GLOUCESTER — Zhang Minjing, a consul in China’s consulate general’s office in New York City, did a little homework before making the journey to Gloucester last week as part of a visiting delegation of Chinese government and Seafood executives.

And what did he learn from his research on America’s Oldest Seaport?

“I know that Gloucester is very famous for its Lobster and fishing industry,” Zhang said. “I know that people are very industrious. They’re hard working. I found the mayor very enthusiastic and very good at her job at promoting her businesses here.”

It appears China has taken notice of Gloucester and its bounty of fresh seafood, especially the lobsters for which the Chinese population seems to have an insatiable — and growing — appetite.

Consider: In 2009, U.S. lobster exports to China totaled a minuscule $2 million. Five years later, it hit about $90 million, with estimates for future annual growth pegged at roughly 15 percent a year.

Last week’s Tour of several of the city’s Seafood Businesses by Chinese government officials, seafood buyers and Chinese-American community leaders, sandwiched around a seafood luncheon at the Gloucester House Restaurant, was aimed at exploring potential economic development opportunities between the city’s seafood businesses and Chinese seafood interests.

It may have paid immediate dividends.

Following a welcoming event at City Hall hosted by Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, the tour first stopped at the venerable Mortillaro Lobster company, which ships more than 5.5 million pounds of lobsters around the world from its Commercial Street facility.

Inside, where it was as cool and damp as outside, Vince Mortillaro led the tour through his packing rooms, where the boxes filled with the crustaceans reached toward the ceiling, and into the room that houses the company’s expansive lobster pool, stopping at one point to grab a couple of giant lobsters — each ranging somewhere between 11 and 13 pounds — which found themselves the center of several photo ops with members of the delegation.

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