October 16, 2015 — The state of Maine, whose biggest exports to China are seafood, especially lobsters, and wood, is sending a trade delegation headed by its governor to China at the end of this month in search of deals for the state’s services industry.
Governor Paul LePage, the Maine International Trade Center (MITC), and the US Commercial Service will be joined by a delegation of about two dozen people from the food, environmental and educational sectors on a week-long trip to East Asia from Oct 24 to Oct 31, where they will visit Shanghai. Then those in the seafood sector will head to Qingdao on China’s east coast for a fishery tradeshow.
China is Maine’s second-largest export market after Canada. Last year’s those exports totaled $183, down from the $247 million in 2012, the last time the state went on a trade mission to the country. As of August 2015, the state’s exports to China totaled $141 million.
Wood products, which include wood pulp-related goods and paper goods, make up the majority of Maine’s exports to China, followed by seafood.