The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is trying to secure alternative markets outside of China for its seafood exports in an attempt to protect producers from the ongoing trade war between the two nations.
“We know tariffs add further uncertainty for seafood exporters in Nova Scotia; however, it is too soon to know what those impacts are. To help our companies, we are ramping up our work to support expansion into new markets, reaching new consumers, and adapting to changing global trends,” Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Kent Smith told SeafoodSource. “Our market diversification efforts include increasing trade and market access opportunities in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region where Nova Scotia and Canada benefit from competitive advantages through preferential trade agreements with lower tariffs, transparent regulations, and strong bilateral relations.”
In March, China imposed a 25 percent tariff on Canadian seafood imports. Added to the 7 percent import duty already in place on Canadian crustaceans, that has brought the total tariff amount on popular items like Canadian lobster to 32 percent.
"It's a resilient industry that's been through a lot over the last hundreds of years. This is another obstacle that is unwanted, but we'll get through it," Smith told the CBC when the tariffs first were announced.
The tariffs are especially significant because China trailed just behind the U.S. in terms of top export markets for Nova Scotian seafood products in 2024. The eastern province sent CAD 615 million (USD 451 million, EUR 385 million) worth of products to China in 2024.
The next top Asian destination, South Korea, bought just CAD 61.4 million (USD 45 million, EUR 38 million) worth of Nova Scotia’s seafood exports; Japan was not far behind, buying CAD 59 million (USD 43.2 million, EUR 36.9 million).
Because the gap between China and the next Asian market is so large, seafood producers and exporters of species like Canadian lobster cannot abandon China entirely but will look to other markets and aim to develop innovative strategies to cushion the blow as much as possible.
“Our live lobster shippers have [still] been actively shipping to China. I also understand that Canadian lobster has been moving to China via the U.S. as their tariff is lower,” Canadian Lobster Council CEO Geoff Irvine told SeafoodSource. “This means we lose the extra margin, but it has kept overall live lobster exports at an acceptable level. I have heard that whole in-shell frozen sales have been slower than anticipated but expect that to change now that the spring production season is almost complete.”
Other provinces outside of Nova Scotia have also struggled with global trade disruptions.
Certain fisheries in Canada are almost entirely dependent on the Chinese market and can’t change over to a new one easily, including geoduck, where 95 percent of the product coming out of the western province of British Columbia has historically gone to China.
“For some fisheries, devastation is the word,” Fisheries Council of Canada Board Chair Alberto Wareham said earlier this year. “You can’t pivot away from 95 percent.”
On the other side of the trade relationship, Chinese producers and exporters have also been hit hard with the disruptions tariffs have elicited, and government officials have instituted similar plans as Nova Scotia has to help the nation’s seafood industry open up new market opportunities.
Chinese customs authorities in the east coast city of Taizhou – a key seafood export hub – have developed measures to help local seafood firms increase their exports to Southeast Asia, the E.U., and the Middle East.
Frozen mackerel exporter Taizhou Xingyi Aquatic is one such company that has benefited from the new initiative, telling the China News agency that customs had provided consultants to advise the company on registering for and complying with export requirements in the Middle East.
China has also tried to spur more domestic sales through comparable strategies.
Online retailer JD.com, for instance, has heeded government calls to promote domestic sales by sending its employees to Chinese companies involved in foreign trade, directly purchasing their products such as tilapia and setting up a special area on its e-commerce platform to sell these products and direct traffic and marketing support accordingly.
