China became a net importer of seafood in 2022, and that trend is likely to continue as the country has prioritized exporting higher-value industrial products like automobiles over lower-value export commodities like processed fish, according to Gorjan Nikolik, the chief seafood analyst at Dutch financial services company Rabobank.
China, which surpassed Japan this summer in becoming the world’s top exporter of cars, seems primed to become more like the E.U. and U.S. in terms of its seafood buying trends, relying mainly on imports to meet demand, Nikolik told SeafoodSource at this year’s International Groundfish Forum in Athens, Greece, where he presented on trade wars and their impact on the global seafood industry.
China embraced seafood production and processing in the 1980s and 1990s to generate employment and hard currency. The country grew its seafood exports from USD 3.6 billion (EUR 3.42 billion) in 2001 to USD 13.2 billion (EUR 12.5 billion) in 2010, followed by a whopping USD 17.1 billion (EUR 16.2 billion) in 2011 and USD 18.2 billion (EUR 17.2 billion) in 2012. In 2012, China had a seafood trade surplus of USD 10.8 billion (EUR 10.2 billion) – the world’s largest.
However, since then, the country has slowly become a major importer of agricultural produce, as imports of key commodities like fish and soy have become cheaper and of higher quality than local produce.
There are clear signs, according to Nikolik, that though “there may be a cooling period” arriving soon regarding Chinese seafood imports, the country is aiming to secure food supplies through trade partnerships, in particular with developing countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Another strategic partnership that China has secured is with Ecuador, a nation with which China signed a free trade agreement (FTA) earlier this year. The value of Ecuadorian shrimp exports to China grew from USD 105 million (EUR 97.6 million) in 2017 to USD 4 billion (EUR 3.7 billion) in 2022, and the FTA is set to further foster seafood exchange between both countries.
China also recently signed a partnership with Colombia, meaning it now has strategic ties with 10 South American nations. Colombia’s government has stated that it wants to tap Chinese financial resources to modernize Colombian infrastructure in return for exports of agricultural products to Chinese buyers.
While it may have reached the point of no return as a net importer, China still remains a formidable seafood exporter in the global market. A new policy whitepaper on the country’s distant-water fleet, published by China’s government, clarifies that the country remains the world’s preeminent exporter and producer of seafood. It quotes Food and Agricultural Organization figures from 2020 stating that China, Norway, and Vietnam are the world’s largest seafood exporters, together accounting for 25 percent of total exports globally. Chinese production comprised 80 percent of global aquaculture output at 57 million metric tons in 2020.
The whitepaper, “Development of China’s Distant-Water Fishing Industry,” also touched on its import strategy and demonstrated China’s commitment to further cooperation with developing countries to develop aquaculture projects and wild-caught fisheries using Chinese technology and expertise.
Photo courtesy of Kislitsin Dmitrii/Shutterstock
