They argue the sudden economic growth of many Asian countries have brought about change in their dietary needs aided by higher purchasing power to go for expensive food products such as, lobsters and shrimps. Currently, major chunk of the Canadian fish products are exported to the US, however, the effects of downturn force the industry to expand to far-off markets of Asia despite likely stiff competition from the local and neighbouring producers.

As part of promotion, representatives from the lobster industry in Nova Scotia and the government recently completed a 10-day trade mission to China. Last week, Alberta government too took similar initiatives to send feelers to Japan and Hong Kong to show its interest in increasing its presence in their seafood markets. In a partnership running through April 2010, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have teamed up with the Canadian Tourism Commission to export food products to South Korea.

Estelle Bryant, the mission market development officer with the Department of Agriculture in Nova Scotia opined that lobsters were a luxury product and there were only a finite number. He added that if one wanted a strong lobster industry one had to increase what one got for them, and China had the real appetite for it.

It has been observed that there was great demand for live seafood and could attract good price from the burgeoning Chinese middle class, which is annually growing by about 300,000. These days, the Chinese middle class serve expensive lobsters as a special delicacy during wedding banquets and other festivities.

Ivy Wang, who owns the consultancy business Atlantic Canada Business Network in China, felt that Canada’s seafood products were not aggressively promoted in China. Wang’s agency is collaborating with governments of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and private-sector companies for a18-month regional campaign to market frozen lobster products in China.

Canada’s exports of fish and seafood products reached around $3.7bn in 2008, and more than half of it went to the US markets. The exports to the US were up by just 2 percent from the previous year, at about $2.25bn.

The EU remained as another important market, importing $460mn, or about 14 percent of Canada’s fish and seafood products in 2008. Japan was the third largest with exports worth $294mn followed by China with exports increasing to $243mn during the same period.

Canada largely exports lobster, crab, salmon and shrimp, and these seafood products accounts for 46 percent of all fish and seafood exports by volume and 65 percent by value. Lobster remains number one, with exports in excess of one billion dollar.

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Some of the experts argued that the six Gulf nations had planned their 2009-10 budget maintaining oil prices at an average of $45-55 a barrel, therefore, taking into account the month-long stable oil prices at $50/barrel would in fact record marginal surplus rather than deficit budgets. Although EIB had warned of a deficit budget, they had ruled any possibility of 1990’s situation that inflicted heavy debt and low assets among the GCC member states. The reason cited is that they had accumulated huge financial reserves since last five years owing to a steady increase in oil prices, and particularly the first quarter of last year when the prices skyrocketed to reach the all time high of $147/barrel.

In 2008, though GCC member states estimated a budget surplus of $32bn, they amassed about $190bn surplus since the oil prices averaged at $95/barrel throughout last fiscal. Experts pointed out that if at all any member in the GCC to fall short of a surplus would be Saudi Arabia, because it produces almost a third of the total output of the region to make it the biggest loser or gainer while the prices fluctuate. As an OPEC member, Saudi Arabia along with other members had cut oil production several times since last November to halt the slide in oil prices, and the current production stand at 8.2mn barrel/day from last year’s high of more than 9mn bpd.

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Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) is the standard size of a container in the logistic business. The team was able to invent a collapsible container that is one-fourth of the standard-sized container when folded. The shipping industry spent a lot of time and money in transporting empty containers after unloading, especially from ports where equivalent amount of goods were not available to be shifted. It is estimated, more than 30-40 percent of shipping is done for the movement of the empties. In 2003 alone, $11 billion has been spent just for repositioning the empties and these figures are excluding the storage costs. It is quite common to hire an entire ship for repositioning and Ocean Carriers, one of the majors of the industry stated, they have spent $16 billion last year on the same.

The IIT duo’s amazing new design can carry four containers in the space occupied by one of the present containers. It opens upward to allow top loading of both soft and hard commodities. The expansion and folding could be done in less than 5 minutes and is not complicated either. However, the initial cost of the new container will be 10-15 percent more than the current one, which costs about $2000. The container has already received positive feedback from leading shipping companies such as Maersk Line, logistic firms and port operators.

Once the certifications from global agencies, Lloyds Register and Bureau Veritas are completed, a requirement for any marine equipment; the invention will soon streamline the shipping industry in the coming years. As Chawla puts it, it would also bring down traffic, reduce pollution and not to mention, a drastic cut in oil usage. The surcharges levied from the exim firms on the empties could also be reduced, which would ultimately bring down the prices of the commodities shipped. According to Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd., the global container traffic is estimated to reach 350 million TEUs by 2024. Therefore, such a simple, awesome invention by two Indian professors will give much needed fillip to the global logistic industry that has already run aground by ever-rising crude prices.

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