December 5, 2019 — With Europe and China effectively off-limits because of trade tariffs, the New England lobster industry and other components of the region’s shellfish industry are on the prowl for new markets.
How does the emirate of Dubai sound?
In September, the nonprofit Food Export – Northeast, in collaboration with the foreign agricultural service office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, organized a three-day trade mission to Dubai to allow Northeast American lobster and oyster suppliers to meet with Persian Gulf seafood buyers.
“The bottom line, obviously, is we’re trying to diversify markets,” said Tim Hamilton, executive director of Food Export – Northeast. “The industry has relied so much on first Europe and now China. Both of those have met with challenges recently. We haven’t done that much with seafood in that part of the world and we thought we’d take a group there and learn more about the market and generate some interest among the industry there.”
Hamilton said Dubai — one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates — and the other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) represent a potentially lucrative integrated new market for American lobsters, oysters and other shellfish.
“The Middle East has money and they don’t produce food,” Hamilton said. “So there’s an understanding and a predisposition for eating foods from elsewhere.”