China’s purchases of Canadian lobster should be close to their 2019 highs in 2022, Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, told SeafoodSource.
Chinese New Year sales in early 2022 were strong, "pushing up the shore and market price to near-record levels” amidst a broader surge in demand for live product, Irvine said.
On the live side, China was practically tied with the U.S. as a destination for Canada's lobster exports – it bought 420,324 metric tons (MT) while the US bought 426,000 MT between January and November 2021. China has made commitments to increase purchases of American lobster as part of a trade agreement signed in 2020, but this doesn't appear to be squeezing sales of Canadian lobster, which are often mislabeled as Boston lobster in the Chinese market.
Lobster Council of Canada data shows the bulk of Canadian frozen lobster exports went to the U.S. (16,641 MT) while South Korea (1,424 MT) was by a good margin the biggest buyer in Asia, and Spain, at 1,200 MT, the third-largest import destination through the first 11 months of 2021. China purchased 806 MT of frozen lobster and Hong Kong 665 MT in the first 11 months of last year.
Purchases from China tend to peak in December in the run-up to Chinese New Year, which this year fell in early February. Chinese imports of live Canadian lobster totaled CAD 22.8 million (USD 18 million million, EUR 15.8 million) in value the first 11 months of 2021, compared to CAD 26.2 million (USD 20.4 million, EUR 18 million) in 2019.
Mainland Chinese purchases of frozen Canadian lobster in the first 11 months of 2021 were CAD 19.6 million (USD 15.2 million, EUR 13.5 million), down significantly from pre-COVID figures. China’s overall purchases of Canadian lobsters fell sharply in 2020, to CAN 25 million (USD 19.5 million, EUR 17.2 million), from CAN 43.7 million (USD 34.08 million, EUR 30.1 million) in 2019.
“Chinese buyers did not buy as much processed lobster as usual in 2021,” Irvine said. “Processed is whole cooked or whole blanched or whole raw – all frozen. The Chinese market to date has preferred the whole lobster, either live or in those processed forms, as they like to see the whole thing, head, claws, and tail. It is a cultural thing. In time, we hope they will also want to buy lobster meat and tails, but at the moment, whole lobster is preferred.”
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