Australia's Ferguson using China's lobster appetite for other trading options as tariffs come down
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Stock Journal] By Andrew Marshall - August 27, 2014 -
When Andrew Ferguson began work on his father’s fishing boat at 16, rock lobster exports from South Australia’s coastal waters were limited to tails packed off to the United States.
Almost 40 years later the Chinese want the whole swimming, breathing crustacean – fresh and big.
Despite hefty import tariffs, China can’t get enough of them – even though they land in southern China, Hong Kong or Shanghai with a wholesale price tag of around $100 a kilogram and sell in restaurants for about $250 each.
The dragon-red coloured southern rock lobster (jasus edwardsii) from SA’s Antarctic-chilled waters is reputed to be the world’s most expensive lobster, thanks to the appetite and increasing spending power of Chinese consumers.
“Lobster is a good door opener into China – it’s a gourmet product that leads to follow up orders for other lines,” said Mr Ferguson, who is now weighing up diversification prospects if tariff walls between Australia and China start being dismantled later this year.
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