A senior official in China’s leading exporting region has predicted a sharp increase in “technical barriers” on Chinese tilapia exports in 2017 and is advising producers to consolidate and focus on the domestic market.
In an address to producers, Qu Jiashu, the head of the Guangdong provincial office of the Ocean and Fisheries Bureau, said tilapia exports are likely to fall again this year. Guangdong, a key producer of shrimp and tilapia, struggles from fragmentation and overuse of antibiotics, Qu said.
When other industries, like the mud carp cannery business, declined, many farmers got into tilapia. Now tilapia looks set to be replaced by other species, according to Qu.
“The pressure on Chinese exports commenced in 2005 with a scandal over use of malachite green and our problems have continued since then,” Qu said.
