Shipments of seafood from Alaska to China rose by 9 percent in the first half of 2022, due in part to an increase in yellowfin sole harvests and exports.
Exporters in Alaska shipped 29,654 metric tons (MT) of frozen flatfish sole to China in the first six months of 2022, up 49 percent year-on-year, according to data shared with SeafoodSource by McKinley Research Group, which provides research and consulting services for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
Shipments of Alaska’s third-biggest seafood export to China by volume, frozen herring, rose 19 percent to 14,651 MT in H1 2022 compared to H1 2021. Frozen groundfish pollock shipments to China were up 87 percent in the period to 11,125 MT, and frozen groundfish cod shipments rose 42 percent year-over-year to at 8,903 MT.
However, Alaska’s overall seafood exports to China are down thus far in 2022 compared to 2020, the year China signed the “Phase One” trade deal, via which it promised to purchase more American seafood and agricultural products. Alaska’s total seafood exports to China in H1 2022 totaled 110,607 MT, below the 142,200 MT it shipped to China in H1 2020. Shipments of fishmeal – by volume, Alaska’s second-biggest seafood export to China – were down 32 percent in the first half of 2022 compared to H1 2020, and shipments of yellowfin flatfish are down from the 38,356 MT Alaska sent to China in H1 2020.
Photo courtesy of NOAA
