March 17, 2020 — The full financial effects of the coronavirus outbreak are starting to become apparent in seafood markets across the globe, reports American Shipper.
In Australia, for instance, a fisheries and aquaculture sector very dependent on Chinese seafood demand is likely to see a decline in earnings of $389 million due to the excess product that traders are unable to send to the country.
It’s a similar issue in Canada, where the previously booming trade of live Atlantic lobsters to China has ground to a halt after both China and other nearby Asian countries stopped accepting deliveries from seafood shipping companies.
Likewise, the trade of baby eels, or elvers, from Maine in the US to China is also at a standstill — bad news for a $168m industry nearly entirely dependent on the trade route for its custom.