Rainforest Manager Max Jardim considers this is an opportunity for Jamaica to export live lobster to China.

US-China trade battle could benefit Jamaican lobster exporters

JAMAICA
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 01:20 (GMT + 9)

Jamaican seafood exporters could capitalise on the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, which has made American lobster unaffordable and forced Chinese merchants to buy lobster and fish from other countries.

President of the United States Donald Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on USD 34 billion worth of Chinese imports for the country's “dirty trade tactics”. China immediately retaliated by imposing its own tariffs of the same weight.

The ongoing trade dispute with China is expected to escalate, with Trump threatening to add tariffs to USD 200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The proposed 10 per cent tariff would hit a number of Chinese products, including fish, but is subject to a public hearing in August.

Given the issue, Rainforest Seafoods business development manager Max Jardim pointed out that other lobster-producing countries will stand to benefit, including Jamaica, and recognised their challenge in Jamaica is that the current regulations do not facilitate the export of live lobster, Jamaica Observer reported.

In 2015 Rainforest announced plans to export live Jamaican lobsters to Asian markets including China, Japan and South Korea, but to date has not been able to capitalise on the initiative that is expected to threefold increase product demand.

“The regulations were crafted before the live lobster phenomenon/Chinese demand for live came into play — prohibitive regulations such as requiring a licensed freezer vessel to offload lobster for export, when the best-quality live lobster is produced by our smaller, artisanal, day-boat fishermen who do not have the financial capacity to own and maintain large freezer vessels,” Jardim said.

Rainforest has been incrementally expanding its product line over the years, as well as constructed a lobster facility at its plant in Montego Bay to accommodate the 250,000 pounds of lobster it plans to export.

Up to last August, the company still awaited bilateral discussions between the Government of Jamaica and the Government of China to gain access to the market, following shipments of live lobster to Hong Kong from Sangster's International Airport in 2016.

Rainforest reported an increase of 40 per cent in exports from January to July 2017, comparable to the same period in 2016.

“In order to tap into this opportunity a solution will have to be crafted to include these artisanal fishers in the supply chain, to allow them to deliver live lobsters directly to approved live lobster-exporting facilities. The Government is aware and we are working closely with regulators to craft the most appropriate change in regulations to include our Jamaican fisherman,” Jardim told the Sunday Finance.

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