Industry news

China on cusp of overtaking US as Canada’s top lobster export market

Datetime：2020-01-09

China took the top spot for exports of live Canadian lobster over three months of 2019, as more and more lobsters head to the Far East following the start of the US-China trade war, reports CBC.

For the months of August, September and October in 2019, sales of live lobster to China beat US figures by CAD 65 million ($50m), according to data from Statistics Canada.

The gap between the yearly figures is also steadily closing. Over the first 10 months of 2019, sales of Canadian lobster to China came to CAD 384m, falling just short of the US sales of CAD 428m.

Since the decision by the Chinese government to place a 25% tariff on US seafood in July 2018 in retaliation to tariffs imposed elsewhere by the US, Canadian lobster has been taking over the Chinese business left behind from their counterparts south of the border in Maine.

Since the tariff hike, Canadian lobster sales to China have exceeded those to the US in eight of the 15 months on record. In total, Canadian sales to China have grown by 123% since the start of 2017, according to CBC.

As a result of the increase in Chinese trade, prices for Canadian lobster remain high even as the industry's fishermen produce volumes in record highs.

The airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is currently undergoing a CAD 36m upgrade to handle the sharp increase in cargo flights to East Asian countries. According to airport authorities, a new refrigerated cargo storage facility will open in 2021, while a new area for parking cargo jets is expected to be ready before Christmas 2020 -- and crucially, in time for Chinese New Year.

The airport also hopes the new facilities will encourage more sales to the EU, where trade figures remain flat despite a new free trade deal cutting seafood tariffs to the bloc, CBC writes.

 

 

New Source: UCN