Rock lobster prices drop in time for Christmas as China trade tensions boil over

Southern rock lobster is going cheap this Christmas as the industry looks to fill the void left by China and urges SA to buy local.

The crayfish industry on the Limestone Coast has been rocked this year — first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by the escalating China trade war.

Prices have been slashed by close to half right around the country and Tom Ryan, manager of Five Star Seafood in Port MacDonnell hopes to see southern rock lobster on every Australian table this Christmas.

While fishers got off to a good start in mid-September prior to the market collapse, Mr Ryan said the business had been forced to find new markets as China closed the doors to Australian exports.

Tom Ryan manager of Port MacDonnell's Five Star Seafoods factory.

“One of the main differences right now is that we are actually cooking lobster and selling it freshly cooked or selling it frozen, as opposed to selling it live,” he said.

“We’ve gone from sending 99 per cent of our lobsters live to cooking probably 70 to 80 per cent for our customers to put them on the shelf pre-cooked.”

And with all that cooking all done on site, Mr Ryan said the move had help secure up to seven local jobs.

“We got down to just one or two people here and a truck driver at one point,” he said.

“We’ve been able to start employing a few more of the locals back and that’s good for around here especially being a small town.”

The business is also back buying crayfish from seven Port MacDonnell fishermen.

“The stocks are definitely plentiful, there’s no shortage of the actual lobster,” Mr Ryan said.

“Even today, we had three or four of the seven fishermen bring in about 200kg and that’s pretty good going.”

Andrew Ferguson, managing director of Ferguson Australia Group which owns the Port MacDonnell factory as well facilities in Port Lincoln and Adelaide agreed the demise of the Chinese export market had created opportunities locally.

Andrew Ferguson, Managing Director Ferguson Australia Group. Picture: The Australian/ Morgan Sette

“They really desire our lobsters and they pay big money to buy them and that’s always been the issue, the Chinese markets basically absorbed all we can produce and more,” Mr Ferguson said.

As demands drops, so do the prices.

Mr Ferguson said the volume of lobster available in the south east could not be moved without dropping prices to around $75 per kg.

“The last few years it’s been retailing anywhere from $120 to $140 a kilo,” he said.

“The local market won’t pay that sort of money.

“At those prices it is out of reach for the average person to buy lobster and that limits the market.”

She’s Apples Market Mount Gambier has added local lobster to its deli section for the first time.

Managing director Phil Telfer was initially hesitant to stock the crustaceans saying he was worried customers would think the business was taking advantage of the situation.

Phil Telfer managing director of She's Apples Market Mount Gambier is excited to put local crayfish on the Christmas menu.

With help from the Limestone Coast Fishermen Co-operative, the store is now selling locally sourced crays.

“It’s their market, we really haven’t wanted to encroach on that but the way it’s gone with the export industry in China it’s sort of opened up that opportunity where we can help them out, but also give customers a good opportunity to get rock lobster for Christmas,” Mr Telfer said.

“We are getting a lot of orders coming through and at the end of the day, the more that people support buying these rock lobsters they’re supporting the local fishermen.”