Chinese seafood prices fell in June 2022, but remain higher than pre-COVID levels, according to data from the country’s Agricultural Ministry.
A survey of wholesale markets by the ministry’s pricing information monitoring office shows that while average prices in June were down 18.8 percent year-over-year, the average price of CNY 23.70 per kilo (USD 3.51, EUR 3.44) remains much higher than the CNY 20.00 (USD 2.96, EUR 2.90) per kilogram average for 2019 and 2020.
Prices surged in 2021 to an average CNY 28.00 (USD 4.15, EUR 4.06) per kilogram due to a range of issues, but largest among them were COVID controls instituted on frozen seafood imports entering Chinese ports, which the Chinese government linked to the virus’s spread. Prices for domestically produced freshwater seafood also increased in 2021 on higher input costs for aquaculture farms.
Higher seafood costs may be set to linger, as lockdowns in several Chinese cities and weaker economic conditions have dented consumer confidence in China in recent months. However, inflation has been markedly lower than in major Western economies.
China’s seafood imports in the first five months of 2022 leapt 29.7 percent in value to USD 8.36 billion (EUR 8.19 billion) and rose 12.2 percent in volume to 2.4 million tons.
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