Above: Lonnie Snow photo
It is day by day for lobster buyers and dealers in the Maritimes, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact markets around the world.
“The marketplace continues to be a work-in-progress,” said Leo Muise, executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance. “As of the end of January, we can report that 2020 was rather challenging in the seafood sector and the initial weeks of 2021 have been similarly so.”
Muise said the market in December “was lacklustre and the initial weeks of January may have been the slowest in a very long time. COVID-19 issues continue to impact worldwide demand. Markets in the Pacific Rim and Europe have been COVID sensitive in the extreme. Nova Scotia exporters rely upon a combination of significant volume and profitable pricing and this export sweet spot has been notably elusive and really difficult to find.”
The $8/pound-plus wharf price in December and early January “was good for commercial harvesters, but much more challenging for buyers, processors and exporters,” explained Muise.
Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada (LCC) said while there have been fairly good catches for this time of year in Southwestern Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine, “There is concern that the overall catch for both areas is down from the previous year and the shore price reflects the overall inventory situation which is much lower than previous years.”
COVID-19 spikes in key markets in Asia, Europe and the United States “remain daily concerns,” said Irvine, “with vaccinations and other measures hopefully starting to lower overall cases as we head for the spring harvesting and production season.”
With the Chinese New Year later this year than usual, the live lobster market was “fairly flat” in late January with a typical lull between the Christmas and New Year holiday demand and the Chinese New Year, said Irvine.
Going into the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day markets, “We are simply speculating at the moment that demand from these events will help to boost sales in the short weeks to come,” said Muise.
“The market demand will inevitably come from the retail and online sectors, rather than the traditional restaurant, food service and related portions of the market all of which have been diminished or closed entirely due to COVID-19,” said Muise.
“We are also competing with other proteins on an increasingly significant basis, and therefore price and availability are key drivers in the weeks ahead. We have a vast array of challenges, but we continue to press on with determination and optimism.”
As for the processed lobster market, Irvine said it “has been steady for both raw tails and lobster meat,” noting processors “continue to be concerned about access to labour and are advocating for a foreign worker pilot project for the seafood sector. They are also worried about external countries’ internal capacity to manage the new 72-hour testing rule before workers arrive in Canada. It is too early to know what the spring market will look like, but everyone is hopeful that vaccinations and mitigation measures will start to return everyone to a more normal lobster sector by the spring,” said Irvine.
According to live lobster export data from Statistics Canada, from January to the end of November 2019, compared to January to the end of November 2020, the value of live lobster exports decreased by $174,506,639, with 6,929,276 kg less volume shipped.
From January to the end of November 2019, the total export value for live lobster was $1,002,414,912, according to the data, with 51,759,894 kgs of product sold. From January to the end of November 2020, the total export value for live lobster was $827,908,274 (44,830,618 kgs).
Live lobster exports to the U.S. for the same time period decreased in value by $110,517,122 from $444,933,432 (20,569,647 kgs) to $334,416,310 (17,504,604 kgs).
As for China, live lobster exports for the same period decreased in value by $69,154,169, from $408,787,924 (23,624,875 kgs) to $339,633,755 (19,010,001 kgs).
