China’s roadblock on geoduck clam imports from the Pacific Northwest due to allegedly high levels of arsenic and paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) has yet to impact prices for the prized delicacy. But growers say prices could tumble if the situation isn’t resolved soon.
China has been the largest market for geoducks, but that market has been shut down to all mussels, clams, oysters and scallops from Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska since December due to higher-than-normal levels of inorganic arsenic on shellfish from Washington state and PSP in geoducks grown in southeast Alaska.
Prices for the top grades of geoduck clams remain strong at around USD 22 (EUR 16.81) to USD 23 (EUR 16.91) a pound, two growers in the affected areas report. Both are still shipping product into Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, and one suspects some product is being smuggled into China. The clams continue to be sold to high-end restaurants in the United States, especially those in cities with large Asian populations.
“In years past we could have sold three times the amount of geoduck clams we had, the demand was so strong, so it hasn’t really affected us so far,” said one of the executives. “I think the extra demand that is always there has kind of sopped up the supply that was going into China.”
The second executive says some of the volume is being made up from supplies in British Columbia, which is “harvesting super heavy right now.” He doesn't think prices will be impacted if the dispute is settled soon. His volumes are off 40 percent from where they would be, as he is keeping some of his clams “on the beach” until the China issue is resolved.
“Probably another two weeks to a couple of months won’t do that much to the price. Beyond that, it will definitely have effects,” the second executive said. “My optimistic side says it will be settled sometime before the first of March, while the other side, it’s just hard to say.
“We believe it’s a technical issue and so it should be something that we can sort out. We’ve got the findings back on the arsenic and issues on PSP in Alaska, those are things that are fairly easy to explain and that data has been sent to the health authorities there in China,” the second executive said. “I’m hoping it’s just the matter of the bureaucratic process working itself along. We would like to see it open before Chinese New Year’s (31 January). If we do go past that it’s probably going to take a little longer because they have holidays and stuff.”
In other clam species, one of the executives says prices for manila clams have climbed from USD 2.85 (EUR 2.10) a pound in late fall to around USD 3 (EUR 2.21) a pound wholesale in the United States, and he doesn't see prices dropping in the next six months to a year because supplies will remain tight. “There was some pretty good predation last year of some of the farms in Washington with some heavy duck predation,” one of the executives said.
“British Columbia used to produce a lot of clams but their clam fishery has really shrunk over the years and it continues to shrink and so there’s no extra clams. There’s just not the supplies there used to be.”
