American lobster dealers may lose a rapidly growing market, amid the escalating trade friction between China and the US, Xinhua news agency reported.
In the “state of lobster” Maine, lobster dealers like Tom Adams who runs a company that exports 1/4 of its product to China, are worried the current tension between the two countries will last for an extended period and that Chinese customers’ preference could change.
“Canadian lobsters will be more popular in China,” said Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association.
American lobsters are already very common in restaurants and supermarkets in first- and second-tier cities in China.
The total value of live lobsters exported to China by the US in 2017 was about US$128 million, which is 178 times that of 2007. The latter figure accounts for about 20% of the total lobster exports in the US.
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Christ! King crab is a cheap uncontrollable pest of the sea in the same class as dogfish that no one wants in baltic nations and yet it’s worth its weight in gold in the Chinese market. How stupid can we be? Same goes for geoduck and abalone. In my early days, these food products are dime a dozen and still no one wants them. We should have known how to fight these trade wars long ago.
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