News Digest

American lobster: The new favourite Chinese New Year delicacy

Exports of U.S. lobster to China have rocketed in the past few years, largely to satisfy the appetites of the communist country’s growing middle class, to whom a steamed, whole crustacean - flown in live from the United States - is not just a festive delicacy and a good-luck symbol but also a mark of prosperity. And that’s good news for Maine, far and away the nation’s No. 1 lobster state, where the boom has put more money in the pockets of lobstermen and kept shippers and processors busy during the usually slack midwinter months.

There’s lot of orders, lots of demand right now, it is a race to get them there for Chinese New Year.

Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Co., a wholesaler in Maine

American exports of live or processed lobster to China climbed from $2.1 million in 2009 to $90.5 million in 2014, federal statistics show. China took about 12 percent of U.S. lobster exports in 2014, up from 0.6 percent in 2009. American lobsters often appear on menus in China as “Boston lobster” and sell for $50 to $100 each in restaurants — expensive, but more affordable than the Australian rock lobster, which can cost hundreds of dollars and doesn’t have the big meaty claws of the American variety.

How to say it? It makes my husband healthier. Really, this is what we say, because it is high in proteins.

Cao Lijun, a 24-year-old Shanghai resident alluding to lobster’s reputed aphrodisiac properties