‘The market keeps increasing’

How Donald Trump boosted Nova Scotia’s lucrative lobster industry

Canada’s largest and most lucrative lobster fishery is slated to get started Saturday off Nova Scotia’s southwest coast, where about 5,200 fishermen are geared up for what is expected to be another profitable season — thanks in part to Donald Trump.

“The market keeps increasing, especially in China,’’ said Bernie Berry, president of the Coldwater Lobster Association, based in Yarmouth, N.S. “From a fisherman’s perspective, we’re expecting a good shore price ... It looks like a very positive outlook.’’

Berry, a fisherman for 39 years, has plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Demand from Canada’s largest export market, the United States, remains strong, thanks to a healthy U.S. economy and a weak Canadian dollar.

As well, the industry is benefiting from the American president’s ongoing trade war with China, which prompted the Chinese government in July to impose a 25 per cent import tariff on many U.S. goods — including lobster.

“It makes it very hard for the Americans ... to get their product into China,’’ said Berry, whose group represents fishermen aboard 970 boats in Lobster Fishing Area 34, which extends off the western edge of Nova Scotia.

His group decided Thursday to start setting their traps Saturday after rough weather delayed the start of the season, which was supposed to open on Monday. Another 700 boats from LFA 33, which extends from the Halifax region to the province’s southwestern tip, are also ready to drop their traps on Saturday.

In economic terms, it’s difficult to overstate the value of the industry, which tops every other Canadian seafood business in terms of landed value. It employs about 30,000 harvesters in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec, where there are about 40 lobster fishing areas.

However, the two zones off southwestern Nova Scotia are by far the biggest producers.

Together, they accounted for 35 per cent of the $1.4-billion worth of Canadian lobster harvested last year.