PORTLAND – Retailers aren’t the only busy ones this holiday season. Lobster exporters are bustling as well, shipping millions of dollars’ worth of lobsters overseas to Europe.
For many lobster companies, December is the busiest time of year outside of the summer. That’s in large part because of the high demand for Maine’s most famous seafood for holiday meals across Europe.
By month’s end, an estimated $20 million or more of lobster will be shipped to Europe’s three biggest customers: Italy, Spain and France.
“They eat lobster like we eat turkey,” said Jay Burke, president of Inland Lobster in Cape Elizabeth.
Europe has long been a big export market for American lobster. With the 2003 harvest reaching 70.7 million pounds – 54 million pounds of which was caught in Maine – all that lobster has to go somewhere.
Italy, Spain and France bought a combined $109.5 million worth of U.S. lobster last year, up 83 percent from five years ago, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service.
And December is the busiest month for shipping those lobsters, accounting for 22 percent of lobster exports to other countries, excluding Canada, during the year, according to the Maine Lobster Promotion Council.
Selling and shipping to customers a continent away presents its own set of challenges.
First, there’s the difficulty of finding space for lobster on international flights. Because lobster is a nonessential item, it takes a back seat to mail, packages and other cargo.
Second, the lobster catch was down this year, resulting in a tight supply and higher prices. Kinney said wholesale prices are about $1 a pound higher now than they were a year ago. Tight supplies have kept prices high for Europeans despite the weak dollar.
Even so, Europe represents a huge holiday market.
“For Europeans, the demand will spike for Christmas and New Year’s, which they loop into one large holiday,” said Janine Bisaillon-Cary, vice president of the Maine International Trade Center. “For the U.S., sales will spike for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day.”
Although prices are up, there is still demand for Maine lobster, Italian seafood dealers say.
“Despite an increase in the price of lobster from the States of about 40 percent, everybody still thinks having a big lobster on the dinner table looks beautiful,” said Salvatore Cavallo, director of Cavalluccio Marino, a fishery import-export business in Crotone, in southern Italy.
Some restaurateurs, however, aren’t happy about the high prices.
“The best lobsters now cost around 100 euros [$133.84], which is far too much,” said Alberto Ciarla, owner of the upscale Alberto Ciarla restaurant in Rome, who cooks a special lobster dish with lentils only during the Christmas holidays.
Goffredo Iandolo, from the Ostrica restaurant in Rome, said demand for lobster generally goes up about 20 percent during the holidays.
“During the holidays, people get carried away, even if they have to pay more for a lobster dish,” he said. “Everything is affordable at Christmas.”
To meet demand, many companies hire seasonal help to pack the extra orders and drive them to Boston and New York, where they are flown overseas.
At William Atwood Lobster Co. in Spruce Head, workers come in early and stay late, said Shannon Kinney, the company’s general manager.
“Other than the summer, this is our busiest time of year,” she said.
Associated Press writer Marta Falconi in Rome contributed to this report.
Comments
comments for this post are closed