Angling for year of the lobster/ Eastern Passage facility at full throttle feeding Chinese demand for tasty crustacean/ BILL POWER BUSINESS REPORTER /[email protected] An Eastern Passage lobster processing plant has been operating full tilt since an October change in ownership. The new Chinese owner is now proceeding with plans to expand and add capacity. “The plant’s been operating wide open for the past three months with 25 to 30 people working daily, Marc Surette, with ZF Max International Inc., said in an interview Tuesday. “They were packing steadily and perhaps had only Christmas Day off during that period. ZF Max International is the susbsidiary of Zoneco Group Corp. Ltd . of Dailian, China, which acquired the former H&H Fisheries Ltd. processing facility in October and rebranded it as Capital Seafood International Inc.. “We fully expect to increase employment to 50 people during peak periods of 2015, said Surette, Atlantic Canada manager of logistics, administration and fisheries policy for ZF Max. A growing appetite in China for Atlantic Canadian lobster helped the new owner achieve about 90 per cent of its objectives for the closing months of 2014, said Surette, who works from the company’s Yarmouth office. The Chinese owner of Capital Seafood International has been on a mission to keep lots of Nova Scotia lobster stocked at its 400-metric-tonne holding facility in Shanghai. “It has been a very successful first season with lobster, and the plan is to increase volume and quality in the upcoming year, Surette said. The owners of the Eastern Passage facility had said they would also process other products, such as sea urchin, haddock, cod, halibut and sea cucumber. “We hope to bring more jobs to the Eastern Passage community, Surette said. Zoneco Group is one of China’s largest seafood companies, with about 5,000 employees and 400 retail outlets in that country. Reg Hartlen, general manager at Capital Seafood International, said the future looks bright for the facility, located in the Fisherman’s Cove area of Eastern Passage. “Certainly we’ve been very busy and the demand (for lobster) is good, Hartlen said. Improved air freight service out of Nova Scotia would contribute to the company’s future success, Hartlen said, adding this has been a long-standing issue. Hartlen said lobster shippers sending large volumes by air often send product to major centres like Boston, New York, Montreal or Toronto, where they can obtain more space on dedicated cargo jets. Earlier this year, Korean Air launched weekly air-freight service to Incheon, South Korea, out of Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Hartlen said a benefit of the service is that Korean Air uses a dedicated cargo jet instead of loading cargo into the belly of a passenger jet, which is often how lobster is air-freighted out of Nova Scotia. “The logistics can be challenging when it is necessary to move large volumes of lobster in many small loads due to air-freight limitations, he said
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 13:30:03 +0000
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