2020-2021 Lobster Season: 700K Pounds of Lobster Tails

Mauro Gongora

As the season comes to a close, the Fisheries Department reports that lobster production is up for the 2020-2021 period, with seven hundred thousand pounds of lobster tail processed.  According to Fisheries Officer Mauro Gongora, the lobster sector is stable and has been performing well.  Annually, lobster brings in revenues of just under thirty million dollars for the country.

Mauro Gongora, Fisheries Officer, Belize Fisheries Department

“In 2020, lobster production was almost seven hundred thousand pounds of lobster tails, which means that we are well above the five year average which is in the range of six hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds more or less. So, when you look at this year and when you compare to the five year average, we are doing pretty well and it is around twenty percent increase over that five year average. But in general the lobster fishery of Belize has been relatively stable over the last thirty years and production has ranged between four hundred thousand pounds and six hundred thousand pounds. So, the tails for this year, well 2020, I should say, of six hundred and ninety-seven thousand pounds is well above that average over the last thirty years. So, last year for example, earnings from the export of tails ranged something close to thirteen point five million US dollars, so you are talking twenty-six to twenty-seven million Belize dollars from the export of lobsters.”