One of China’s largest seafood companies has purchased a distant-water fishing company to expand its Pacific tuna fleet.
CNFC Overseas Fisheries, the listed arm of state-owned China National Fisheries Corp (CNFC) has announced that it has provisionally bought Zhejiang Feng Hui Distant Water Fishing Co, an operator with seven trawlers, including six longline vessels, and the Feng Hui 9, a squid trawler. Feng Hui also has aquaculture assets and a marine navigation equipment in China, according to its business description at the company registrations office in Zheijiang Province.
CNFC is controlled by the China Agricultural Development Co., the giant conglomerate managing key government agricultural and fisheries companies.
An expansion in the Chinese (and Taiwanese) fleet has increased the volumes of tuna coming to market in recent weeks, driving down prices in major price-setting hubs like Bangkok. Yet while it enjoys government fuel subsidies to cushion its bottom line, CNFC saw revenues from fisheries drop 16 percent last year to USD 94 million (EUR 83.3 million). The company signaled profits of just USD 3.3 million (EUR 2.9 million) for the first quarter of 2019 but earnings per share dropped 220 percent on the same period last year. CNFC’s shares are today trading at CNY 5.67 (USD 0.81, EUR 0.72), compared to CNY 8.05 (USD 1.15, EUR 1.03) in mid-May 2018.
