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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An influx of manufacturing – prompted by companies seeking to diversify supply chains away from China – has made Vietnam the fastest-growing economy in the region.
French investment bank Natixis has projected economic growth of 7.5 percent in 2022 for Vietnam, which it described as “the economic rockstar of Asia in 2022, if not the world,” with accelerating growth “thanks to robust retail sales, exports,
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Structural economic issues and demographics will dampen future Chinese consumption and reduce the attractiveness of the country as a market and destination for investment, according to Patrick Artus, chief economist at Natixis, a French investment bank with a network of offices in Asia.
“Domestic demand will increase very little or even stagnate in China, owing to population ageing, rising household savings as a precaution against a
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Representatives of Ireland’s fishing industry are asking the Irish government to shape the country’s ambitious offshore wind energy plan around floating turbines, which they say will be less disruptive to fishing operations.
Six Irish fisheries representatives recently visited a floating offshore wind farm in Kincardine on the Scottish coast at the invitation of Simply Blue, a renewable energy firm.
One of the six, Irish Fish
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Indonesian fishing company Kanzun has denied a claim that it has entered a joint venture with Chinese fishery firm China Ocean Development.
China Ocean Development recently announced in an official statement to investors on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where it’s listed, it was entering a joint venture with Indonesian firm PT Kanzun Bahriyah Sentosa to fish in Indonesian waters.
China Ocean Development announced it would set up a joint
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Processing equipment manufacturer Marel saw record order intake from China in 2022.
The company said its short-term outlook was threatened by Norway’s salmon-farming tax proposal, but that its medium-term outlook for its fish segment was good. Marel is targeting EBIT margin expansion for Marel Fish, relying on an improved product mix to boost sales. On that vein, it said it had introduced new products for whitefish and tilapia processing,
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Ireland is seeking to establish itself as a hub for aquaculture technology, according to Wayne Murphy, the co-founder of Hatch, a program assisting start-ups in the sector globally.
Ireland is drawing on its status as a European hub for many of the world’s largest technology and life science companies to boost its aquaculture sector, Murphy said.
“Ireland’s start-up system is very developed,” Murphy told
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Calysseo, a joint venture between alternative protein firm Calysta and Chinese-owned animal nutrition leader Adisseo, plans to build a 100,000-ton-capacity alternative protein facility in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with local firm Food Caravan.
According to Calysta, a gas allocation has been provided for the plant from the Saudi Ministry of Energy – the FeedKind production process uses a form of gas fermentation. The project is being
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Veteran seafood trader Didier Boon said he believes the success of the proposed China-Ecuador free-trade deal, which expected to be signed by December 2022, won’t succeed if Ecuador doesn’t kowtow to China’s global political agenda.
Boon, the managing director of Beijing-based East China Seas, which imports seafood to china and supplies buyers in the E.U., U.S., and Latin America with processed seafood from China, said
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China’s seafood sales are up year-on-year in retail value terms thus far in 2022, but down on 2020 figures, according to new data from market research agency Euromonitor.
Chinese demand continues to grow for convenience-themed items. Faced with frequent and abrupt COVID-19 lockdowns, Chinese consumers have turned to ready-to-eat meals. Chinese seafood processors, including Yuehai and Guolian Aquatic, have put increasing
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