A list of fishmeal exporters that failed quality tests has drawn back the curtains on supply chains and corporate relationships inside the opaque Chinese market.
Tests of samples from 31 provinces by the Agriculture Ministry in Beijing for the second half of 2016 showed a 95.2 percent pass rate. However, there were some big names among the shipments that failed the quality tests, with shipments from Namibia, Peru and Uruguay all being flagged for containing excessive amounts of sodium chloride.
According to a statement and photocopies of the list published by the China Breeding Industry Union (CBIU), an umbrella body of major animal husbandry and aquaculture firms, Peruvian fishmeal specialist Especa Pisco SAC was one of the companies with a flagged shipment. The company is listed as the supplier for several shipments that tested for excessive amounts of sodium chloride in “hong yu fen” [literal translation red fish meal] sold from to a firm in Changchun.
Another recognizable name on the list is Pesquera Hayduk SA, a Peruvian seafood giant that also sells seafood to Chinese buyers. Hayduk appears several times on the list, and its supplying agents including Shanghai Hai Ming International Trading Co, with end-buyers in Guizhou.
Peruvian firm Especa Pisco’s shipments to Qingdao Yuan Yang Bu Lao Co. and Lanzhou Shi Yang Feed Co. also failed the tests, as did those of another Peruvian firm, Tecnologica de Alimentos SA, which is listed as the supplier of a shipment destined to the Hunan provincial subsidiary of Da Bei Nong, a large Chinese feed industry player, via an agent, La Mei Mao Yi Ltd.
Another Peruvian player on the list is CFG Investment SAC. The firm had shipments to clients including Tian Bao Co., in the major east coast port of Ningbo. Tian Bao is listed as an agent for a firm in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou – a hub for China’s pork industry.
Another firm on the list is Namsor Fishing Enterprises (Pty) Ltd. in Namibia. Its shipments to agent Fujian Haifu Animal Feed Co. (also known as High Fortune) were destined for another feed distribution firm in the southern city of Guiyang. Haifu is one of China’s most ambitious feed firms and is located in a region that has significantly increased its aquaculture output in recent years.
Uruguay also features on the list, with fishmeal supplier Cardama listed as the supplier for a shipment to major state-owned trading firm China SDIC International Trading Co. that failed Chinese tests.
Another big name appears as a buyer – the Nangjing branch of the Cargill Group, which is listed as the end-buyer of a shipment of fishmeal from the Pesquera Diamante Group in Peru.
It’s not clear where the tests were conducted; however, all of the flagged shipments went through a Chinese agent – in most cases feed firms themselves – and were destined for end-buyers – typically large feed distributors – in various parts of China.
