Saving Seafood

Despite tariff impacts, Maine lobster market remains robust

March 15, 2019 — Just over eight months since the start of a trade war between China and the United States, the Maine lobster industry is still coping with the affects of a 25 percent tariff on their goods.

Maine had been on track to more than double the value of exports to China, with USD 87 million (EUR 76.9 million) worth of the crustacean being sold through June 2018, compared to roughly half that value through the same period in 2017. However, once China implemented a 25 percent tariff on a wide list of goods from the U.S., shipments of live lobster from Maine to China plummeted to the point that they were almost nonexistent compared to the start of the year – and things haven’t changed much since then.

“The tariff story has dominated the media, and lobster has been the case study,” Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association, told SeafoodSource. “We’ve been vocal about it because it really has impacted the business.”

The market, which had seen explosive growth in the past few years, suddenly dried up overnight, for reasons completely out of the hands of Maine companies shipping live lobsters to China.

Even with the challenges, however, companies that focused on live lobster shipments have managed to make up ground by re-focusing efforts in other areas.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishing industry lobbies for Maine commissioner to retain his post

January 1, 2019 — The leaders of Maine’s fishing industry want Patrick Keliher to stay on as head of the state’s Department of Marine Resources under incoming governor Janet Mills.

“Our industries are confronted by major issues on the water, in international waters, and within several regulatory arenas that have major consequences for our ability to do business and remain profitable,” industry leaders wrote in a rare joint letter to Mills. “The future success of Maine’s seafood industry depends on the continued strong leadership, stability, institutional knowledge and political capital that only Commissioner Keliher possesses.”

There is no word on whether Mills, who worked with Keliher as state attorney general, wants the seven-year commissioner to stay in his appointed post. Mills is taking the industry’s recommendation into consideration, spokesman Scott Ogdon said Monday. She expects to make an announcement on Keliher’s fate soon, as well as other remaining Cabinet positions, so her administration can “hit the ground running,” he said.

At a campaign forum in October, Mills said she wanted honest, hard-working commissioners with expertise in their fields and willingness to enforce state laws. She said the ideal candidate would understand all the state’s fishing industries, including aquaculture, and would have “come up through the ranks.” Most importantly, Mills said her DMR commissioner must be a good communicator with consumers, industry and policy makers. “There’s been too little of that in the last eight years,” Mills told the forum, which was organized by the seafood industry. “We need openness and transparency.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine lobster industry partnering with state prisons to address workforce woes

December 21, 2018 — There is ample opportunity to be had in Maine’s USD 1 billion (EUR 876 million) lobster industry for those who are eager and interested in the work.

That was the overarching message shared with a group of inmates at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, Maine, U.S.A. on 7 December, during a kickoff session for a new training program aimed at readying incarcerated Mainers with the skills, knowledge, and abilities to potentially land a job in the lobster industry upon release from prison.

Established through a collaboration between the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association and the Maine Department of Corrections, the certificate-earning program is comprised of a series of workshops focused on supply chain dynamics, lobster handling, packaging and shipping, and warehouse and plant safety.

Around 45-55 offenders were in attendance during the initial information session hosted in Windham earlier this month, which saw local lobster businesses such as Cozy Harbor Seafood, Ready Seafood, and Inland Seafood conduct presentations on the career paths and possibilities available within the industry.

Representatives from the companies, alongside Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association Executive Director Annie Tselikis, spoke to the attending prisoners about the troubles they’ve been facing beyond bars trying to build their workforces. Low unemployment rates and changes to the H2B visa program have presented challenges for hiring as far as lobster companies are concerned in today’s booming economy, explained Tselikis.

“It is hard for us to quantify how many jobs need to be filled right now. There are positions posted that go unfilled, forcing companies to attempt to fill by personal connections,” Tselikis said.

