Nova Scotia’s Big Plans for Chinese Trade not Changing Amid Diplomatic Tensions

An article by CCBC 2019 media fellowship recipient Brett Bundale, discussing the growing trade relationship between Atlantic Canada and China, was published in The Chronicle Herald on December 7, 2019.

HANGZHOU, China – In a brightly-lit grocery store, more than 10,000 kilometres away from the wooden wharves of Canada’s East Coast, is a glass case crawling with Atlantic lobster.

Customers can have the crustaceans cooked on site: Fried with vegetables, covered with cheese or seasoned with local spices. They can have them packaged up to take home or – as with nearly everything in China –  they can order online and have them delivered.

“I can have a live lobster at my door in an hour,” says Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing and Technologies, an e-commerce firm that helps foreign brands sell in China.

Over a meal in Hangzhou, a city in China about 175 kilometres southwest of Shanghai, he says Atlantic Canadian seafood has a competitive edge in the East Asian country.

“Lobster has done really well here in part because of how expensive the Australian lobster is … and because U.S. tariffs have made it cheaper,” Cooke says.

The ubiquity of Canadian crustaceans in China epitomizes the growing trade relationship between Atlantic Canada and the Asian giant.

>> Continue reading this article on The Chronicle Herald website.