China has established a fisheries cooperation organization with Portuguese-speaking African countries, with a view to growing bilateral cooperation and importing more African seafood.
The Hunan Macao Portuguese-Speaking African Nations Fisheries Service Alliance was announced at the second China Africa Trade Expo and Economic Cooperation summit in Changsha, China, capital of Hunan Province, a center of China's freshwater aquaculture.
The organization will share Chinese knowledge in fisheries, aquaculture, cold-chain management, and seafood processing, according to a press release. The alliance will also see a transfer of Chinese training and the building of fishery bases. Macau, a former Portuguese colony, shares a language and trading links with other countries colonized by Portugal.
Speaking in Changsha, the Angolan ambassador to China said he hoped that China would invest in fishery bases and infrastructure to help his country export more seafood. Cui He, the secretary general of the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association (CAPPMA), the main marketing and trade body for China’s seafood industry, said Sino-African cooperation in fisheries was entering a new growth phase under the auspices of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese government’s blueprint to expand China’s influence on global trade.
So far in 2021, 160 tons of seafood has been shipped into Hunan Province from Madagascar and Mozambique, according to the organizers of a trade fair – sponsored by the local government and national ministry of commerce – which took place last week in Changsha.
Madagascar’s biggest trading partner since 2015, China is importing more lobsters and crabs from that country and from Mozambique, according to organizers of the trade fair, which is being run to promote African goods and exports of heavy machinery and other items made in Hunan Province.
Photo courtesy of Zaruba Ondrej/Shutterstock