“There are a wide variety of positions that are required and that we need in order to be successful in our business, and we’re looking to you guys as trying to help us as we’re continuing to grow our industry,” she added, addressing a room of over 40 offenders during the second of two informational sessions held at the medium-security prison facility on 7 December. “There is great opportunity for expansion within our industry based on demand for this product that we’re experiencing in the marketplace.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Massive Industry Lobbying Campaign ‘Tariffs Hurt the Heartland’ Begins; NFI Key Sponsor

September 13, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — From California apple growers to Maine lobstermen, businesses are joining forces to try to persuade President Trump that tariffs are hurting U.S. industries.

On Wednesday, organizations representing thousands of companies in industries including retailing, toy manufacturing, farming and technology plan to announce they are cooperating on a lobbying campaign called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland to oppose tariffs on imports.

Furthermore, the National Fisheries Institute, the largest U.S. seafood trade association, is organizing a day this month when members will fly to Washington to talk to members of Congress and the Trump administration. Others coming to Washington include seafood importers from Texas and seafood processors from Minnesota.

It is the latest sign that businesses are ratcheting up lobbying against tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed, or is considering, as Mr. Trump says he will defend American manufacturing jobs. As of June 30, nearly 450 entities employed lobbyists on trade issues—up from about 160 at the start of the year and about 100 when Mr. Trump took office, according to lobbying-disclosure reports compiled by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

Few policy fights have triggered as big a jump in lobbying activity, although there are more lobbyists overall engaged on perennial issues such as taxes and health care. Some businesses are concerned about rising costs of imported materials; others, particularly farmers, about retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and Europe on U.S. exports.

At the Iowa State Fair last month, a lobbying group backed by the American Farm Bureau handed out “I Support Free Trade” buttons and urged farmers to sign posters proclaiming their opposition to tariffs.

Car manufacturers, auto dealers and vehicle parts makers together plan to run a campaign opposing new tariffs on the industry. And last week, the trade association for retailers including Target Corp. and Walmart Inc. brought 150 small retailers to meetings with lawmakers to talk about how tariffs could hurt their businesses.

“Every trade group is much busier because there’s a lot more activity across all aspects of what trade groups do,” said Steve Orava, who leads the international trade practice at law firm King & Spalding in Washington.

Not all industry groups oppose Mr. Trump’s tariffs. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which represents U.S. ranchers and beef producers, backs the president’s tough trade stance. “We support the president’s overall goal of tearing down trade barriers; we support trying to take them on,” said association spokesman Max Moncaster. China and the European Union currently ban imports of U.S. beef raised with hormones.

And some industries benefit from import duties. Domestic steel companies support Mr. Trump’s tariffs on foreign steel, which have boosted prices and profits.

But most trade-focused lobbying this year has been against tariffs. When the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative took testimony on proposed tariffs in August, a majority of the industry representatives who participated said tariffs would hurt their businesses.

In a letter they plan to send to Congress on Wednesday, business groups will announce their latest effort to make the case against tariffs. The group’s multimillion-dollar Tariffs Hurt the Heartland campaign aims to tell the stories of farmers and business ownersdinged by import duties.

“Every sector of the U.S. economy stands to lose in a trade war,” said Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation. The goal of the campaign is to “ensure Washington understands the real-world consequences of a trade war.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable and the Koch brothersare running their own lobbying efforts to promote free trade.

The Trump administration is expected soon to impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, on top of tariffs already in effect on $50 billion in goods from China. Mr. Trump has suggested even more duties are in the offing.

The U.S. has also placed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and is conducting trade negotiations with Europe, Mexico and Canada. China, the EU and other trade partners have announced tariffs of their own on American goods.

The unusual mechanism Mr. Trump is using to impose the tariffs has meant that many lobbyists can’t rely on the usual playbook. For most big policy changes in Washington, such as last year’s tax bill, Congress writes and votes on legislation, a drawn-out process that gives industries many opportunities to weigh in.

In this case, Mr. Trump is using an obscure part of trade law that permits him to impose tariffs unilaterally, sometimes in the name of national security. That is why many of the industries seeking to roll back or avoid tariffs are targeting the Trump administration alone.

