Saving Seafood

In the face of harsh tariffs, the Maine lobster industry fights to save the export business, and innovate to find new U.S. Markets

November 15, 2019 — Lobster from Stonington, Maine’s biggest lobster harbor, used to travel around the world. Now, because of issues with tariffs in both Europe and China, much of the catch stays closer to home. So far, fishermen haven’t felt the loss of export business in their paychecks, but many know that Maine’s signature seafood needs the most comprehensive market possible to make the most money.

Longtime fisherman Mike Billings watched the dock crew unload his day’s catch, and said exports are needed.

“My grandfather, I fished with him when I was a kid, and he said if we could just get the lobsters out to the rest of the world, not just this country, we could get a decent price for them. “

Maine has had an export market for many years, but that business started growing significantly as lobster dealers were able to open up the market to China. According to figures from the Maine International Trade Center, exports of live lobster to China grew from 26 million pounds in 2014 to a high of 56 million in 2017. Dealers like Hugh Reynolds of Greenhead Lobster say the business was heading for more growth, primarily the live lobster market. 

Read the full story at News Center Maine

‘Why not lobsters?’: Mainers plead with Trump to help an industry suffering from his trade war

June 7, 2019 — The mild-mannered independent senator from Maine, Angus King, got angry as he watched President Trump announce a $16 billion bailout two Thursdays ago to help farmers who are losing money because of the U.S. trade war with China.

A guy from Idaho wearing a “Make Potatoes Great Again” hat stood appreciatively at the president’s side. So did producers of corn, soybeans, wheat and pork. They’re all getting another round of handouts from the Department of Agriculture.

But many of King’s constituents have also been suffering, and they’re getting the shaft from their government. Lobster exports to China, which had been booming for years, have plummeted 84 percent since Beijing imposed retaliatory tariffs last July, according to new data from the Maine International Trade Center. The growing Chinese middle class is eating more lobsters from Canada, which now cost them a quarter to a third less but taste no different.

“We’ve got an industry that’s suffering exactly the same kind of negative effects,” King said in an interview. “Why not lobsters? There’s no logical distinction that I can see. … I’m sure a lot of people in Maine had the same reaction I did watching that press conference: What are we, chopped lobster?”

To be sure, chopped lobster from Maine sounds delicious – especially if it’s thinly coated in mayonnaise and stuffed into a hot dog bun that’s been lightly toasted in butter. But, in all seriousness, King’s frustration underscores the degree to which Trump and his political appointees in Washington have been picking winners and losers. The lobster industry has been one of the losers.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Maine’s lobster exports to China plunge 84 percent due to trade war

May 16, 2019 — The latest data from the Maine International Trade Center indicates that the state’s lobster exports to China plunged dramatically in the wake of retaliatory tariffs placed on a wide range of U.S. goods.

The tariffs, implemented in July 2018, had an immediate affect on the state’s lobster industry. Prior to the tariffs, Maine had been on track to have a record-setting year, with USD 87 million (EUR 77.8 million) worth of lobster exported through June 2018, over double the USD 42 million (EUR 37.5 million) shipped through the same period in 2017.

Soon after tariffs were implemented, however, Maine’s exports to China nearly disappeared completely, and according to the latest data from the MITC exports have plunged nearly 84 percent since the tariffs were implemented.

The latest talk on the trade front doesn’t point to any improvement in those numbers any time soon. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened and then implemented further tariff increases on 10 May. In response, China fired back with its own increased tariffs, including additional tariffs on a number of seafood products.

Despite the threat of escalation, for many lobster exporters, the damage has already been done. Whether the tariffs increase or not, most of the business had already dried up.

“Retaliatory tariffs, or a move upward to 25 percent, doesn’t really change anything for U.S. exporters to mainland China,” Sheila Adams, the vice president of sales and marketing for Maine Coast Lobster, told SeafoodSource.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Another country has banned boiling live lobsters. Some scientists wonder why.

January 16, 2018 — Poached, grilled, or baked with brie.

Served on a roll, or in mac ‘n cheese.

Lobsters may be one of the most popular crustaceans in the culinary arts. But when it comes to killing them, there’s a long and unresolved debate about how to do it humanely, and whether that extra consideration is even necessary.

The Swiss Federal Council issued an order this week banning cooks in Switzerland from placing live lobsters into pots of boiling water — joining a few other jurisdictions that have protections for the decapod crustaceans. Switzerland’s new measure stipulates that beginning March 1, lobsters must be knocked out — either by electric shock or “mechanical destruction” of the brain — before boiling them, according to Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

The announcement reignited a long-running debate: Can lobsters even feel pain?

“They can sense their environment,” said Bob Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, “but they probably don’t have the ability to process pain.”

Boiling lobsters alive is already illegal in some places, including New Zealand and Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy, according to the animal rights group Viva.

A Swiss government spokeswoman said the law there was driven by the animal rights argument.

“There are more animal friendly methods than boiling alive, that can be applied when killing a lobster,” Eva van Beek of the Federal Office of Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs said in an email.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

 

How more Maine lobsters can be cracked by the Japanese market

November 25, 2015 — After five years of double-secret negotiations, the world has had its first look at the text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. All together, the 12 nations comprise nearly 40 percent of the global economy, and Maine lobster exporters are just one group that hopes this will crack open new markets.

If the trade pact is accepted, more than 18,000 tariffs would be reduced or eliminated, including those Pacific rim nations levy on Maine lobsters.

And Maine lobster exporters see the elimination of tariffs to prized agricultural markets in Asia, especially Japan, as an opportunity to export more of the valuable commodity.

Already, Maine lobster exports have soared in value to $366 million in 2014 from $185 million in 2010, according to data from the Maine International Trade Center.

For Calendar Island Lobster Co. in Portland, exports of frozen and processed lobster are big business, accounting for nearly 60 percent of sales, with the lion’s share shipped to consumers in Asia, said Emily Lane, vice president of export sales and marketing. The trade pact has benefits for lobstermen and suppliers, Lane said.

“I think it’s going to open a lot of markets in an area of the world where there is one of the largest consumer populations,” she said.

Eyeing Japan

Already Maine lobsters are appearing more frequently on menus in Asia. Much of this growth has been in China, South Korea and Hong Kong, none of which took part in the recent trade negotiations.

With trade barriers expected to come down in other Asian emerging markets, Lane hopes to see growth in exports to that part of the world, Japan in particular.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News