a global economic slowdown with possibly devastating repercussions for a fragile, Alaska economy dependent on oil, tourism, fisheries and the state Permanent Fund – all now suffering the fallout from the consequences of an invisible, contagious and too-often-deadly pathogen. A month before that sunrise, with Utqiagvik still cloaked in darkness, a new coronavirus spawned no one knows exactly where was already spreading in Wuhan, China far to the south and west. more, >click to read< 15:09
Coronavirus: Despite no shipments to China, Nova Scotia seafood business is thriving
“Our first thoughts are with the people in Asia and China and the rest of the world, Iran, Italy and other countries that are affected by the virus,” says Leo Muise, Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance. Shipments to Asia have slowed almost to a halt since mid-January when the virus began to spread. “Geo-political events that happen all over this world have a great effect on this industry. Three years ago when the U.S. government and the Chinese government got into that trade war, and China put retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., that’s when our sales to China started to boom because we have a financial advantage there,” >click to read< 10:53
