Global pandemic took double-digit bite out of Nova Scotia seafood exports

The value of Nova Scotia seafood exports fell by $300 million, or 13 per cent, in 2020 as the pandemic collapsed worldwide demand for lobster and snow crab in restaurants and other food service businesses like cruise ships and casinos.

Live lobster exports from Nova Scotia the most valuable seafood sector also fell by 13 per cent, or $125 million, in 2020 compared to the year before, according to trade data released to CBC News by Nova Scotia's Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

The value of processed lobster exported from Nova Scotia was down nearly a quarter,or $57 million.

A double-digit drop in revenues is nothing to cheer about, but one Nova Scotia lobster exporter says the industry proved its resilience in 2020.

"It could have been so much worse," said Stewart Lamontof Tangier Lobster, a company that ships lobster all over the world.

"We have shown a resilience in the seafood sector in Atlantic Canada generallyand in Nova Scotia, in particularthat's phenomenal."

Rebound in 2021

And thereare signs a comeback is underway.

In thefirstthreemonths of 2021, the value of live lobster exports jumped by 28 per cent compared to 2020.

Shipments during this period were valued at$191 million in 2020, and increased to $251 million in 2021.

'Things looked desperate'

When cargo flights to Asia stopped overnight in February and March of last year, the industry braced for the worst.

Mainland China,which had taken over from the U.S. as the biggest market for Nova Scotia live lobster, was at the height of its COVID-19 outbreak.

The pandemic later hit Europe and the United States.

"Things looked desperate. We had minimal, minimal sales in the Pacific Rim, mainland Chinain particular," said Lamont.

While the hospitality side slumped in 2020, the industry pivoted to meet increased demand in supermarkets, retail and online business.

The cargo flights came back to Halifax Stanfield International Airport, as well.

"So people still wanted Nova Scotia seafood. They just tended to track it down in slightly different places," Lamont told CBC News.

Where Nova Scotia fits

Nova Scotia is Canada's largest exporter of lobster, representing 48 per cent of all exports.

In 2020, Nova Scotia live lobster exports were $822 million, compared to $947 million the year before.

The value of live lobster to China dropped 20 per cent; to the U.S., it fell14 per cent.

StatisticsCanada shows Canadian live lobster exports dropped by nearly seven million kilograms last year,with the overall dollar value dropping to $982 million in 2020 fromover $1.1 billion in 2019.

The United States remains the largest market for live lobster from Canada.

China top destination for N.S. lobster since 2019

Provincial data shows in 2019, China overtook the U.S. as the largest market for Nova Scotia live lobster. Shipments to Chinawerevalued at $440 millioncompared to shipments to the U.S. at $328 million.

Lamont saidgiven China's bigger population, an appetite for seafood and a growing middle class, he is not surprised. However, he added that it's a fickle market.

"It is not shocking whatsoever anymore to have massive sales in mainland China one week and two weeks later, virtually nothing or vice versa. It's a market that comes and goes," he said.

"They accumulate big, big aggregate numbers over the course of a year, but they're not constant steady trading partnersas, for example, our customers are in northern Europe, America and other parts of the Pacific Rim that can be relied upon almost without fail to have an appetite week in and week out."