COVID-19: South-East rock lobster fishers buoyed by early season start, freight help, after horror start to 2020
Subsidised freight and an earlier fishing season mean things are looking up for our rock lobster businesses, which earlier this year lost most of their market almost overnight due to COVID-19.
SA Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- SA’s rock lobster exports to China cancelled amid coronavirus
- The Advertiser +Rewards – giveaways, offers and competitions
The boats are out, the cray pots are filling and spirits are cautiously rising in the South-East, following the resumption of rock lobster exports to China.
An earlier start to the fishing season, a Government move to carry over unused quotas and subsidised freight are combining to boost the industry.
Earlier this year, the sector was thrown into disarray when COVID-19 cancelled Lunar New Year celebrations, meaning demand for rock lobster from Australia virtually disappeared overnight.
China accounts for most of the state’s rock lobster exports.
At Port MacDonnell, 36-year fishing veteran Nicky Cawthorne said the commercial fishing season’s mid-September opening was a huge boost for the industry, meaning it could supply an extra Chinese festival. Usually, the season doesn’t open until October.
The effects of China’s cancelled orders were cast across the whole fisheries industry and had wider implications for the region’s coastal towns.
“It was a very worrying sign, and not just for the fishermen,” Mr Cawthorne said.
“We were worried about Port MacDonnell itself as a town, because that’s where all the income comes from.”
While things were looking better for the industry, there is still some concern about the potential for another COVID-19 wave to have big flow-on effects.
“If it does flare up again overseas and here, we’ll have big problems again,” the Cawthorne Fisheries owner said.
“We’ve been trying to get into other markets for a long time. But China is so big there’s no point going away from it.”
South Eastern Professional Fishermen’s Association executive officer Nathan Kimber said a major concern leading up to this season was how suppliers could get lobster back to China – but that had been addressed through federally-funded freight.
“Demand from China has been quite strong,” he said.
“While we were one of the first industries to be hit reasonably hard by COVID, perhaps we were quite fortunate because we’ve been one of the first to come out the other side.”
Ferguson Australia Group managing director Andrew Ferguson said Chinese demand for lobster was down compared with this time last year, but suppliers received a boost during the country’s Mid-Autumn Festival from October 1-7.
Subsidised freight was very welcome, he said, but hoped more plane space became available in the future, with Tasmania and Victoria’s fishing season starting on November 15, and extra fruit crops also due to be exported soon.
“It’s only been SA lobsters going up there in the last three or four weeks, but that will all change,” Mr Ferguson said.
“We’re still not out of the woods.”
MORE NEWS
Freight line from our South-East to Vic would speed economic recovery
Robe reports influx of travellers during winter of COVID-19 restrictions
Communities on SA/Victoria border uproot their lives to survive amid new COVID-19 rules