Silky road ahead
China’s new “One Belt, One Road” initiative is a powerful force opening new markets throughout the hemisphere. The current Chinese president’s signature foreign policy initiative is seeing China reopening its old Silk Road routes in an effort to integrate markets with Chinese-funded infrastructure, thus leading to greater Chinese exports. It’s worth noting the plan’s original focus is on 64 countries, encompassing more than three billion of the world’s seven billion people. The plan puts a particular focus on fast-developing markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and central-eastern Europe.
These are territories where Chinese export growth in seafood is likely to happen – Southeast Asia is quickly becoming a market equivalent to the European Union and United States for Chinese seafood exports. Chinese brands like Huawei (smartphones, telecoms) and Lenovo (electronics) have long made these regions a priority for market expansion, and now food and seafood brands are seeking to follow suit. It’s instructive to note that the Chinese region with the fastest growth in output and exports in recent years is Fujian, which has ports located nearest to many of the developing countries targeted by the “One Belt, One Road” plan.
