A seafood importer in South Korea was arrested for selling lobsters caught in the United Status under a Canadian label for the past two years, according to the Korea Coast Guard.
The importer was identified only as a 53-year-old man named Kim. He is accused of importing 18 tons of U.S. lobsters worth KRW 2.13 billion (USD 1.9 million, EUR 1.8 million) from September, 2014, through March, 2017, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Kim was able to sell the lobster to local restaurants as more expensive Canadian products by replacing the origin labels, according to the Coast Guard. He earned around 2.6 billion won (USD 2.3 million, EUR 2.1 million) from the alleged scam because American lobsters are about 20 percent cheaper than their Canadian counterparts in the local market, according to the Coast Guard.
"American lobsters are less popular than Canadian products due to less meat, and local consumers and restaurants were deceived by the label changes," a maritime police officer told Yonhap News Agency. "The manipulation of lobster origin labels is rare here so the police will widen investigations to crack down on similar scams.”