Earlier this year, comedian Ben Stein starred in ads calling tariffs “B-A-D economics.” The ads, sponsored by retail lobbying group the National Retail Federation, ran on a favorite show of Mr. Trump’s, “Fox & Friends” on Fox News.

Farmers for Free Trade, hoping to catch Mr. Trump’s eye, has run its ads mostly in Washington, as well as in the Palm Beach, Fla., media market when Mr. Trump is staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort there. The group also has identified 10 states that will be important to Mr. Trump’s re-election and is highlighting stories of farmers who would be hurt by his trade policies.

When Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last month visited Fargo, N.D., to discuss the impact of tariffs, the farmers’ group greeted him with a string of roadside billboards that read: “Secretary Ross, Tariffs Hurt ND Farmers.”

The Maine Lobster Dealers Association is agitating, too, saying tariffs will hit them harder than others because reciprocal tariffs imposed on the lobsters they sell to China don’t apply to lobsters sold in China by Canadian lobstermen, even though the lobsters are harvested from the same Atlantic waters.

“These guys want to sell lobsters, they don’t want to be wasting their time lobbying members of Congress,” said Annie Tselikis, the executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Feds weigh costly new regulation for Maine lobstermen

June 15, 2018 — The federal government is considering requiring all Maine lobstermen to report their harvests after each outing, a move that may face stiff opposition from an industry worried about the cost.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested comment on the proposal in a notice posted to the Federal Register on Wednesday. Maine is the only state that doesn’t require all lobstermen to report catch-level information after each haul, and the policy change is expected to receive backlash from its powerful fishery lobby.

“We’re going to get a lot of probably negative comments on this because it’s going to be a burden for people,” said Peter Burns, a lobster policy analyst with NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “The lobster industry is very strong. For the longest time, they wanted to protect their fishing information, their proprietary business information.”

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Lobsters accounted for 44 percent of Maine’s total commercial catches in 2017, the largest portion of the 254 million pounds of fish netted, and brought in nearly $434 million. The total lobster supply chain adds as much as $1 billion to Maine’s economy each year, according to a 2016 study by the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association. The administration says only 10 percent of the state’s lobstermen currently report trip-level data.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner

As potential trade wars loom, lawmakers step up to protect Maine lobster

June 4, 2018 — Lobster has a way of bringing people together – particularly Mainers.

The prized crustacean’s magnetism was on full display on Friday, 1 June, when the state of Maine’s four congressional representatives convened in Portland, Maine, U.S.A., with a group of U.S. federal trade officials to start a dialogue about the economic importance of the state’s USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) lobster industry.

Concerns that Maine lobster could become a casualty in international trade wars spurred U.S. senators Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. representatives Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin to come together for the closed-door trade meetings, which were organized by the Maine Lobster Dealers Association (MLDA).

“This is an incredibly unique opportunity for all of us to have the entire delegation from Maine here in Maine, all under one roof, working together for a really important, common goal,” said Annie Tselikis, who serves as the association director for MLDA, during a press conference at Portland’s DiMillo’s on the Water restaurant, before the delegation moved into their private session with the trade contingent.

“You almost never see all four of us together,” King said. “That’s an important statement in itself.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Get used to paying $20-plus for a lobster roll

May 8, 2017 — The market price for a lobster roll at Red’s Eats is $26.50, the highest it’s been in 79 years.

Yet tourists in line at the iconic lobster hut on the Sheepscot River this week didn’t blink. They came for a taste of Maine and were willing to pay for the experience. And they did, handsomely.

“The quantity and quality is well worth it,” said Jan Braida polishing off a roll with her husband Tony. The day before, these vacationing Ohioans spent $23.95 on a lobster roll in Kittery and say sampling Maine’s famed sandwich is the reason they are here.

The sky-high price of fresh lobster meat this spring sent a jolt through lobster roll purveyors such as Red’s and mobile eatery Bite into Maine in Greater Portland.

