Mark Godfrey is an Irish journalist covering the agriculture and fisheries sectors in Asia, with a focus on China. Proficient in Mandarin, he has frequently traveled across China's fisheries and aquaculture regions and learned the inner workings of China's corporate world during a nearly three-year stint at the Financial Times' “China Confidential” publication. He has also reported widely across Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. He has educational certificates in agriculture and food science, as well as Mandarin.
Author Archive
Published on
January 21, 2026
Canada recently announced it struck a deal with China to cut tariffs on seafood products like lobster and crab, starting 1 March and lasting through the end of the year.
While the cancellation of the 25 percent tariff Canadian seafood has faced since March 2025 is likely to benefit exports to China, some experts have stated that Canadian seafood is still set to face many hurdles toward recovering sales in the Asian market.
Fan Xubing, the CEO of… Read More
Published on
January 15, 2026
Japan has promised to send drones to Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay so they can better track vessels entering their exclusive economic zones (EEZs) that may be conducting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities.
The move, which targets, among other vessels, China’s sprawling distant-water fleet off the South American coast, provides much-needed resources to a region that has struggled at times to properly combat… Read More
Published on
January 14, 2026
In a recently published report on the Chinese seafood market, London, U.K.-based market research firm Euromonitor International found that consumption of high-end, premium species has held strong in the country, but consumer anxiety over the state of both the domestic and global economies has cratered the sales of mid-priced seafood.
But, with many consumers aiming to save money, sales of low-priced, cheaper species have spiked.
“In terms of… Read More
Published on
January 12, 2026
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has appointed Guyana Ambassador Leslie Ramsammy as the new chair of ongoing negotiations aiming to eliminate subsidies that lead to overcapacity and overfishing in global fishing fleets.
The negotiations Ramsammy now leads aim to strengthen a 2022 agreement that prohibits global subsidies supporting vessels engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities, fishing overfished stocks, and… Read More
Published on
January 12, 2026
Ireland’s seafood exports rose 22 percent by volume and 9 percent by value in 2025 to EUR 635 million (USD 739 million), according to the country’s food promotion agency Bord Bia.
Helping Ireland secure that increase was the fact that the value of Irish shellfish exports to China doubled in 2025.
China’s purchases of Irish shellfish totaled around EUR 35 million (USD 40.7 million) last year and comprised nearly one-fifth of Ireland’s… Read More
Published on
January 8, 2026
Chinese abalone firm Fujian Xiangbin recently acquired Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) two-star certification in an effort to expand sales in the domestic premium market and also grow international sales of its products.
Securing BAP two-star status in late 2025 marked a “milestone breakthrough” for the company, according to Xiangbin CEO Xiuying Chen.
“We are the first and currently only abalone company in China to obtain BAP two-star… Read More
Published on
January 8, 2026
Conservation NGO Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has asked Ireland’s High Court to reinstate a 2019 decision that discontinued Mowi Ireland’s permit to farm salmon at a site in Southwest Ireland.
Ireland’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine canceled Mowi’s license in 2019 over breaches of a 500-ton annual harvest limit at the firm’s Deenish site, located in Ballinskelligs Bay in County Kerry. Mowi Ireland then… Read More
Published on
December 18, 2025
The Irish fishing industry wants the country’s government to sue the E.U. over recent sharp cuts to Ireland’s fishing quotas for 2026.
After it was recently decided by E.U. officials that Ireland’s quotas for 2026 would drop 57,000 metric tons year over year, Irish fishing groups are “already taking legal advice” on how its government may be able to sue the E.U.
More specifically, the Irish fishing industry is seeking a challenge… Read More
Published on
December 16, 2025
If little action is taken around the world to mitigate the impacts of climate change, seafood companies and investors are likely to take a massive financial hit in the coming decades, according to a new report.
London, U.K.-based nonprofit think tank Planet Tracker has warned in a new report titled “Catch It Like It’s Hot” that in a high-emissions scenario, climate change could cost the global seafood industry as much as USD 15 billion… Read More
Published on
December 15, 2025
Several countries have gained access to send their wild-caught seafood products to China this year.
After Brazil and Honduras secured deals with the giant Asian market earlier this year, E.U. member nations Bulgaria, Denmark, Malta, and Estonia signed similar agreements.
According to Fan Xubing, the CEO of Beijing, China-based seafood consultancy firm Seabridge International, the deals do not necessarily mean China is seeking an influx of major… Read More
