China splurged on government infrastructure spending in 2020, building new seafood markets and other related facilities, which could widen the scope of the country’s seafood distribution channels.
Municipal authorities in Yangjiang recently announced plans to spend CNY 230 million (USD 36.8 million, EUR 29.9 million) on a new cold chain and processing park to enable greater quick-frozen processing of the region’s large shrimp output.
Jilin Province’s government has spent a similar sum – CNY 240 million (USD 38.4 million, EUR 31.2 million) – on a new seafood wholesale market in the city of Tonghua, near the North Korean border. The “new type” of indoor wholesale market looks European in design and layout compared to the traditional Chinese wet markets, and is part of a string of projects being funded by the Jilin provincial government’s “Three Early” construction program, designed to deliver infrastructure stimulus projects to make up for economic damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Hainan, local government has overseen the construction of the Hui Wen County Sha Gang Long Ma Port Modern Fishery Industry Park. CP (Zheng Da) and Guangdong Haid have already signed leases in the park, which is focused on providing feed and seedlings to the local shrimp- and tilapia-farming sectors.
In Henan Province, ground has been broken on a seafood processing and tourism facility, which the local government is touting as the centerpiece of a marketing campaign in which the area is called “China’s Fisheries Capital.” However, the comparatively poor region is better known for producing grain and pigs. Nevertheless, the Hainan Zhong Yuan Lian Chuang Fund has invested in the 12.3-square-kilometer project, in Runan County, near the city of Zhumadian, as has the Henan Hui Xiang Food & Beverage Management Group.
Another government-funded project, a seven-story building in Qingdao operated by the China Academy of Fisheries, is being billed as the world’s biggest gene bank for aquatic species. The building, which took two years to build at a cost of CNY 162 million (USD 25.9 million, EUR 21 million), will house genetic information for all of the country’s marine species, which project manager Zhu Ling Min said will enable future conservation and replenishment efforts.
China’s spending on infrastructure grew sharply in the second half of 2020, backed by CNY 4.7 trillion (USD 690 billion, EUR 571 billion) of special local government and national government bonds. Whereas Western countries made direct payments to their citizens as a means of accounting for the economic hit of the pandemic, China focused on fiscal stimulus, with an emphasis on infrastructure projects, according to HSBC Chief China Economist Qu Hongbin.
While this has been good for construction, it has not given a decisive boost to private consumption, which accounts for 39 percent of China’s GDP, Qu said. In the U.S., private consumption accounts for 65 percent of GDP – and the difference means China will faces a slower uptick in demand for new seafood markets like those being constructed. Chinese retail sales contracted by 3.9 percent in 2020, having grown by eight percent in 2019, even as the broader Chinese GDP grew by 2.3 percent.
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