April 14, 2020 — A group of more than 60 U.S. senators and representatives have signed a letter calling for China and other countries to shut down so-called “wet markets” where live wild animals are sold for human consumption.
Wet markets are found in many cities in China, and often feature seafood and other animals being sold alive to customers. A wet market in Wuhan is believed to have been the source of the COVID-19 virus that has killed more than 100,000 people globally since December 2019.
April 6, 2020 — When I sat down to write this letter last month, we were starting to see the effects of coronavirus on fisheries with primary markets in China, other parts of Asia and in Europe. But it was not yet on our shores, shutting down domestic businesses, gatherings, events, meetings, government offices and distribution chains.
Just a few weeks ago, I had events scheduled for every weekend in March. I made it to the first one, and the rest fell like dominoes. I’m writing this on lockdown at home, where social media has become an even more key lifeline to this industry.
But the most important lesson I am taking from this is just how critical our local communities are to our security and safety. The global marketplace is a boundless wonderland. But as thrilling as it is, it cannot sustain us through deeply troubled times.
Diversification of markets should include expanding local distribution points, as well as global ones. And if we, as consumers, want access to our local resources in times of crisis, then we have to keep buying them even when the world opens up to us again.
March 31, 2020 — Australia’s largest producer of Western rock lobster is the main contributor to the country’s half-billion-dollar live exports of the shellfish, but it faces a stark choice; export its live product to China using expensive cargo planes or export no live rock lobster at all.
It is the harsh reality facing seafood companies around the globe as commercial passenger airlines are grounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve seen [passenger freight] capacity drop very significantly over the last few weeks, to the point where on Wednesday we had the last direct flight to China,” Matt Rutter, CEO of Geraldton Fishermen’s Co-operative (GFC), told Undercurrent News on Thursday (March 26).
“In fact, the last available for charter is through Japan. That last flight flies on Monday [March 30],” he said.
March 30, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a proposal that would allow companies to defer their payments on imported goods subject to tariffs for 90 days, as a means to ease the financial strain hitting the American economy as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Though Trump has denied he is considering the proposal, Bloomberg reported on 25 March his administration has debated the deferment program with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other government agencies. White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow in particular has advocated for the move to allow the deferral of tariff payments, Bloomberg reported.
March 25, 2020 — As the spread of the novel coronavirus disrupts business as usual across the country, food producers of all kinds are turning to the government for the help they say they need to stay afloat through the pandemic. From fishermen to produce growers to brewers, companies and organizations are lining up for federal aid as policymakers argue about the coming stimulus for small businesses.
In the fish sector, the closure of scores of restaurants and the destabilization of exports to China has forced the seafood supply chain to adapt to primarily servicing retail stores where possible. Yet even if some fishermen are able to shift to retail, the existing disruptions could be ruinous to many independent producers.
Take the Maine fishermen who catch elver eel. Roughly 1,000 fishermen in the state catch the baby eels and mostly send them to China, to the tune of about $20 million in revenue each year. Yet now they must wait at least two additional weeks to begin harvesting due to officials’ concerns about the spread of coronavirus. State policymakers say the nature of the fishing operations “makes it impossible to follow social distancing recommendations, including maintaining six feet from other people to reduce the spread of this disease,” according to Patrick Keliher, commissioner of Maine Department of Marine Resources.
March 20, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump will not suspend hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs his administration has imposed on Chinese goods, despite calls from U.S. business associations to do so to alleviate economic hardship brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.
On Wednesday, 18 March, more than 160 business belonging to the group Americans for Free Trade wrote a letter to Trump asking for the suspension of tariffs on Chinese-made goods, claiming that doing so would give the U.S. economy a USD 75 billion (EUR 70.3 billion) boost, equivalent to 0.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
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.
March 17, 2020 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:
The National Fisheries Institute’s Red Crab Council will continue to fund and support its Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) in China. The comprehensive FIP is focused on improving crab production in Fujian Province, the leading harvesting region in China for red crab.
“For so many reasons the operating climate around red crab, from a trade perspective, is challenging these days,” said Newport International President Anjan Tharakan, the NFI Red Crab Council Chair. “It would be easy to see why companies might say they don’t want to participate in this work right now. But not one company did. This is a committed group.”
The Council’s project partner on the ground in China is Ocean Outcomes (O2), who coordinates with fishery stakeholders, government interests and the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance to keep the FIP moving in the right direction.
The NFI Red Crab Council funds the work by assessing a fee on each of its members based on the number of pounds they import each quarter.
“Like most FIPs, this project has its challenges on the water, but when your primary source of funding off the water is directly dependent on trade volume, and tariffs enter the picture, that makes things even more challenging,” said O2 Founder and Senior Advisor Rich Lincoln. “To be able to continue the work in China with local fishery stakeholders will allow us to build on the momentum we’ve generated and ensure this important FIP remains on track.”
The status of the Fujian Red Crab FIP is updated biannually on fisheryprogress.org. Its 2019 work focused on implementation of catch, biological and effort data collection, harvest strategy evaluation, and lost fishing gear assessment.
The NFI Red Crab Council is the leading precompetitive collaboration effort focused solely on the sustainability of Red Swimming Crab. The Council is committed to collaborating on Red Crab Fisheries Improvement Projects globally.
March 16, 2020 — As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15, seven Maine residents have been confirmed positive and five others are presumed positive for the coronavirus, according to the state. Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support this mission by purchasing a digital subscription.
Maine’s first probable case of the new coronavirus was only diagnosed on Thursday, but the global pandemic has already left its mark on the Maine lobster industry in the form of shrinking demand and dropping prices.
Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight to the economic disruption caused by the virus, according to Annie Tselikis, the executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association.
“The market situation right now is real. There is not a lot of demand,” she said Friday. “You’re seeing this across all commodities. It’s not just lobster. It’s not just seafood. Uncertainty is challenging for any industry and any movement of goods.”
Problems stemming from coronavirus seemed to begin in January, after the spread of the virus paused Canadian charter flights to Asia during a time that is usually very busy for lobster sales because of Chinese New Year celebrations, according to Bloomberg News. Because of that, thousands of pounds of unsold lobster flooded North American markets, causing wholesale prices to drop.
March 13, 2020 — Bring in the dancing lobsters, and get ‘em while they’re hot.
The ongoing coronavirus outbreak is drowning Chinese demand for American lobster, reportedly plunging market prices to record lows.
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, lobster prices in the U.S. have hit their lowest in at least four years, Bloomberg reports. China is one of the biggest export destinations for live lobster, where the delicacy is “a sign of wealth and status” among the middle class, as well as a popular choice for Lunar New Year celebrations and weddings as a “symbol of good fortune,” according to The New York Times.
However, no one is quite indulging like they used to during widespread lockdowns and the continued outbreak. Travel restrictions, too, have effectively canceled the once-frequent charter flights of the crustaceans from the U.S. and Canada to the Asian nation.