Deborah Gagnon, owner of Red’s Eats, is paying $45 a pound for fresh lobster meat. Other vendors have been quoted more than $50 for picked knuckles, tails and claws.

“When I was opening in April and heard the price, I was like ‘ohhhh, somebody hold me up,’” said Gagnon, whose signature overstuffed rolls deliver more than a typical lobster’s worth of meat. Despite the increase, she’s not prepared to skimp. “No matter how high the lobster price is, I have to have it. Visitors all over the world come here. If we don’t have it, it’s like ‘what the heck?,’” she said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Annie Tselikis runs the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association

October 24th, 2016 — Annie Tselikis (it’s pronounced Sill-eek-us) is the executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association. That’s her part-time gig; her full-time work is as the marketing director for Maine Coast, a York-based wholesaler of lobster and seafood. We called the Cape Elizabeth native up to talk about Maine’s largest fishery, just as the European Union announced that it would reject Sweden’s request to ban Maine lobster from sale. (Phew.) Our conversation moved swiftly to about a dozen other topics; Tselikis is only 34 but she has packed a great deal into her career already. Starting with her deckhand days.

TALL ORDER: We reached Tselikis by cell phone as she was driving to Boston for a meeting about Tall Ships Boston, scheduled for summer of 2017. What do lobster dealers care about such things? “The tall ships are tying up on the Boston Fish Pier.” That’s where Maine Coast, as well as a lot of other dealers, have offices. “There are trucks on and off that pier from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. every night.” It’s going to be a shipping nightmare, but obviously, a beautiful spectacle, so Tselikis is plotting a reception for her Maine Coast customers. “This will be the biggest Tall Ships festival ever,” she said. “Then on top of that, I am going to make things worse for our Boston facility. Those guys are going to hate me.”

RESUME: When Tselikis was a student at Connecticut College, she studied photography and documentary and spent the fall of her junior year at Maine’s SALT Institute. Fisheries hadn’t entered her mind. Maine never left it though, and she decided after college to join friends who were working for Casco Bay Lines as deckhands. She ended up staying two years. Her parents might not have been thrilled, but the economy wasn’t great in 2004 and money was steady on the ferry. Also, fun. “There were days in the summer time where it sort of felt like camp for grownups,” she said.

FISH TALK: That’s where she started to get a sense of the complex world of Maine’s fisheries. “I would hear fishermen talking about what was going in the industry,” she said. “Until that point, it just didn’t register with me that natural resource management was a thing.” That’s how most people are, she says. “They just see boats, they go to Harbor Fish and they buy lobster,” without a sense of the many moving parts involved (a partial list: buyers on the wharf, dealers with the trucks, holding tanks, processors, transportation everywhere from Portland to Hong Kong).

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald 

European Union decides it won’t ban imports of American lobster

October 17th, 2016 — The European Union has decided the American lobster isn’t an invasive species after all, averting a ban on the live import of Maine’s iconic crustacean.

The EU’s Committee on Invasive Alien Species told Sweden, the member nation that had sought the ban after discovering American lobsters off its coast, that it would not list Homerus americanus for technical reasons, even though Sweden’s argument had persuaded the forum of EU scientists who study alien species to pursue the listing just one month ago.

Instead, the committee – which is the political side of the alien species issue as compared to the forum, which is the scientific side – told Sweden that it couldn’t find support for an invasive species listing, which would trigger an import ban among member countries, according to an EU Commission source. However, it might one day explore other measures to protect the European lobster that wouldn’t be as disruptive to trade.

American lobster industry officials celebrated the apparent victory Friday, saying the decision had saved a $200 million-a-year export industry.

“This would have had a massive impact throughout the industry, from the fishermen on up to the processors to the restaurants who serve our lobsters and consumers who eat them,” said Annie Tselikis, marketing manager for Maine Coast Co. and a spokesman for the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association. “We are thrilled. We don’t have specifics about the decision, but are thrilled the European market is not in question.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald