Chinese seafood prices are showing much slower growth than prices for pork and poultry, according to the official Consumer Price Index (CPI) compiled by China’s Ministry of Commerce for August – before the end of the annual moratorium on China’s domestic waters, which runs from May to September.
Seafood prices rose by 1.5 percent year-on-year whereas pork prices rose by 46.7 percent and chicken by 9.6 percent over the same month. Overall, inflation in the “food beverages and tobacco” category rose 7.3 percent in August, largely as a result of pork supply tightening with an ongoing African Swine flu epidemic.
Demand for seafood usually surges during epidemics like bird flu and the current African swine flu crisis as consumers seek alternative proteins. China opened up its seafood supply lines further earlier this month when it signed a protocol with Turkey to allow import of farmed sea bass as well as trout and tuna. The protocol was signed by China’s ambassador in Ankara and is valid for five years.
China’s seafood imports grew 32 percent in value terms in the first half of 2019 – though that figure has been helped by a clamp down on smuggling.
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