China is seeing a boom in barbequed oyster consumption that’s pushing up prices of domestically produced oysters.
The trend is being driven by a tourism marketing campaign by authorities in Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province (the hometown of China’s largest seafood firm by market capitalization, Guolian Aquatic), which seeks to increase visitor numbers to the city’s restaurants
Many of the city’s restaurants recently benefitted from a government funding campaign that allowed them to rebuild or modernize, with a secondary goal of forming a culinary scene centered on grilled oysters. At the upmarket Zhanjiang Luxury restaurant, customers are served deep-fried and breaded oysters. Other restaurants serve oysters in a chicken broth hotpot. And at a restaurant featured on a recent China National TV (CCTV) program focusing on Zhanjiang, a plate of 12 ginger-flavored cooked oysters cost CNY 68.00 (USD 10.20, EUR 8.84).
Besides sales for direct consumption, Zhanjiang and China’s shellfish research sector is keen to build a larger value-added oyster industry. It already dominates global production of oyster sauce, but Qin Xiao Ming, a researcher at Guangdong Ocean University’s National Shellfish Research Science and Technology Centre, told CCTV the region’s next focus will be on growing its value-added uses of shellfish, with a focus on extraction for health products. Qin explained how value-added products like “ocean milk” and “sober-up medicine,” as well as liquid and powder peptide containing amino acids used for better skin, are now being made from oyster extracts at the university.
With an estimated 5.3 million metric tons of annual production, China accounts for 80 percent of global oyster production. Most of China’s oysters are farmed in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, with a smaller percentage coming from northerly Liaoning Province.
According to CCTV footage at the city's largest seafood wholesale market, the largest-sized domestic oysters were selling in Zhanjiang this month for CNY 12 (USD 1.80, EUR 1.56) apiece, with medium-sized oysters going for CNY 5.00 (USD 0.75, EUR 0.65) each, a fraction of the price fetched by imported French or Irish oysters, which themselves experienced a surge of interest in recent years, but which have struggled as China has implemented stricter customs procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo courtesy of Zhanjiang Tourism Board
