Saving Seafood

Rep. Seth Moulton: Fishing industry also needs relief from trade war

July 27, 2018 — President Donald Trump is sending $12 billion in emergency aid to American farmers to mitigate the damaging impact of the escalating trade war with China and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton says the nation’s fishing industry also should receive compensation.

As the primary author of the letter to Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, as well as in introduced legislation, Moulton made the case that restricting the emergency aid to the agricultural sector ignores the parallel economic pressure being foisted on fishing stakeholders by the Chinese reaction to Trump’s imposed tariffs.

“Farmworkers are not the only Americans that are losing out in this trade war with China,” Moulton and other members of Congress wrote in the letter. “We respectfully request you give the same consideration to the hardworking fishermen and women of America who are being hurt by your policies and direct the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide emergency assistance to working families of the water.”

The letter pointed out that “American fishermen and women are getting hit on both ends by your trade policies,” including U.S. tariffs on imported Chinese steel and aluminum imports and the retaliatory 25 percent tariffs — in addition to the 7 percent tariffs already in place — imposed by the Chinese on 170 imported U.S. seafood products.

The letter also pointedly states the emergency assistance only is necessary because of the detrimental impact of Trump’s trade policies.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

All shell, no shock: Lobster prices strong, season picks up

July 26, 2018 — New England’s lobster industry faces big new challenges in selling to Europe and China, but the trouble hasn’t caused prices to budge much for American consumers.

The business is in the midst of its busiest part of the year, when tourists flock to coastal states with a beachside lobster dinner in mind. Summer is also when prices tend to fall a bit because it’s when the majority of lobsters are caught.

But the prices haven’t fallen much. Retailers are selling live lobsters in the $7 to $12 per pound (per 0.45 kilogram) range in Maine, where the American lobster industry is based. That’s not too far behind recent summers.

“It’s starting to pick up, so of course the price is dropping. But that’s pretty normal,” said William Adler, a lobsterman out of Green Harbor, Massachusetts. “Now it’s starting to come alive, and prices are still good right now.”

Members of the industry are concerned about heavy new tariffs applied by China to U.S. seafood this month, because that country is a major lobster buyer. Canada also recently brokered a deal with the European Union to remove tariffs on Canadian lobster exports to Europe, while the U.S. has no such agreement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Akron Legal News

Democrats Press Trump for Tariff Relief for Fishing Industry

July 26, 2018 — Democratic members of Congress are pressing the Trump administration for compensation for fishermen hit with losses as a result of President Donald Trump’s escalating trade disputes with China and other countries.

The group, led by Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, points to the administration’s announcement Tuesday that it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to help American farmers hurt by foreign retaliation to Trump’s tariffs.

The five members of Congress said Wednesday in a letter to Trump the fishing industry is getting hit by administration tariffs on steel and aluminum imports needed for boats, fishing hooks, and lobster and crab traps — and by the 25 percent retaliatory Chinese tariff on 170 American seafood products.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Technavio report: Global aquaculture market’s growth accelerating through 2022

July 23, 2018 — The global aquaculture market is experiencing robust growth, which is likely to accelerate through the year 2022, according to a report from the market research firm Technavio.

The report, “Global Aquaculture Market 2018-2022,” presents an analysis of the global aquaculture market based on end-users (commercial and residential); by product (freshwater fish, crustacean, mollusks, diadromous fish, and others); by environment (freshwater, marine water, and brackish water); by culture (net pen culture, floating-cage culture, pond culture, and rice field culture); by geography (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA); and by market, organized by distribution channel.

The report attributes aquaculture’s rising success to the world’s growing human population, its hunger for seafood, and the decline of the captured fish industry.

“Globalization, which has led to improved logistics systems and trade facilities, provides a favorable environment for the growth of the aquaculture market,” the report said. “The growth of the retail sector also drives the market.”

The report predicts a compound annual growth rate for the global aquaculture industry of 4.46 percent for the five-year period between 2018 and 2022. In 2018, the report predicts a CAGR of 3.72; a CAGR of 4.12 percent in 2019; 4.50 percent in 2020; 4.83 percent in 2021; and 5.15 percent in 2022.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

All shell, no shock: Lobster prices strong as season picks up

July 23, 2018 — New England’s lobster industry faces big new challenges in selling to Europe and China, but the trouble hasn’t caused prices to budge much for American consumers.

The business is in the midst of its busiest part of the year, when tourists flock to coastal states with a beachside lobster dinner in mind. Summer is also when prices tend to fall a bit because it’s when the majority of lobsters are caught.

But the prices haven’t fallen much. Retailers are selling live lobsters in the $7 to $12 per pound range in Maine, where the American lobster industry is based. That’s not too far behind recent summers.

“It’s starting to pick up, so of course the price is dropping. But that’s pretty normal,” said William Adler, a lobsterman out of Green Harbor, Massachusetts. “Now it’s starting to come alive, and prices are still good right now.”

Members of the industry are concerned about heavy new tariffs applied by China to U.S. seafood this month, because that country is a major lobster buyer. Canada also recently brokered a deal with the European Union to remove tariffs on Canadian lobster exports to Europe, while the U.S. has no such agreement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

Here’s how the trade war with China is affecting the outlook for Alaska seafood

July 17, 2018 — Trump’s trade war now includes tariffs on seafood going to and from China.

