Mark Godfrey

Fish exporters eyeing China sales will be happy to see there’s been a big bump in prices for fish in one of the country’s key wholesale markets. With China’s fishing ports on an annual three-month fishing moratorium, prices for snakehead, bass, catfish and mullet were up 33.33 percent, 12.5 percent, 48 percent and 36 percent respectively, year on year, in June, according to data published by the Dongfang International Seafood Market in

Better prices, government policy support and a rebound in sea cucumber sales are among the key reasons why China’s securities houses are sounding bullish on local seafood stocks this summer.

Analysts have been pointing to a Chinese Ministry of Agriculture survey of 80 seafood markets nationwide which showed prices for seafood up 2.21 percent and 4.95 percent year on year in April and May respectively. A research note by Qilu Securities also

Subsidized premiums and nationwide pilots are part of a big push to increase coverage of aquaculture by China’s government, worried about protecting an ever-expanding freshwater aquaculture sector. One of the regions keenest to get covered is the easterly province of Jiangsu, home of a giant freshwater crab aquaculture sector, which has been forcing insurers and producers to work together.

“There is enthusiasm among fish farmers to get

U.S. countervailing duties against Chinese shrimp imports may ironically lead to higher prices in the longer term for U.S. buyers as the one of the top Chinese suppliers seeks to reduce its exposure to the U.S. market by ramping up sales at home. Demand from Chinese consumers will ultimately cause competition and higher prices for U.S. shrimp buyers, said a company source speaking to SeafoodSource.

Announced last year, the U.S. duties —

The early mortality syndrome (EMS) virus that has badly hurt Asia’s shrimp producers could prove a turning point that spurs tighter control of cross-border spread of aquaculture disease by governments. That’s according to aquaculture insurance expert focused on growing coverage in Asia. “The future spread of disease may be much more controlled as a result of the EMS experience,” said Paddy Secretan, head of U.K.-based Aquaculture

China’s international pelagic fishing fleet is getting larger but also more sophisticated, in part because a glut in the Chinese shipbuilding trade means vessels are easier than ever to acquire. Announcing aggressive pelagic expansion plans in African and Asian waters, officials in the port city of Weihai say in the first five months of this year the city had 260 (government records show it had 242 in February, suggesting rapid fleet

Stricter inspection standards in key export markets as well as stronger competition from Vietnam are seriously hurting Chinese seafood exports, which fell in the first quarter of 2014, claims a key government quality and quarantine watchdog.

Shrinking export markets, “technical trade measures” and other issues facing China’s seafood exporters “cannot be ignored,” according to a recent article in the China Gateway (Zhongguo Guomen)

Executives from a Shanghai-based fishing company are celebrating this month as they integrate a new acquisition in Argentina. State owned Shanghai Jinyou Deep Sea Fisheries Co. has completed the purchase of Altamare SA, a shrimp and fish catcher/processor in Puerto Madryn, a city of about 70,000 people in the province of Chubut in the Patagonia region.

Part of the state-run Shanghai Fisheries General Corp. Group (SFGCG) conglomerate, Jinyou

A free trade agreement with Iceland will kick in this month, making Icelandic seafood cheaper in China. The free trade agreement (FTA) will likely see more European seafood being directed through Iceland to avail of the cheaper trade with China where consumption of all categories of North Atlantic seafood is rising. Cod is one of the species set to grow in terms of local consumption in China.

There are plenty of countries seeking to follow