The state exports 11 million pounds annually, according to the Department of Natural Resources’ Joe Smillie. Geoducks are big business for Washington, the world’s largest producer of the undeniably phallic-shaped bivalve. Salaried employees have taken a 10% pay cut and Taylor family members who work for the company have taken a 20% pay cut. Taylor, which operates oyster bars in Seattle and Bellevue and shellfish markets in Shelton and Bow, has temporarily laid off 40 employees out of a statewide workforce of around 700. “Coronavirus was the nail in the coffin.” “The tariffs impacted price and demand,” said Bill Dewey, director of public affairs for Taylor Shellfish, another Washington seafood farmer. slapped on its transpacific trading partner as part of President Donald Trump’s trade war. The tariffs established in July 2018 and ratcheted up in August 2019 were retaliation for tariffs the U.S. The coronavirus compounded the effect of Chinese tariffs on shellfish. Since the clampdown in China, Gibbons has laid off 35 employees from his geoduck business, over half of his workforce. Weeks before COVID-19 became lethal in Washington, China’s drastic moves to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus kept millions indoors and shuttered seafood restaurants.
“We don’t know how much longer we can last.” “We hope it will be better in two to three months, but right now we’re barely staying open,” Zhang said, speaking through a translator. Business is down 60 percent, says owner Amy Zhang, with only one or two customers per day coming in for popular dishes like honey walnut prawns and seafood hot pot. Those fears have taken a toll at Fortune Garden, a Cantonese seafood restaurant on the other end of Hing Hay Park. “Community leaders have expressed frustrations regarding misplaced fear and false information that are currently negatively impacting some small business owners and residents, especially in the CID,” a mayoral spokesperson said. Mayor Jenny Durkan hosted three public events in the International District last week - including a monthly cabinet meeting at Honey Court Seafood Restaurant - and encouraged residents to patronize local restaurants. What changed? “After the mayor said something, it really helped a lot,” he said. But the Friday lunch rush was full, with patrons waiting for tables. “Two weeks ago it got really bad, we were down 50 percent,” he told Crosscut. Hoi Ming Chim co-owns popular Cantonese eatery A+ Hong Kong Kitchen, which has a prime location facing Hing Hay Park.
Nearby restaurants have seen sales decline precipitously in the wake of the coronavirus scare. Home cooks eager for a taste of Puget Sound geoduck can find them filling an aquarium at Uwajimaya, the Asian grocery store that anchors Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.
With multiple deaths in the state reported since the weekend, this is a developing story and those impacts are likely to accelerate as more local businesses temporarily close their doors, suspend travel or lose export opportunities. The plight of shellfish farmers selling the Pacific Northwest’s iconic burrowing clam is just one of the early economic impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus on businesses operating in Washington.
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