U.S. oyster exports to China increased 18 percent from January to November 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, with U.S. oyster-export trade value rising to USD 238,670 (EUR 210,029) from USD 233,203 (EUR 205,218) in the previous year.
France, Ireland, and New Zealand are ranked as the top three suppliers of fresh oysters to China in 2019 and 2020, with the U.S. in seventh place.
Demand for U.S. shellfish in China is strong, but the shipment of American oysters into China is made challenging by “high death rates, slow clearance at ports due to COVID-19 related controls, international competition, and price-competitive domestic products,” according to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report.
The report, “China Fresh Oyster Market Review,” was published 10 February 2022. COVID-related controls at ports and catering sector limitations made China a risky proposition for oyster exporters, the USDA but it paints a bright picture of future market potential.
“If pandemic-related barriers to import and distribution resolve, the market for raw oysters in China may be able to expand rapidly among its increasingly sophisticated consumers as has been the case with wine in the past fifteen years,” stated the USDA report.
Newport, Oregon-based Oregon Oyster Farms ceased shipping oysters to mainland China several years ago due to the expensive health certificates required from National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Oregon Oyster Farms Manager Liu Xin said the company still ships to Taiwan and Hong Kong.
“I ship pretty much all large sizes of oysters, meat and in-shell,” Liu told SeafoodSource.
Liu has also been an advisor to Chinese oyster producers in Shandong province who have sought to produce high-end product rather than the high-volume, low-priced production which has predominated in China, which produces around 5.5 million tons of oysters per year, many of them processed for sauces.
Much of the high-end production has centered around Rushan, on China’s east coast. The region “has a unique environmental conditions to grow good quality oysters,” said Liu, but “the growing areas need to be certified by higher standards with good methods of traceability.”
As for the problem of counterfeit oyster sales in China – lower-priced oysters sold under sought after brands like Gillardeau – Liu said the company has avoided that by selling directly to restaurants and through a single distributor.
“We told all the customers we had only one designated distributor in China,” Liu said.
Photo courtesy of Dmitrii Iakimov/Shutterstock
