There may be more crayfish on dining tables this Christmas as retailers in the region stock up on the local delicacy.
Ahead of Christmas, Limestone Coast retailers including She’s Apples Mount Gambier, Fosters Foodland in Millicent and Beachport’s Waterfront Café at the Jetty are taking orders for local Southern Zone rock lobsters.
It comes amid an escalation in trade tensions with Australia’s largest export market for seafood, China, which saw the import of Australian lobster unofficially banned in November.
For lovers of fresh, Australian seafood, this has seen domestic prices across the country, including for premium South Australian crayfish locally, slashed ahead of the festive season.
She’s Apples Mount Gambier revealed that it had partnered with the Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Co-operative (an association wholly owned by local rock lobster fishers) to stock local crayfish.
The store said it would continue to take pre-orders for the crayfish up until 19 December, retailing them at $80 per kilogram.
Furthermore, cafes along the Limestone Coast, including Beachport’s Waterfront Cafe at the Jetty, are selling locally caught lobsters for prices hovering around the $60-mark, at the time of publishing.
While purchasing some of SA’s world-renowned lobsters may be a boon for the hip pocket of the consumer this Christmas, buying local this festive season is also a way to support producers hit hard by recent market conditions.
According to the Department of Agriculture’s most recent fisheries forecast, China was the destination for approximately 94% of Australia’s $752m of rock lobster exports and 42% of Australia’s $194m of abalone exports.
With much of the industry’s commodities centred around South Australia and Western Australia, these states have been exposed to escalating trade tensions between Canberra and Beijing.
However, before the escalation of the dispute between both nations – which hit a fever pitch recently with the imposition of up to 212% import duties on Australian wines entering China – demand for live seafood by Chinese consumers had dropped following the COVID-19 outbreak.
In March ABARES reported an expected $389m fall in fisheries and aquaculture value would be driven largely by this drop.
This affected approximately 1300 full-time equivalent jobs in the Southern Zone rock lobster fishery, including fishers who were forced to pull up their cray pots earlier this year, due to a collapse in the market.
The SE Voice understands that, due to the temporary loss of the Chinese trade, the majority of the 180 holders of South East licences have ceased fishing for the time being.
However, while Southern Zone rock lobsters are selling at prices lower than previous years (it was only a few years ago that capital city retailers were fetching $125 per kilogram for the same product), the local delicacy is still being sold well above the price of imported catch.
Canadian lobsters are being sold for $17 each at Coles as part of an existing supply relationship, while Brazilian lobster tails are fetching prices of $7.50 each at Woolworths.