China is Alaska’s biggest seafood buyer, purchasing 54 percent of Alaska seafood exports last year valued at $1.3 billion. On July 6, a 25 percent tariff went into effect on U.S. imports to China, including all Alaska salmon, pollock, cod, herring, flatfish, dungeness crab, sablefish, geoduck clams and more.

Then on July 11 Trump added a 10 percent tariff on all seafood sent from China to the U.S.

According to market expert John Sackton of Seafoodnews.com, it includes products that are reprocessed in China and sent back for distribution in this country.

The total value of the 291 seafood products China sends to the U.S. each year is $2.75 billion. Sackton called the 10 percent tariff “a $275 million dollar direct tax on Americans.”

It will hit 70 percent of imports of frozen cod fillets. Likewise, 23 percent of all frozen salmon fillets come into the U.S. from China, including pink salmon that is reprocessed into salmon burgers and fillets.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

New tariffs could hurt tilapia’s popularity

July 17, 2018 — Tilapia’s rise to ubiquity across U.S. restaurants and seafood aisles over the past decade has been rapid. Now that the Trump administration has targeted Chinese seafood with a 10 percent tariff, its golden age may be coming to an end.

The fish, popular for its mild taste and low cost, is among the estimated $200 billion of items that could rise in price for U.S. consumers as President Donald Trump aims to erase the nation’s longstanding trade deficit. Now, importers and distributors are on high alert to see whether tilapia emerges unscathed from a late-August public comment period on the proposed tariffs.

If not, the product could become an example of how even minor cost increases can reverberate across supply chains and economies as the hospitals, nursing homes and schools that buy frozen Chinese tilapia are forced to look elsewhere for cheap protein — or pay more.

“We can’t absorb the cost of tariffs if we have to pay more for tilapia,” said Dan Fusco, President of Global Food Trading Corp., an importer and distributor of frozen fish to wholesale distributors. “We will raise the prices.”

Read the full story from Bloomberg News at the Honolulu Star Advertiser

ALASKA: Chinese delegation visits Kodiak as Trump administration issues new proposed tariffs

July 17, 2018 — A delegation from China visited Kodiak Island with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, touring fish processing plants in Kodiak and Larsen Bay.

Right in the middle of the visit, President Donald Trump’s administration proposed more tariffs, which doesn’t bode well for Alaska’s seafood trade.

But that didn’t dampen the delegation’s enthusiasm for what Alaska has to offer.

The water is low, so Alaska Department of Fish and Game employees in Kodiak are seining for sockeye salmon at the Buskin River weir.

The Chinese delegation has come to learn about local fisheries management, said Tyler Polum, sport fisheries area management biologist.

“Sometimes when the water is low, we can’t get them to go into the trap at the weir, so we thought that it would be better to beach seine for these fish,” Polum said. “We’ll show them how we sample fish to get age, sex, and length from them.”

Among the delegation, Mingzhen Zhang says Kodiak is a stark contrast to her city.

“I live in Beijing, so the best impression for me is less pollution,” Zhang said.

China’s northern capital city of more than 20 million people is infamous for smog.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Some Alaska seafood exports escape China’s retaliatory tariffs

July 13, 2018 — It appears the blowback from President Donald Trump’s trade dispute with China will fall on some but not all of Alaska’s seafood exports to the country.

The Trump administration’s 25 percent tariff on an estimated $34 billion of goods imported to the U.S. that took effect July 6 prompted Chinese leaders to respond with their own 25 percent tariff on U.S. goods headed for their country, including seafood, Alaska’s primary export.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Director of International Affairs John Henderschedt said June 28 that seafood products destined to be reprocessed and re-exported from China will be exempt from the tariffs after agency officials discussed the issue with the U.S. Embassy there.

While a positive development for Alaska fishermen and processors, the cumulative impact the tariffs could have on the commercial fishing industry in the state is still unknown, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Technical Program Director Michael Kohan said in an interview.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Fishing groups divided over proposed update to fisheries management law

July 13, 2018 — Fishing groups are divided over what a proposed update to the nation’s marine fishery management law would mean for Maine.

Some groups worried the Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization approved Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives would hurt efforts to rebuild Maine’s cod, haddock and scallop fisheries, while others say giving regional councils flexibility to decide what kinds of science they will use to guide their decisions could help rebounding fisheries and fishermen.

Lobster dealers will be happy with at least one part of this reauthorization bill – an amendment submitted by Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-2nd District, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, that would help pave the way for lower federal inspection fees, and wait times, on lobster sales to Europe, which despite China’s growing demand still accounted for 31 percent of U.S. lobster shipments abroad in 2017.

This would give lobster dealers a break at a difficult time for the industry, which is facing new trade barriers in Europe. European nations can buy lobster for less from Canada because of a new trade deal and a weak Canadian dollar. Chinese buyers are also turning to Canadian lobster to avoid steep new Chinese import tariffs on U.S. lobster levied as part of the U.S.-China trade war.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald