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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The profitability of the Mediterranean aquaculture sector has improved considerably, and producers of sea bass and sea bream in the region can expect higher prices in 2025 due to lower costs and tighter supply, according to Nikos Papaioannou, the chairman of Greece-based aquafeed and fish nutrition firm IRIDA Group, who spoke recently at the IFFO’s 2024 annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Though this marks positive news for the sector,
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Chinese seafood firm Shanghai Hecheng Food, which also operates under the name Hi-Chain, has launched two new seafood brands on a bet that that demand for premium seafood products will steady in China.
Hecheng used the occasion of the World Seafood Shanghai (SIFSE) exposition to launch the Norway Fishing Ground brand alongside representatives from Norcod, its supplier for the products. Norcod operates a commercial-scale cod farm located
… Read More“It’s crucial for Fiji” – UN Ambassador for Fiji Luke Daunivalu comments on WTO subsidy negotiations
Negotiators have been working for over a year to secure a strengthened World Trade Organization (WTO) deal on ending harmful fishery subsidies.
Luke Daunivalu is the Fijian ambassador to the United Nations (UN) bodies based in Geneva, Switzerland, including the WTO. He talked to SeafoodSource about how realistic the prospects for a deal are and why he is wary about large nations fulfilling their obligations under a deal if it does reach an
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Chinese distant-water fishing firm Fuzhou Hongdong Pelagic Fishery Co. has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Argentine province of Santa Cruz in a deal that could see the area become a hub for Chinese fishing operations.
According to Argentine media, the deal will see Hongdong invest
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The Sligo Oyster Experience, a seafood company based in Ireland, has won an award in the Seafood Innovation category at the national Irish Food Awards for its pickled oyster product sold in glass jars.
The company won the award with its recently launched Sligo Oyster Pickled Oysters. The product retails at EUR 18.00 (USD 19.62) per jar and contains six hand-shucked oysters in one of two flavors: wild blackberry balsamic, sourced from nearby
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Processors at the leading Irish fishery port of Killybegs are suffering from a lack of raw materials, leaving recently added processing capacity idle.
At a committee hearing of the Irish Parliament, advocates for the port said a combination of competition for stocks from vessels of non-E.U. states like Norway, as well as new weighing requirements at the port, are causing vessels to unload elsewhere. The shift is causing issues for
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Chinese consumers have been slow to embrace tuna, so the nation’s massive tuna-fishing fleet has turned abroad to markets like the E.U. to sell its catch, worrying competitors that its takeover of the global market share is showing no signs of slowing down.
The canning industry in the E.U. has been increasingly utilizing Chinese tuna, with the country increasing its market share in the bloc from 9 percent to 24 percent of tuna purchases
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An environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report filed by Chinese fishing company China Ocean Group Development has been described as “shocking” for its lack of material disclosures.
Since 2021, any company listed on the Hong Kong exchange is required to file an ESG report annually. But, China Ocean Group Development offers little detail on its operations in its 2023-2024 report, filed as part of the requirements of its listing
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The World Trade Organization is once again pushing to get approval of a fishery subsidies draft agreement in advance of its December general council meeting, according to sources at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WTO has been trying to expand on its smaller 2022 deal by adding clauses that further limit subsidies leading to overcapacity and overfishing in global fishing fleets. A draft text circulated in July
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