Cray concerns ahead of season opening

San Remo cray fishermen are nervously watching trade tensions between China and Australia after tonnes of live lobsters were stranded at Chinese airports.

According to news reports, the lobsters were stranded after waiting to be inspected by customs officials last week, coming after months of increasing trade blows.

San Remo Fisherman’s Co-op general manager Paul Mannix confirmed the lobsters held up in China were from interstate, and not from local fisheries.

“Our local lobster season doesn’t open until November 16,” Paul said.

“So although our cray fishermen haven’t been directly affected yet, they certainly have cause for concern once our season opens. This year has been frustrating for all sorts of Australian producers – grain, timber, livestock and now crays.”

Earlier this year San Remo cray fishermen were inadvertent casualties of coronavirus, with the local industry flooded with crayfish following China’s ban on live imports.

At the time Paul said about 95 per cent of southern rock lobsters caught in Bass Coast were exported to China each year, but after China imposed a temporary ban on seafood imports because of coronavirus fears, local fishermen had been left with thousands of dollars’ in excess stock.