First Catch, Chinese export company, spent $9 million on its own lobster handling facilities at Halifax Stanfield Airport's new Air Cargo Logistics Park.
"They're doing it through the back door what they couldn't do through the front door, which was basically [to] own the actual fishing licences. They can't do that, so they're trying to control the buying and the export at the airport," said Perkins. "I'm really happy to hear you raise that issue. I think that's one of the most important things that the government can do is ensure national Canadian control of our logistics chain within the country," Sproul responded.
Lister Li, president of First Catch, told CBC News she understands "people will be nervous," but says fears of Chinese control are unfair, saying no one questions U.S. ownership of lobster businesses."I think because, recently, there's a lot of Chinese people buying plants and then trying to get into this industry," she said. "But by Chinese, I think those people are just Asian. Then maybe Canadian. Maybe they have a Canadian passport. Maybe they grew up here.
First Catch has subleased the old Purolator building at the Halifax airport to 2025 and it's not available for use by other shippers and freight forwarders.That is not to shut them out, says First Catch general manager Yuchen Ji, but part of a long-term strategy. "When we do run our own charter and when our charter is not full, we do have a freight forwarder we go to, then they can share this space to the markets, basically to anyone in Nova Scotia."The Chinese appetite for lobster has exploded over the past decade, making it the second-largest export destination for Canadian lobster after the United States.