Canada is recording a slide in summer lobster sales in the United States and China, with the tariff cloud impacting lobstering profits.
Although only China’s 25% tariff is currently under force, the United States’ duty moratorium has not helped sales there either.
The executive director of the Lobster Processors Association, Nat Richard, opined on June 22, 2025 of “fairly sharp publlback by American consumers.”
Richard particularly isolates April and May as posting lukewarm sales versus the spring 2024 equivalents.
The fall in purchases in the United States where 65% of Canada’s shellfish goes owes mainly to personal economic choices.
Falling transaction in China, on the other hand, is directly traceable to the extant tariff. This is despite the country being the second biggest seafood market for Canada, worth US$1.1 billion in 2023.
Canada was also the top import destination for lobster by China in 2023 at a value of US$604.1 million in 2023.
Regular Price Fast-tracking
With such lucrative markets, the industry regularly negotiates domestic lobster pricing suiting processors and the fishermen’s body – the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW).
The last update by the FFAW on June 14, 2025 put the fisherman’s price at C$9.57 ($7.03) a pound, maximum.
The price borrows from the Urner Barry market benchmark, which gifts 80% share of prices above C$6 ($4.37) to harvesters.
Beijing’s tariff and low purchases in the United States are therefore the key stumbling blocks to the above pricing regime. And as the statistics below show, both markets matter as they account for over three-quarters of lobster exports by Canada.
Statistics on Lobster Canada Trade with China and the U.S.
Before March 2025, China and the United States represented 83% of all outbound lobster trade from Canada. In the U.S.’ situation, the northern neighbor helps supplement domestic supplies from Maine via imports worth US$1.9 billion, as of 2024.
In its part, China accounts for 16% of the annual lobster exports by Canada. In January 2025, the Far-east nation ordered C$74.3 million ($51.6 million) in live or chilled lobster from Canada, a meteoric value. The value has eluded imports since March 8 when Beijing imposed 25% tariffs on imports against 100% EV duty by Ottawa.
How did China-Canada lobster trade value perform between 2019 and 2023?
In 2019, China imported US$462.7 million worth of fresh or chilled lobster from its North American trade ally. The value dropped in 2020 to US$344.2 million, then revamped to US$534.9 million in 2020. While it slid in 2022 to US$516.2 million, it triumphed in 2023 at a record US$604.1 million.
Does Canada exploit other lobster markets?
The Lobster Council of Canada took a delagation to Europe in March 2025 to explore new and existing markets. Existing ones include the UK, which imported US$4.28 million worth of the crustacean from Canada in 2023. Outside Europe is Singapore, which in 2023 imported US$2.4 million in lobster products from Ottawa.