A key player in global lobster markets has found itself a willing partner on this side of the Atlantic.
Madrid is importing lobster from Newfoundland and Labrador. Eight tonnes were flown out of Gander last week, and it’s the first time product from the province’s fishing industry has been shipped from Gander to a European market, according to one exporter.
Darrell Roche, president and CEO of Whitecap International Seafood Exporters, called it a big step forward for the industry as a whole.
“It’s the first time that we’ve had enough volume that we felt comfortable that we can support such a program,” Roche told Radio-Canada on Monday.
“When you’re flying lobsters, you need to be 100 per cent sure that the blood-protein levels are there in the lobsters, and that the shells are hard and the meat is full. So these are pre-requisites, and Newfoundland lobsters fit that pre-requisite perfectly.”
Raymond Collins, president of PF Collins International Trade Solutions, said a lot of work had to go into making the shipment happen.
Crews were working early Tuesday morning to prep the lobsters for travel, loading them into a refrigerated truck and moving them to Gander International Airport.
The lobsters made it from being picked out of a tank in Newfoundland to being unboxed in Madrid in about 20 hours.
While the first trip was about two years in the making, it also comes during a time when partners across Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishing industry explore expanding into new markets with trade complications and tariffs coming out of the United States.
Roche said accessing markets like Spain plays a key role in developing exports beyond a U.S. dependency. More lobsters will head to Madrid later this week.
“That’s always been our strategy, it’s just we’re doing more of it now given the geopolitical changes that we’re currently living with,” Roche said.
“It’s good practice as a country, an industry, and ourselves as a company and our supply base to ensure that we have our fingers and our toes in as many markets globally as possible.”
Whitecap also has plans to move other products from Newfoundland, like fresh cod and farmed salmon, to markets like Spain in the future. Roche said that could begin in the fall.
And plans are already in motion to help facilitate more products moving through Gander International Airport. A new cold storage facility is being built on site.
That was first announced in March 2023 with a price tag of $10-million. The facility will be able to store more than 75 tonnes of fresh or live seafood.
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