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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Trading in the shares of Chinese fishery company China Ocean Group Development Limited remains suspended after the firm’s auditor resigned in dramatic fashion.
On 3 October, 2022, Reanda Lau and Au Yeung CPA Limited tendered its resignation as China Ocean’s auditor and was replaced in its duties on the same day by Elite Partners CPA.
Trading in the company’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was suspended and the firm has
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Hong Kong-based alternative proteins producer OmniFoods has announced a distribution deal with a leading U.K. pub chain.
OmniFoods, part of the Green Monday group, will supply its plant-based Omni Golden Fillet at 480 pubs owned by the Greene King group across Britain.
“Additional stores will be added in mid-October,” OmniFoods said in a statement. The company is positioning its offering as helping to ease an affordability and
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A government-run newspaper and social media accounts in China have targeted actor Leonardo di Caprio and The New York Times for criticizing China’s distant-water fishing industry.
Di Caprio recently used his Twitter account to highlight an extensive New York Times article published 26 September titled “How China Targets the Global Fish Supply,” which details the global footprint of China’s fishing fleet. The Chinese
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With the country’s October holiday approaching, China has added 24 new Russian fish-processing vessels to the list of those allowed to ship to Chinese ports.
A note recently published by Chinese customs authorities revealed 54 Russian seafood processing companies were licensed for export to China in 2022, out of 800 total vessels receiving licenses ...
Photo courtesy of
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Members of the World Trade Organization will shortly elect a new chair to handle the next phase of talks to end harmful fishery subsidies with an informal meeting of delegates taking place 10 October, where participants will map out a course for negotiations.
Santiago Wills, Colombia’s ambassador to the WTO, chaired the negotiations on the landmark agreement struck in June 2022, which prohibited subsidy support for illegal, unreported, and
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A small investment in seafood traceability could boost the industry’s profitability by 60 percent, according to a new report by financial think tank Planet Tracker.
The new report, “How to Trace $600 Billion,” found that improved traceability would help cut spending on food recalls, food waste, and staff. The report’s findings suggest that an investment of just one percent of the industry’s sales in
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Taiwan and Thailand both feature prominently on the new edition of a U.S. Department of Labor report on child and forced labor, which identifies abuses in both countries’ seafood sectors.
Released 28 September, 2022, the “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor,” dinged Taiwan and Thailand for alleged use of forced labor in their fishing sectors, while Thailand also received mention for alleged use of child and
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Ireland’s fishing industry is facing down the double barrels of market headwinds and a plan to decommission part of the Irish fleet and a move to ban fishing in 16,000 square kilometers of ocean.
Irish fishermen say they weren’t consulted in a decision by the European Commission to close 1.8 percent of Irish waters to bottom-fishing, including parts of the Northeast Atlantic, including 9,000 square kilometers within Ireland’s
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Eighteen insurers have pledge to use a new tool capable of tracking vessels involved in illegal fishing.
Launched at a marine underwriters conference recently in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., Vessel Viewer is a product of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, established during the United Nations’ 2019 climate action summit with backing from the financial services sector.
Developed by Global Fishing Watch and Trygg Mat Tracking, Vessel Viewer
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A case taken by a Senegalese community coalition to close a fishmeal plant could have implications for the expansion of production in the region, which has seen major expansion by Chinese operators in particular, alongside plants built by European, Russian, and Turkish operators.
Members of the Taxawu Cayar Collective, made up of female fish processors and artisanal fishers – along with community and environmental representatives –
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