NB lobster processors who live with uncertainty as ticks at US tariffs

Hummer processors in New Brunswick are relieved that US tariffs have been postponed for Canadian imports, but there is still the possibility that they will be implemented in March, which is scared in the industry.

“This is the frustrating piece,” said Nat Richard, Executive Director of the Lobster Processors Association in the region.

“It only expands the uncertainty that is certainly not good for the business.”

The United States are by far the largest consumer in the Canadian lobster.

A report on fishing and oceans from 2021 has set the value of Canadian lobster exports to the USA with $ 2.2 billion. The nearest country is China with $ 483 million.

Richard said New Brunswick sent about 75 percent of his frozen lobster products to the United States, and the province accounts for 50 percent of the global offer of frozen lobster.

If tariffs were implemented, this would probably mean that US importers would pay less for the Canadian lobster.

“Although it is true that … tariffs effectively an import tax paid by the importer, it is no question that we are probably seeing that a lot of it will be pushed back to us,” said Richard.

“You will probably push back and there will be pressure on the prices, on market prices.”

Integrated industries

The concern for the lobster industry also extends to the USA.

Chellie Pingree, the Democratic Congressman of the 1st District of Maine, said that Hummer often goes back and forth between the two countries.

“There are often when our lobsters go to their processing facilities and there are times when theirs come down,” said Pingree.

Kristin Vekasi, political scientist at the University of Maine in Orono, said that the two industries work together.

“In many ways, the lobster industry is very free with Canada because they have different fishing times and have different production facilities and can access different markets in this collaboration,” said Vekasi.

Richard said New Brunswick buys a lot of lobsters in Maine to process lobster meat in Frozen and make all tariffs bad for everyone involved.

“Inevitably there would be pain on both sides of the border for an integrated industry like our probably pain,” said Richard.

Diversification difficult

While the diversification of the markets is something that Richard supports, he said that it will not be easy.

There is an already heavily integrated supply chain between Canada and the United States.

And while other countries like China buy more lobsters, they prefer live lobster, while New Brunswick largely depends on frozen lobster meat, said Richard.

It can be possible to sell more Canadian lobster to Canadians, but “our market is naturally smaller than the United States.”

“We won’t record everything we produce here, even if every Canadian ate lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said Richard.

The tariffs would put New Brunswick in the position in which the province would essentially grin and all US campaigns.

“We won’t go away from the US market whether this is a tariff or not,” said Richard.

“It’s just too big and frankly, it is often the most attractive.”