Purveyors of China’s crab and crayfish want to capture global sales through a deal on Geographical Indications with the European Union.
Named for the city in Hubei Province that is home over half of Chinese crayfish production, the “Qianjiang crayfish” Geographical Indication (GI) appellation is seeking global recognition, according to local government, which is “seeking more investment and alliances” globally to market the crayfish in flavored and non-flavored formats to Europeans.
Beijing and Brussels in November signed an agreement to recognize and protect the names of 100 of each other’s food specialties. Qianjiang crayfish – as well as Scottish salmon, Irish whiskey, feta, and Parma ham – all come under the agreement, which significantly expands the number of foods protected by GIs from the 10 products on both sides that were agreed in 2012.
Faced with rising costs and slowing export growth, Chinese seafood exporters have been looking at ways to add value to their products. Exports fell seven percent year on year in volume terms in October to 372,000 tons, with value terms flat. China could significantly increase exports of its value-added seafood specialties through trade deals with regional economies, according to Zhu Yuanhua at the University of Science and Technology at Hefei, in Anhui Province.
“There is much compatibility as tastes in our neighboring countries are similar to those of Chinese consumers,” Zhu said.
Seasoned shrimp brands like “Lai Ke,” “Liang Ren,” and “Liu Wu” as well as the “Shen Jing” brand of hot cooked crayfish were all exhibiting recently in the international agricultural fair in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province. It remains to be seen how the brands’ Chinese-style flavorings will fare with E.U. consumers.
Processing and re-export aside, seafood trade in higher-value products largely flows from one direction – from the E.U. into China. But E.U. officials have fielded complaints from European firms over the unauthorized use of GI and European food brands – including sea foods like oysters and salmon – in the Chinese marketplace.
Photo courtesy of HelloRF Zcool/Shutterstock
