Rogue seafood restaurants are being reined in by authorities in one of China’s leading holiday cities.
Officials in the southern city of Sanya, a beachside mecca often described as “China’s Florida” in local media, are clamping down on a trend of consumer rip-offs as consumption of high-end seafood there continues to rise.
The city recently published a “Seafood Restaurants Genuine Business Standards Evaluation” and released the document for public comment.
The aim is to ensure “rational, fair and ethical” practices in the city’s seafood restaurants, which have produced a series of scandals involving overcharging, mislabeling and misleading pricing – particularly for higher-end species like shrimp, grouper, turbot and crab.
Local media has reported several instances where consumers were charged the equivalent of several hundred U.S. dollars for dishes. In many cases, consumers ordered under the impression that prices were per plate but found the price was per shrimp or per piece of shellfish. Imported lobsters have also featured in mark-up scandals.
With seafood synonymous with high-end hospitality and luxury, the seriousness of the issue is reflected in the state bodies involved in drafting the standards – the city’s Tourism Development Committee, the Sanya Seafood Stallholders Association and Sanya University were all involved in the drafting of the evaluation.
