Chinese seafood brands and conservationists were busy promoting for this year’s World Ocean Day on Monday, 8 June, with launches and celebrity endorsements.
Chinese outlets of Carrefour and e-commerce vendor Suning.com, which last year bought an 80 percent stake in Carrefour’s China operations, combined to offer an Marine Stewardship Council-certified “French Toothfish” packaged product produced by Shanghai Huamer Foods Ltd.
“French toothfish” is a marketing term drawing on the premium reputation and pricing power enjoyed in China by French food producers. Last year, the longline toothfish fishery around the Kerguelen and Crozet Islands in the Southern Ocean – fished by the Syndicat des Armements Réunionnais de Palangriers Congélateurs (SARPC), a grouping of French fishing firms – was recertified as sustainable by the MSC.
Founded in 2000, Huamer claims to be “China’s leading aquatic fresh brand operator” and counts as its star product “French toothfish,” according to company chairman Huang Yushu. The Huamer boss recently told SeafoodSource he sees demand for “deep-sea species” such as cod, which is commonly perceived by Chinese consumers as less tainted by inputs like antibiotics sometimes found in products produced domestically.
MSC-certified “Arctic cod steak” from Blue Snow Food Co. Ltd. is also being offered by Carrefour and Suning. The Zhejiang-based Blue Snow specializes in seafood processing, trading, cold storage, and logistics, supplying 8,000 supermarket outlets around China.
Among the celebrities touting World Oceans Day on Chinese social media was Huang Ming Hao, a pop star and teen idol, who has put his face to a poster campaign for four environmental bodies, including the United Nations and China-based Better Blue, a Hainan-based marine conservation group founded by scuba divers. In his posts, Huang called attention to the problems of overfishing and ocean biosphere loss in the South China Sea.
Photos courtesy of Shanghai Huamer Foods, Suning.com
