Fujian, the top aquaculture producing and exporting province in China shipped CNY 5.89 billion (USD 858 million, EUR 811 million) last year, a year-on-year rise of 6.3 percent, according to the annual conference of the provincial office of the Ocean and Fishery Bureau.
Located on China’s southeast coast, Fujian’s output of key premium species – large yellow croaker, grouper, eel, shrimp, oysters, abalone, seaweed and sea cucumber – yielded 3.12 million tons, an increase of 7.1 percent, showing how demand for premium species is rebounding.
In 2016, Fujian aquaculture investment ranked first in China, worth CNY 900 million (USD 131 million, EUR 124 million). Overall output by the aquaculture industry was worth CNY 80 billion (USD 11.7 billion, EUR 11 billion), up 10 percent on 2015. Of that figure, production of abalone, eel and Vannemei shrimp were worth CNY 15.2 billion (USD 2.2 billion, EUR 2.1 billion), CNY 14.6 billion (USD 2.1 billion, EUR 2 billion) and CNY 11.2 billion (USD 1.6 billion, EUR 1.5 billion), respectively.
The annual report from the bureau also hints at the massive environmental challenges faced by the industry. The bureau claims that water quality in Minjiang Estuary, Meizhou Bay and Xiamen Bay improved by 20 percent in 2016. But the provincial “natural shoreline rate” is only 38 percent – the rest has been redeveloped by industry or real estate.
