Chinese company First Catch builds advanced lobster storage at Halifax airport

If ever there was proof lobster is king of Nova Scotia seafood, it's the new $36-million freight facility at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

The Air Cargo Logistics Park that opened earlier this month is a big bet that will continue. It's doubling cold storage capacity and adding apron space to park five 747-sized cargo planes.

"It increases the efficiency, the capacity and the ability to actually move and export more product from Nova Scotia," said Marie Manning, Halifax International Airport Authority's vice-president of business development and chief commercial officer.

"That benefits not only the airport, but certainly all of our stakeholders, the industry and the region itself. The economic impact is significant."

Seafood accounts for 91 per cent of exports from the airport — most of it live lobster.

Last year, 12,757 tonnes of live lobster worth $293 million was flown out of Halifax.

Chinese company is anchor tenant

An anchor tenant in the new logistics park is First Catch, a Chinese company that came to Nova Scotia six years ago and is here for the long haul.

"We have a 25-year lease in the building," First Catch vice-president Lister Li told CBC News. "We want to work here in Halifax to make sure all our lobster has the best quality."

The company spent $9 million on its facilities at the Logistics Park, including a new cold storage room to hold shipments packed for flight.

The highlight is the so-called lobster shower.

It will allow First Catch to store about 40 tonnes of live lobster for extended periods, reducing mortality in case of flight delays or cancelled orders.

"We are trying to solve problems," said Li.

The industry reckons it has about 60 hours to get a live lobster from the water to its final destination or it must go into storage or be cooked.

How the lobster shower works

At First Catch, live lobster can be unloaded and kept alive in plastic tubs under a cascade of water in a closed-circulation system which is the first of its kind in a Canadian airport.

The water will be drawn from a reservoir built underneath the building capable of holding 378,000 litres. First Catch has a similar but much larger facility at its hub airport in mainland China.

"If we can save at least two per cent of what we export to China, it's still a lot of lobster. It's around 200,000 pounds. So it's a big saving," she said.

Charter inflation

The opening comes at a difficult time in the air charter business because of crew shortages, competition for space and instability in Europe.

Li said chartering a cargo jet for a round trip to China costs $1.6 million US.

Last fall, First Catch reduced its charter flights into Halifax to one weekly.

Li said the company hopes to resume three charters a week when the lobster season opens in southwest Nova Scotia later in the year.

Canada's Cargojet

The other anchor tenant is Cargojet. The Canadian freight operator flies live lobster out of Halifax to Europe and Asia.

The company said it's moving about 100 tonnes a week.

Andrew Leadbeater of freight management company Gateway said Halifax is positioning itself to be a hub.

"The lobster has always been here. It's just more of it's moving directly out of Halifax versus going Toronto, Montreal via the trucks. So we're having more airlines," he said.

In recent years he says cargo flights for lobster have increased from one or two a week to seven — from 160 tonnes a week to about 500 tonnes.

"We've gone way up," he said.