China’s per capita seafood consumption data looks overstated and has huge space to grow, according to a Guangdong feed firm aiming to attract more firms to switch into the aquaculture sector.
Chinese seafood consumption stands at 11.4 kilograms per capita, well below a global average of 20 kilograms per capita, Guangdong Lian Kun Group, a producer of feed for aquaculture and white meat, wrote in a document circulated recently to China’s feed sector executives in advance of an April summit of feed industry executives, where the potential of the aquaculture sector will be discussed.
The April gathering will also look into the impact of Sino-U.S. trade tensions in adding turbulence to feed input pricing. Representatives of key feed players, including the China division of Thai conglomerate CP Foods, as well as local players Guangdong Hai and Da Bei Nong will attend the summit, alongside researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science.
In the circulated document, Guangdong Lian Kun Chairman Yang Yong said an ongoing African swine flu epidemic, as well as recent bird flu invasions in China’s increasingly concentrated husbandry sector, are forcing feed firms to diversify further and growing demand for seafood creates opportunities in aquaculture.
China’s growing imports of seafood – now at over five million tons a year and growing – will create a global deficit of seafood in the coming decade, which will demand a larger supply of aquaculture feed, Yang added.
