The economic ripple effect of coronavirus has hit Australia’s seafood industry, with staff laid off and businesses facing the prospect of closure, one operator says.
Sonia Einersen from Cairns-based business Torres Straits Seafood in Far North Queensland said live imports into China had been cut, so she had nowhere to sell her product.
“The coronavirus has really affected the whole fishing industry we do lobster and live coral trout it’s affected both of those as well as pretty much every other fishing industry in Australia,” she said.
“Boats are tied up, they can’t go out most of our product goes into China or through Hong Kong as well into China.
“Hong Kong’s been affected as we all know for quite a long time now, with the riots and things have been going on there.
“All of the fishermen are not able to go to work and we’ve had staff we’ve had to put off. We have nothing that we can replace that with.”
Ms Einersen said commercial fishers and seafood export businesses relied on the Chinese New Year period to bolster their income.
“All the restaurants have closed down, all of the New Year celebrations were cancelled, which is a huge thing in China and it should be our best time of the year,” she said.
Dianne Tipping, from the Export Council of Australia, said China was the country’s largest export market and there are concerns over the reduction of flights.
Commercial fisherman Chris ‘Harry’ Harris said the industry needed financial help.
2020 ABC