Mobsters defying ban on Aussie lobsters

Hong Kong’s pro-Chinese government has declared Australian lobsters a security threat, after discovering that smugglers have thwarted Beijing’s ban on the delicacy.

Louise Ho, Hong Kong’s new commissioner of customs and excise, said her staff should be alert for ‘‘strategic commodities’’, after learning that smugglers had circumvented China’s efforts to punish Australia for perceived slights by ending its lobster exports.

The trade war has been raging for a year. However, an Australian study has revealed that China’s lobster lovers have not gone without.

Lobster exports to Hong Kong have soared by 2000 per cent, with smugglers spiriting most of it into neighbouring China. The Hong Kong gangs receive the equivalent of NZ$360 a kilogram from Chinese buyers – twice the price in Hong Kong.

Nearly all of the Australian lobster that used to go to China has been diverted to alternative markets – most of it to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong customs officials this month arrested a seven-man syndicate after they were found to have brought in 228 tonnes of lobster valued at NZ$30 million.