Lobster harvesters are hoping for higher prices this spring as their costs for fuel and other expenses skyrocket.

A relatively low supply of lobsters and increased demand with the removal of international trade barriers are pointing to better prices, Martin Mallet, executive director of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, said in an interview Wednesday. However, harvesters are being challenged by rising expenses, including for labour, insurance, equipment and fuel.

Mallet, who is based in New Brunswick, said the cost of diesel was in the $1.40 to $1.45 per litre range this time last year but reached as high as $2.30 to $2.40 per litre in recent weeks as the Iran war sent prices soaring. Harvesters are aiming for a shore price — which is set by market conditions — of at least $9 to $10 per pound to make ends meet, he said.

“Fishermen in our neck of the woods here in the Gulf [of St. Lawrence] and on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, back in 2019, 2018, they were being paid about $6 or $7 a pound,” Mallet said. “Now the cost of operation for all of these fishermen has almost doubled over that period.”

Ginny Boudreau, manager of the Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association in Nova Scotia, said harvesters in her area are reporting good catches and are getting about $12 per pound. Lobster season in parts of Nova Scotia’s eastern shore kicked off last week; other nearby fishing zones, along with areas of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, will open in the coming days and weeks.

Canada exported about 80,365 metric tonnes of lobster valued at $2.9 billion in 2024, according to Statistics Canada, with the majority of it coming from the Maritimes. The U.S., which remains tariff-free for lobster exports under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, was the biggest buyer at $1.9 billion, followed by China at $535 million.

Headwinds hit the sector in March 2025 when the Chinese government slapped a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian crab and lobster in retaliation for Canada’s tariffs on Chinese products, including electric vehicles. The Chinese tariff came off in March of this year after the two countries agreed to a limited trade deal.

According to Statistics Canada, Chinese buyers cut their spend on Canadian live, fresh or chilled lobster from $106.3 million in the first two months of 2025 when no tariffs were in place, to $24.9 million in the beginning of this year, a 76 per cent drop.

While statistics for March aren’t yet available, Mallet said he’s been hearing that Chinese order books are filling up with the end of the tariff and the 25 per cent cost reduction.

“Even the week before the tariff was lifted, the orders were going up because people were expecting it,” he said.

Overall, Canadian live lobster exports were worth about $215 million in the first two months of this year, down about seven per cent from the same period in 2025.

Boudreau said there’s no question that fuel prices are hurting harvesters and it’s not just the diesel they’re putting in their tanks. She notes most bait over the last five years has come from foreign markets, adding that increased shipping costs are biting.

“If we’re using mackerel, it could come from Norway, or Japan, or the U.S.,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “And so when you look at the price of fuel and the price of diesel, the travel miles for your bait is now being added to the scarcity of it, so that’s gone through the roof.”

Amid all the trade uncertainty, Boudreau said lobster harvesters have been looking to develop other markets for Canadian lobster, outside the traditional big spenders in the U.S. and China. She said the federal and provincial governments have been helping, and that finding stability is key for the sector.

“I don’t care if you’re selling blueberries or widgets, [markets] have to be developed and that takes time,” she said.

“You have to build relationships, you have to build trust, you have to build some kind of consistency.”

Mallet said the size of catches have been going down over the last few years. The lower numbers are partly because of climate change, he said, because lobsters are a cold water species and the ocean is warming. More southern areas like the Gulf of Maine have consistently seen their catches decline as the animal population heads north toward cooler waters in Newfoundland and Quebec’s North Shore and the Gaspé Peninsula.

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