Higher aquaculture feed prices and a tightened inflow of imports appear to be driving Chinese seafood prices higher, just as an annual fishing moratorium in domestic waters commences.
China’s average seafood prices rose by 11.7 percent in April, with higher feed prices for aquaculture being cited by market analysts as a key reason for the increase. Freshwater seafood prices rose 16.2 percent on average, but were higher for certain species, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, based on field research in the port city of Wenzhou.
The trend appears to be reflected inland, with carp prices up by 40 percent year-on-year in Nanchang, as of mid-May, according to the Jiangxi Morning News, a daily newspaper covering the city, located in the inland province of Jiangxi, a freshwater aquaculture production powerhouse. Reports in the paper suggest that consumers are turning from fish to pork, which has dropped in price this year.
Prices typically rise each summer at the beginning of China’s annual fishing moratorium, which was implemented due to concerns of overfishing in domestic waters. Customs checks for COVID-19 on imported foodstuffs appear to be adding to the pressure on prices.
China’s consumer price index rose 1.7 percent in April, a slower rise than seen in March. Still, state TV and newspapers have been full of debate in recent weeks about the impact of rising raw material input prices and the potential for cushioning the pain through a managed appreciation of the renminbi against the dollar – a move not usually welcomed by the nation’s exporters.
Meanwhile, China’s average per capita consumption of seafood rose by 23.5 percent between 2013 and 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The bureau reported China’s seafood consumption went from 10.4 kilograms per person to 13.6 kilograms per person in the time period. Average per capita meat consumption also increased, from 25.6 kilograms to 26.9 kilograms. In contrast, consumption of edible grains and oils both slumped, suggesting protein consumption is becoming a greater part of the Chinese diet.
Within the seafood figures, there are large disparities between urban consumption, at 16.7 kilograms per capita, and rural consumption, at 9.6 kilograms. On a regional basis, citizens of first-tier cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai eat an average 20 kilograms of seafood annually, compared to poorer inland provinces Gansu and Qinghai (both leading locations for China’s freshwater trout production), where the average person ate five kilos of seafood.
Photo courtesy of Mark Godfrey/SeafoodSource
