Brown crab exported from Ireland and the U.K. is in hot demand from Chinese seafood traders, according to an importer supplying to the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets.
British and Irish crab supplies to China remain limited due to earlier rejection at the Chinese Customs for exceeding the Chinese standard in constraining the maximum residue levels for cadmium of 0.5 milligrams per kilogram.
Brown crabs have been displaced by Dungeness crab from Canada and mud crab from South Asian suppliers, including Bangladesh, according to Jack Yuan, director of Whatfresh Ltd, an importer registered in Hong Kong. However, brown crab remains a more premium product compared to mud crab, and Chinese buyers are hoping exports from Ireland will normalize, Yuan told SeafoodSource.
“Irish waters produce more female crabs, which is what Chinese buyers prefer,” he said.
Dungeness prices surged to a CNY 320 (USD 50EUR 41) per kilogram high recently during the recent Chinese New Year holiday, and Russian king crab prices went even higher, Yuan said.
In 2020, China introduced a new methodology for determining cadmium levels in imported crab. In response, Ireland’s Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) established an export health certification regulatory regime “based on satisfactory laboratory results from per-consignment testing” to meet with the Chinese standards. But the validity of those tests came into question last year after a complaint was filed claiming exceptions were granted for exportation of crab with traces of cadmium at the request of industry representatives.
A statement from the SFPA said the agency “continues to engage with the Chinese authorities regarding the verification of Irish brown crab with Chinese regulatory standards.”
“During 2020, the SFPA certified several consignments of Irish brown crab that complied with the Chinese regulatory standards under a new export health certification regulatory regime, introduced in December 2019, that was designed specifically to verify compliance with the Chinese standards, as requested by the Chinese import control authorities,” it said.
Ireland has also recently issued a response to a public consultation conducted by China on the current technical standard for imports of crab to China, according to the SFPA. That submission went through the country’s Agriculture Ministry, which has a representative in Beijing.
However, the understanding of Chinese importers is that brown crabs must now come from a designated area in Dutch waters, and not from Ireland or the U.K., Yuan said.
Yuan predicted a surge in seafood demand from China once COVID-19 is brought under control due to what he sees as “pent-up demand” among Chinese consumers.
Photo courtesy of Tony Mills/Shutterstock
