A CNY 61.3 million (USD 8.58 million) subsidy payout from government was the main reason why leading Chinese fisheries firm CNFC Overseas Fishery Co. was able to book a profit for the first three quarters of 2019.
The firm, which is the listed arm of state-owned China National Fishery Co., is known for its huge fleet of trawlers and its extensive global seafood processing operations. The company is blaming low prices for its tuna catch, as well as losses at subsidiary firms, for its poor performance thus far this year. It incurred a slide of between 82 percent and 77.6 percent in its profitability in the first three quarters of 2019 but the company is projecting profits of CNY 11 million to CNY 13.5 million (USD 1.54 million to USD 1.89 million) for the first nine months of 2019.
Overall profits in the third quarter slipped by a range of CNY 56 million to CNY 58 million (USD7.84 million to USD8.12 million), a drop of 6.6 to 10.5 percent. Yet thanks to the subsidy – which the government allotted to reward the company’s move to improve its fishing vessels – the performance was good enough to turn around a CNY 45.3 million (USD 6.34 million) deficit recorded for the first half of 2019.
CNFC has blamed its woes on a CNY 22 million (USD 3.08 million) compensation payout this year arising from a dispute involving its subsidiary firm, Xin Yang Zhou, a processor based in the southern city of Xiamen. Xin Yang Zhou was in a long-running dispute with the local branch of the Industrial Bank of China over loans. CNFC is also blaming poor results at a joint venture insurance firm, Huanong Financial Services.
CNFC operates more than 250 vessels and transportation facilities in the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern oceans. Formerly known as the China Fisheries Joint Company, the firm initiated a push into African waters in the 1980’s, and today has boats and docking facilities in almost a dozen African nations, including Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Gabon.
Photo courtesy of Cliff White/SeafoodSource
