Fuzhou Hong Dong Yuan Yang Fishing Co. has announced it will complete work on a new fishing port in the Latin American nation of Guyana later this year.
Poly Hong Dong CEO Lan Ping Yong made the announcement to Chinese state media in conjunction with his trip to Beijing as a delegate to the National People’s Congress, which ended earlier this month. SeafoodSource has asked Lan’s company to comment on the nature and scale of the Guyana project but has not yet received a response as of 18 March.
Hong Dong caused controversy in Guyana in 2015 when it applied for permits for 30 120-foot trawlers and drift-netters to fish in Guyanese waters. Local fishing groups claimed the Chinese vessels were too large and that the country’s waters were already being fished to their maximum sustainable limit.
Building the base in Guyana would represent a big step into Latin America for Hong Dong, which operates what it claims is China’s largest overseas fishery base, in Mauritania. The company currently ships more than 2,500 tons of seafood per week to E.U. and U.S. customers.
The company also operates a large fishing and processing operation in Mauritania, which it claims is China’s largest overseas fishery base. The company had 100 vessels in operation as of early 2019 and another 60 under construction, with plans to further expand in West Africa.
Last year, Len said his firm was seeking a deal with seafood processor Guolian Aquatic that would see the latter “add value” to his company’s catch for sale to domestic consumers.
Such a deal would make sense, given the continued growth in demand for seafood in China where the “wild-caught” label adds a premium to prices, Len said.
Distant-water catches sold in the domestic market in China were on display at a recent trade fair in Wuhan. Among the exhibitors at the Chinese Food Ingredients Expo was Zhong Ke Royal Banquet Group, which was exhibiting abalone from Senegal, marketed as a premium wild product. Zhong Ke has also built a sourcing depot in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. The group – which lists Zhong Ke Sea Products Development as one of its subsidiaries – has a large presence in China’s sea cucumber market.
Another major player exhibiting at the show was Hai Cheng Aquatic Food Products Group, based in Shandong Province. It has developed a range of breaded mackerel and lanternfish from its distant-water catch, processed in a facility completed by the company last year. The firm also displayed a range of processed squid snacks and filleted cod, sea eel, and flounder.
Official data showed the scale of China’s distant-water catch went from 1.2 million tons in 2013 to 2.2 million tons in 2019, while the value of the catch soared from CNY 13.2 billion (USD 2 billion, EUR 1.7 billion) to CNY 24.3 billion (USD 3.64 billion, EUR 3.15 billion) in that timeframe. However, there appears to have been a drop in China’s distant-water fishing in 2020, caused in part by the global COVID-19 pandemic, according to Global Fishing Watch.
Photo courtesy of Natalia Gornyakova/Shutterstock
