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.
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Chinese seafood firm Zhangjiang Guolian Aquatic Products announced plans to supply shrimp and tilapia to domestic restaurant operator Yum China, the latest move by a Chinese company attempting to reap the benefits of focusing more on the domestic market.
“Many companies now much prefer to sell domestically,” Didier Boon, the head of Beijing, China-based East China Seas, which sources shrimp and tilapia for export, told SeafoodSource.
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Chinese fishing firm Liaoyu Group set nationwide krill catch records in the most recent Antarctic fishing season, which wrapped up in early August.
Dalian, China-based Liaoyu said that its krill catch totals for the most recent season eclipsed 70,000 metric tons, (MT) and its daily high during the season exceeded 1,019 MT, both of which are records for the Chinese distant-water fleet, according to the local newspaper Liaoning Daily.
The records
… Read MoreChina offers summer aquaculture, fisheries training programs, aiming to fill widening soft power gap
China is doubling down on efforts to become the global partner of choice for developing countries seeking to expand their aquaculture and fisheries sectors, and the country’s latest outreach initiatives have come in the form of summer training programs led by Chinese officials.
One such program included a delegation of Southeast Asian fishery officials undergoing a 14-day aquaculture training program in southwestern Yunnan Province, which
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Earlier this year, China ratified the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing – also known as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA).
Among many actions China needs to take to ensure it properly adheres to the agreement, Hong Kong needs to improve the traceability of seafood imported into the city, according to the
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The European Commission recently proposed a Multiannual Financial Framework for the seven-year period between 2028 and 2034 that would, among several other moves, absorb the E.U.’s European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) into a broader EUR 865 billion (USD 1.03 trillion) funding pool shared with projects in agriculture, regional development, and other areas.
The current EMFAF runs from 2021 to 2027 and provides subsidies
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Distant-water subsidies recently offered by multiple Chinese coastal cities run counter to efforts by China’s central government to control the country’s sprawling global fleet and limit IUU fishing, according to François Mosnier, the head of the Oceans Program at think tank Planet Tracker.
Earlier this summer, the Zhangzhou fishing port in the southern Chinese province of Fujian announced a CNY 40 million (USD 5.6 million,
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New research shows that China will soon spend much more money on scientific research and development (R&D) initiatives compared to the U.S. and that the gap is likely to continue growing.
James Goodrich, a senior technology analysis advisor for the RAND Corporation and a fellow at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, recently published research showing China is now projected to spend USD 42 billion (EUR
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The Irish government is considering scrapping a planned bill expanding marine protected areas (MPAs), instead accomplishing the same goal through changes to existing marine planning legislation.
The bill in question would designate 30 percent of Ireland’s territorial waters as MPAs in line with global goals, but some members of the Irish government have suggested that the nation’s Maritime Area Planning Act, which was enacted in
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A leading Chinese scholar claims the country’s annual fishing moratorium has been effective in restoring fish stocks, but is being ignored and misrepresented by foreign countries.
Wang Tengfei, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Maritime Law and Policy, National Institute of South China Sea Studies, said the annual fishing ban in the South China Sea and most of the East China Sea has shown proven benefits. China has imposed
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A Kazakhstani regional governor is seeking Chinese aid to revive his area’s caviar industry.
Nurdaulet Kilybay, the governor of the southwestern Kazakhstan region of Mangystau, which borders the Caspian Sea, recently traveled to China in an attempt to find partners that have an interest in developing sturgeon farms in the Central Asian country.
The trip was fruitful, as Kilybay secured a signed memorandum of cooperation with Gansu Joy
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