Shellfish farmers welcomed China's recent lifting of a ban of live shellfish from the U.S. West Coast, a move that could signal pickup in trade and creation of job opportunities.
China on 23 May lifted the five-month-old ban on imports of live seafood including clams, oysters, mussels and scallops from Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington.
Mark Schaffel, a shellfish farmer and owner of Northwest Shellfish Co. in Olympia, Wash., told China Daily: “The lifting of the ban is great because geoducks are real big amongst the Chinese community, but markets otherwise are just not that huge. China is an important market and they are looking for good seafood, which we have a lot of.”
