Fall landings slow, but boat prices soar; summer ‘15 ends strong for happy fishermen all along the coast The week before the reporting week for this issue’s Lobster Market Report, a northeaster made fishing nonexistent in most places in New England. Depending on the area, the storm ran its course for from three days to …
Category: Lobster Market Report
LMR – Lobster industry settles into seasonal slowdown
The January, post-holiday lobster market was about weather, a whale-protection closure, and Canadian lobster. The US lobster market, all but stopped after the holidays, was in its usual January doldrums. Bitterly cold weather and wind kept Maine and Massachusetts fishermen from being able to fish much from Dec. 27 through Jan. 14, when calls for …
LMR – Lobster industry deals with weather, holidays
The December lobster market was all about finding the odd relatively calm day when boats could get out to haul. When they did, most did well, whether in Canada or New England. But with the year-end holidays fast approaching, and, with them, consumers, both domestic and overseas, with healthy appetites for lobsters, the number of …
LMR – Lobster supply increases; prices hold steady
The October lobster market combined dramatically improved catches with many Maine fishermen saying they were now on par with their 2013 numbers, pleasing prices, and mammoth catches from Canada’s Bay of Fundy fishery. The Fundy fishery, Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 35, opened Oct. 15. Though catches varied for each of the fishery’s 95 or so …
LMR – Stepped up processor demand drives lobster price
The September lobster market was crazy busy, frustrating, and at the same time just so-so. Canadian and US processors were crazy busy bidding on and trying to fill huge contracts for frozen lobster tails and meat. Their high level of interest in shedders was driving up the boat price, a move welcomed by fishermen who …
LMR – Late July start for shedders; price holds
The July lobster market changed markedly from that of the overabundance of Canadian product in June. A number of Canadian fishing seasons closed and two that still remained open by the July 8 reporting week, the Bay of Fundy, Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 35, and Cape Breton, LFA 27, were landing product that was getting …
LMR – Chinese New Year provides lobster sales uptick
January and February used to be the slowest months in the year for the lobster marketplace, back before US and Canadian exporters began selling to China. But no more. This year they sold every large lobster they could buy to the Chinese for that nation’s week-long New Year and Spring Festival celebrations in late Jaunary. …
Lobsters – Prices, data, collaborative
Processor demand pushes boat price increase Twelve days before Labor Day lobster catches in certain parts of the coast had dropped off. Processors in the US and Canada needed product. The result: the boat price jumped 10 cents/lb for new shells. At ports where the catch had dropped off earlier, the price had risen earlier; …