Processing plants in the Chinese port and processing hub of Dalian must be audited by local authorities for adherence to COVID-19 prevention rules before they can reopen after Chinese New Year and a pandemic-related lockdown that shuttered much of the city in November 2021.
Processing has yet to restart after the 1 February Chinese New Year festivities, which traditionally run for 15 days, while the state holiday runs for a week, said Sara Shi, sales executive at seafood processor and importer Dalian Rich Enterprise Group Co.
“To reopen, the plant must be audited by an official. Our plant is the first plant which is certified to open in China,” she told SeafoodSource. “We are waiting for the workers come back from the Chinese New Year…we will open soon.”
Despite the closures, sales during Chinese New Year were “good,” Shi said.
“The demand was very strong for the festival holidays, but Dalian warehouses storing imported seafood have been locked down since the end of October, hence much cargo can’t move at all,” Shi said.
Many other plants are still waiting for the audit to be completed, but a full normalization will occur as the year progresses, Shi said.
“We hope for a recovery soon,” she said.
While a surplus of stock remains in warehouses at a peak time of year for domestic market demand, Daliuan Rich has managed to ship from alternative ports like Shanghai and Tianjin to supply customers in the U.S., where the firm has found strong demand for a new line of seafood dumplings filled with mackerel, pollock, salmon, shrimp, scallop, and squid, according to Shi.
The company has launched its own Seafood Master brand of pan-fried fish gyoza (Japanese dumplings) range featuring four types of stuffing: scallop, salmon, pollock, and shrimp. The product is now being sold at Great Wall chain of Asian supermarkets across the U.S.
Dalian Rich has also developed a seafood pie and signed a contract with a retail-focused distributor in the European Union for its gyoza range, with shipments commencing this year.
Photo courtesy of Dalian Rich
