Thousands of pounds of unsold lobster are bottlenecking in North American markets as quarantines, reduced restaurant traffic and halted chartered flights disrupt supply chains to Asia. U.S. lobster prices are the lowest in at least four years, tumbling 17 per cent to $8.10 since January 20. Demand for Canadian live lobster has dropped to five per cent of normal volumes, according to Stewart Lamont of Nova Scotia’s Tangier Lobster Company. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: Canada overtook the U.S. as the main supplier of live lobster to China in 2018, when Beijing placed tariffs on American crustaceans. Nova Scotia typically sends around nine cargo planes of shellfish to Asia per week, totalling 1.5 million pounds. Now, just two or three weekly flights are taking off, and Canadian lobster is being rerouted to the U.S. market. China is a huge deal for Atlantic Canada’s seafood industry. Last year, Nova Scotian live lobster exports to China totalled $439 million, according to Statistics Canada, a trading relationship so important to the province that Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil has been playing nice with Chinese officials despite tensions between Beijing and Ottawa. Lobster can be kept alive in storage for several months, but it’s unclear what will happen to the surplus as the virus spreads and fishing season picks up.