The Prime Minister believes Australia’s lobster industry will bounce back to higher levels than before, following China’s decision to lift the tariff.
Earlier this month it was announced that lobster was back on the menu for China, after a four-year lockout.
In his visit to Geraldton on Saturday, one of the biggest exports of rock lobster across the country, Anthony Albanese said he expected the industry to follow suit of other sectors that bounced back following the removal of the tariff.
“What we’ve seen with other industries such as wine and barley is that the export trade has not just bounced back to where it was, it’s bounced back even stronger to China,” he said.
“For those people who will celebrate Lunar New Year in the early period of 2025, they’ve missed out on this fantastic product, and they’ll be in even greater demand than they ever were.
“I’m very confident that not only will it bounce back — it’ll bounce back even stronger.”
Several industries including wine, barley, and cotton were slapped with tariffs imposed by China in 2020, which crippled some sectors as a result.
The Federal Government said 95 per cent of lobster exports from Australia had Chinese customers in 2019, with that figure reducing to just two per cent in 2021.
Mr Albanese thanked the industry for being able to keep afloat during the time of hardship.
“The industries across the board, have diversified the markets, but they’ve adapted to survive what has been a difficult period, and I do want to give a shout-out to the industry,” he said.
“The fact is that they’ve kept going. They’ve kept people employed, they’ve kept making sure that they’ve shown how resilient they are, and this is such a sustainable industry.”
Mr Albanese gave thanks to the regional areas across the country, saying their influence had a butterfly effect.
“If this industry did not survive, then you don’t have people working at the local pubs and restaurants. You don’t have people being able to provide local services as well,” he said.
“So this is absolutely critical for regional Australia, and one of the things about this industry is that its location is right throughout the regions, whether it be here in Geraldton and around the WA coast, (or) whether it be South Australia.
“I was in Tasmania on Wednesday, where they were celebrating, where they were saying, this is going to make an enormous difference.”
The lobster industry was worth about $700 million per year prior to the ban.
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