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V O L . X X I I I N O. X M AY 1 , 2 0 1 7 18 G L O B A L E C O N O M Y F O C U S " ey're packed in cooled water and oxygen in plastic bags," she says. " en you put in an oxygen hose, blow up the bag with oxygen and seal it. at will keep the temperature. You put the bags in perishable shipping boxes lined with half-inch Styrofoam liner, put in frozen gel packs, and send them out. If the water is cooled and eels are cooled, they're good for approximately 48 to 56 hours." With the clock ticking, and various stops before Asia, Bryant trucks the packaged elvers to Ocean Air. "Our cutoff time was always 11 a.m., because the boxes have to be X-rayed," she says. At Ocean Air, they're loaded on a refrigerated truck and taken to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, a 220-mile, three-hour and 45-minute drive under the best of circumstances. Bryant has longstanding relation- ships with overseas buyers, and word of mouth keeps them coming. Once the package is received, the buyer's representative takes the elver shipment to a tank house and removes dead elvers. Bryant's contracts include a 3% mortality variance, but usually, she says, 99% arrive alive. From there, the eel farmers pick up their orders. Bryant is paid up front, before the elvers are shipped. Shipping costs range from $125 to $150 per kilogram, including packaging, labor and transportation. A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds. Shipping averages 4% of a typical per-kilo pay- ment of $3,500. She pays 75% to the har- vesters. Her costs include water weight loss between harvest and packing. "You'd like to have your profi t margin be 20%," she adds. "You hope for the best." How the sea urchin fi nds its way to Japan Urchins are another high-value export, their roe a delicacy in Japan. Although the resource crashed in the late 1990s, the harvest rebounded somewhat, and was 2 million pounds in 2016. Buyers meet harvesters at the dock and trans- port the hauls to processors in Portland or Scarborough. e processors crack the urchins and scoop the roe. "It takes a lot of manpower to process urchins," says Sinuon Chau, who runs East Atlantic Seafood in Scarborough and employs around 20 people. "You have to be very careful. e roe has to be intact." e roe goes into individual plastic or wooden boxes. ey're then stacked into perishable-food boxes with frozen gel packs. Like elvers, Chau must notify the Fish and Wildlife Service within 48 hours of shipping. e shipment is fl own from Boston's Logan Airport to New York and then on to Tokyo. e customer pays shipping costs. But delays can aff ect Chau's payment. " e roe has a shelf life of one week or less, so any delay in New York, the quality goes down," he says. " at aff ects the price we get." Large-scale lobster shipments While lobster is shipped on a far larger scale, the issues are similar, says Annie Tselikis, marketing director for York-based Maine Coast and execu- tive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers' Association. Most lobster dealers operate on a tight 5% to 10% profi t margin. "So experiencing any problem along the way — issues with a tank, a truck breaks down — has a huge impact on the way dealers are able to do their business," Tselikis says. Live lobster moves quickly. "Say they bring lobster into the facility on Tuesday afternoon," she explains. " ey'll grade it for size and quality, then usually let it sit overnight in their tanks, then typically pack it the next day or so. You want to buy lobster strategi- cally so you're anticipating sales and market conditions." Lobsters are packed, tail down, into perishable containers typically divided into individual compartments, fi tted with frozen gel packs and a moisture medium such as wet pads or seaweed. "You want to mimic the environment ideal for holding lobsters, because they'll be out of the water from 10 to 40 hours as they ship around the world," she says. Shipments go either to freight forwarders or the airline itself. Competition for cargo space can be fi erce, especially during the holidays. Flight time to Europe is about six hours and 13 to 14 hours to Asia, though time is aff ected by factors like weather, the route and customs on either end of the journey. Many dealers install tempera- ture monitors to register any increase, in case of dead arrivals. It's hard to tell how often the problem occurs, she says. "But things do go wrong," says Tselikis. "We're shipping live and perish- able lobster products around the world. at's why high quality is so important." Processed lobster's long journey by sea Dealing in processed lobster largely shipped by sea — from Portland and Boston to Europe and from Seattle to Asia — Calendar Islands Maine Lobster in Portland packages product in a system of insulated pallets with dry ice and refrigerated containers, using temperature monitors to withstand longer transits. "It's all temperature-sensitive and you can't miss a beat," says Emily Lane, a vice president of sales at Calendar Islands Maine Lobster. While everyone agrees seafood shows, trade missions, and networking are key to building markets, Lane takes relationship-building to a new level when she also brings international chefs and distributors to Maine. "I take them out on a lobster boat and to processing facilities and buy- ing stations where they can see lobsters being purchased and held and shipped. en I take them to restaurants so they can see how lobsters are served in the United States," Lane says. Lane then takes them to Vinalhaven, her hometown, "so th ey can get the full picture of the industry and the com- munities lobstering supports. It's about selling Maine, selling the sustainability of the Maine coast." L S, Mainebiz staff writer, can be reached at @ . » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E mainebiz.biz/OTRBoothbay / 207.761.8379 x341 R E G I S T E R T O DAY 2 0 1 7 R E A D E R S ' C H O I C E W I N N E R BOOTHBAY May 18 | 5–7pm | Newagen Seaside Inn, Southport FOLLOW US @MBEVENTS #OTRBoothbay17 PR ES ENTI NG S PONS OR AT TENDANCE IS FREE BUT SPACE IS LIMITED! Please be sure to register ahead. Let Mainebiz help you build your professional network! Join us as we make our third stop at the On the Road event series in Boothbay. This free event is a great forum to put a face with a name as well as make new business connections. Free admission Cash bar Complimentary hors d'oeuvres R EGI ONAL S PONS OR S National Bank Tech transfer Global relations is more than seafood trade. Maine benefits from tech trade, too. Recent examples: In 2016, Coastal Enterprises Inc. led an aquaculture delegation to Aomori, Japan, to study the scal- lop aquaculture industry with an emphasis on the "ear-hanging" technique. A Maine Technology Institute grant is helping CEI to import ear-hanging machinery for a test run this summer with Bangs Island Mussel in Casco Bay. Gulf of Maine Research Institute invited Cornwall, England, fi sher- man Chris Bean to Maine and Massachusetts to teach Japanese quick-kill methods to build mar- kets for sashimi-grade fi sh. It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- It's all temperature- sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't sensitive and you can't miss a beat. — Emily Lane Calendar Islands Maine Lobster

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