The growth of China's domestic seafood market is leading Hainan Xiangtai Fishery Co. to begin looking for new species to sell.
Established in 2004, Hainan Xiangtai is a full-chain aquaculture producer of tilapia, golden pompano, shrimp, and pangasius. The company has hatchery, fish farming, feed, and processing facilities, allowing it to go from egg to final product, and across its operations it employs over 2,000 people.
Hainan Xiangtai General Manager Lin Xiao Wen told SeafoodSource during Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, Spain that the U.S. is the company’s most important export market, followed by Mexico and Africa. Xiao Wen said that the company has seen its export market grow steadily year by year, and China’s decision to end strict Covid rules, which allowed Hainan Xiangtai to attend Seafood Expo Global – and Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts in March 2023 – has been beneficial to meet new and old customers.
Xiao Wen said, the domestic market in China has grown in recent years to the point that roughly 40 percent of the company’s products are sold domestically.
“We believe international business will grow every year, but for domestic market, it grows faster,” he said. “So maybe in two or three years, maybe we’ll have a bigger turnover coming from the domestic market.”
In order to make that increased turnover a reality, Xiao Wen said the company has begun examining new products that will target the domestic market in China – including imports the company can further process.
“This year, in Boston, we were not only there to sell product, we were also searching for species that can be processed and traded in our domestic market,” he said.
The company, Xiao Wen said, believe it needs to start importing other species if it wants to increase its domestic sales. The goal is to double its sales, and its current offerings won’t be enough.
“We cannot just rely on tilapia, golden pomfret, and pangasius,” he said.
The company already tried to import different species – an initiative that was derailed by the zero-covid policy disrupting imports. Hainan Xiangtai began importing shrimp from Ecuador, but Xiao Wen said the process became too unpredictable during Covid so the company had to stop.
“We hope we can resume the import of the shrimp,” he said.
The company is still sending plenty of product overseas – it shipped more than 1,300 containers to different countries last year – but Xiao Wen said the company is committed to capitalizing on the domestic market.
“We believe, if we are going to double our turnover, we have to do imports,” he said.
Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource
