China’s growing appetite for lobsters boosts exports and catches in N. America

Every Sunday for the past seven months, about 60,000 live North American lobsters make the flight to Asia.

过去7个月来，每个周日都有大约6万只北美龙虾坐上飞机，从北美抵达亚洲。

Trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Shanghai via South Korea has become a weekly routine this year with a surge in demand from China, where lobsters caught in North Atlantic waters are at least one-third the cost of competing supplies. As a result, exports have skyrocketed from Canada and the U.S., the world’s top producers, and American prices are the highest ever.

由于中国龙虾需求的激增，从加拿大Halifax到上海的航班已经成为每周的常规航班。产自北大西洋的龙虾在成本上比其主要竞争对手低1/3。因此，加拿大和美国的龙虾出口激增，而美国龙虾的价格也创下历史新高。

With no lobster industry of its own, China had relied mostly on Australian imports to satisfy growing demand as its middle class expanded. When the catch began shrinking off Western Australia, and a 2012 glut in the Gulf of Maine sent prices plunging in the U.S. that year, it became more attractive for the world’s most-populous nation to buy from halfway around the world.

中国没有本土的龙虾产业。此前，中国主要依赖澳洲进口，以满足日益增长的中产阶级的需求。在2012年澳洲捕龙虾的数量萎缩而美国龙虾价格大跌之后，中国开始横跨半个地球采购龙虾。

"When the domestic market collapsed, we looked farther and farther" for buyers, said Stephanie Nadeau, who shipped 2.5 million pounds last year to China. "I never sold a lobster to China until 2010. It was the really low price and the dealer’s desperation here because we had high catches and a god-awful economy. We had to move the lobster."

去年向中国销售了250万磅龙虾的Stephanie Nadeau表示："当国内市场崩溃时，我们将目光投向远方，寻找买家。2010年前，我从来没有卖龙虾到中国。当时，龙虾的价格极低。龙虾的抓捕量不断提升，而美国经济当时非常糟糕。我们不得不出口龙虾。"

U.S. exports to China rose to 8,560 metric tons last year, up 22-fold from 2009, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Shipments already are up 12 percent in 2015.

美国对中国的龙虾出口量去年上升至8560吨，比2009年增长了22倍。2015年至今，龙虾的出口量已经同比增长了12％。

Chinese importers shopping on Alibaba.com can buy live Canadian lobsters for $6 to $10 a pound, compared with $20 to $33 for Australia's Southern rock lobsters.

现在，中国用户可以在阿里巴巴上购买活的加拿大龙虾，售价大约每磅6-10美元，低于澳洲龙虾每磅20-30美元的价格。

Increased demand from Asia provided a new outlet for U.S. producers who saw prices drop after their catches expanded by 66 percent in the decade through 2013 to 68,000 tons.

来自亚洲的需求为美国的龙虾生产商提供了新的客户。在2013年前的10年间，龙虾产量大增66%，至68000吨。

For now, there's no sign of Chinese demand slowing. China’s middle class may surge to 1 billion people by 2030 from about 150 million last year, boosting incomes that will drive demand for all kinds of higher-value foods. The country already consumes 35 percent of the world’s seafood, and by 2019 will boost consumption of all crustaceans, including crab and shrimp, by 50 percent from last year.

目前，没有迹象显示中国的需求开始放缓。到2030年，中国的中产阶级或去年的1.5亿人升至10亿人。收入的上涨将会使得高价格的食品需求上升。目前，中国已经消费了全球35%的海鲜。到2019年，中国对贝壳类海鲜（包括虾和蟹）的消费预计将较去年增长50%。