Ambassadors representing developing countries posted in Beijing have been invited to an exhibition in Dalian this month created to demonstrate China’s fisheries and aquaculture prowess.
Organized by China’s Agriculture Ministry, the 2021 China International Ocean Pasture and Fishery Exhibition is being hosted by Dalian Ocean University, with the assistance of several other fisheries-related agencies, including the China Society of Fishers. The event will feature workshops designed to present new research and technology developed in China, matchmaking sessions to link retailers and e-commerce companies with Chinese mariculture companies and projects, and an aquaculture demonstration hub showcasing “new equipment, science, and models.”
The event comes after a pledge made by China Fishery Regulatory Bureau Head Liu Xin Zhong in September at the Global Conference on Aquaculture, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, that China is willing to share its aquaculture technology and expertise with developing countries.
At a United Nations Office for South-South and Triangular Cooperation conference organized by Liu’s ministry on 24 September, which took place on the sidelines of the FAO meeting, Liu’s deputy, Jiang Kaiyong, pledged China’s help to developing nations in further “sustainable, low-carbon” aquaculture projects. Kaiyong said China wants to offer more aquaculture training, with a focus on more environmentally-friendly methods of production such as integrated rice and fish farming and land-based production in recirculating aquaculture systems. Kaiyong said China is currently in talks with developing countries regarding “the construction of aquaculture technology exchange and demonstration training bases” around the world, in response to an FAO projection that global aquaculture output will contract in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, China accounted for 60 percent of global aquaculture output, while also supplying 80 percent of its own 65.4 million metric tons of total seafood production from aquaculture. But China has sought to develop aquaculture in other regions of the world as a means of ensuring its own supply and food security, while also creating goodwill abroad, and creating new markets for its processing, manufacturing, and technology industries.
Photo courtesy of 2020 Global Conference on Aquaculture
