Chinese seafood exports rose 10 percent by value in the first 10 months of 2022, even as traded volumes remained flat.
China’s seafood exports reached CNY 12.2 billion (USD 1.70 billion, EUR 1.58 billion) in value between January and October 2022, even as the volume of seafood it exported rose just 0.1 percent to 3.01 million metric tons. China’s October seafood imports rose 7.7 percent year-over-year by volume, while dropping 0.5 percent in value, according to the latest data from Chinese customs authorities.
China’s seafood exporters have complained of weak demand, particularly in the European Union, due to inflationary pressure on consumers. China’s processors, meanwhile, have reported rising input costs and difficulties sourcing whitefish.
Despite those difficulties, leading Chinese tilapia processor Qinfu Foods Co reported its revenue rose by 10 percent to CNY 500 million (USD 70 million, EUR 65 million) in the first 10 months of 2022, Zhou Yun Feng told a regional TV news program in China.
The continued closures of seafood markets and complications with logistics due to China’s zero-Covid policy continue to batter China’s seafood trade, according to Vanessa Jiang, supply chain manager at the CAWM West Coast Market (CAWM refers to China Supply and Marketing Agricultural Production Wholesale Market Holding Co) in Qingdao.
“Because of the growing severity of the Covid-19, many seafood markets and logistics are closed,” she said. “The situation for white shrimp is not very good this year, the price is very upside down. Consumer demand for salmon is down about 30 percent, so the salmon prices have fallen.”
Catfish prices have remained stable, Jiang told SeafoodSource.
China’s Covid cases have surged in recent weeks, but China’s government recently moved to loosen its zero-Covid policy, with the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism recently issuing 20 adjusted or more targeted measures and demanding local governments “rectify improper implementation” of these. Several Chinese cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Zhengzhou, have responded by updating their Covid-19 mitigation measures.
The impact of Covid on China’s economy continues to make itself felt. Industrial profits fell 3 percent in the first 10 months of 2022 year-over-year. That compares with a 2.3 percent drop for the first nine months of 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics data. China has sought to instill confidence in the real estate sector, a mainstay of the economy that has shown signs of weakness lately, with a package of measures, including easier access to financing from state-owned banks.
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