A top Chinese distant-water fishery firm is looking to expand its global footprint as it seeks tuna to supply growing domestic demand.
Shandong Zhonglu Oceanic Fisheries Co. has launched a new “Jin Qiang Yu” (Mandarin for tuna) app, with the state-controlled firm aiming for direct sales to Chinese consumers. The app appears to mark a new approach by Zhonglu, which in 2017 imported farmed bluefin tuna from Japan for Chinese distribution company Lang Yue International Logistics Co. One of its first features on the app is a one-kilo “bluefin tuna” steak on sale for CNY 618 (USD 86.52, EUR 74.16).
Zhonglu operates tuna seine vessels out of Tema, Ghana, and claims to be China’s first distant-water operator to launch vessels targeting the Atlantic tuna catches. The company says it accounts for 30 percent of Ghana’s overall fish catch, and Ghana-based Zhonglu subsidiary Yaw Addo Fisheries Co is one of several Chinese fishing firms in Ghana operating vessels under the Chinese and Ghanaian flags.
The company, along with other state-owned fishing giants, have been forced to innovate as China dismantles earlier prohibitions on which ports and companies are allowed to import seafood. Zhonglu issued disappointing results for 2019. Revenues grew 10.3 percent year-on-year in 2019 at CNY 1.2 billion (USD 168 million, EUR 156 million), but profits attributable to shareholders were down 8.83 percent at CNY 82.3 million (USD 11.5 million, EUR 10.6 million).
This is a far cry from the 74.4 percent year-on-year increase recorded in 2017, which prompted a review of strategy at the company, as evidenced in comments in the company’s 2019 annual report pointing to increased consumer-facing activity as opposed to a previous B2B focus.
Zhonglu is hoping to take advantuage of a big surge in the popularity of sashimi-style Japanese dining in China. But that could also put pressure on the three bluefin subspecies – Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern – which are respectively classed as vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The International Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna is made up of six participating member countries, including Australia and Japan, which each have the largest total allowable catch as set by the commission, at approximately 6,000 tons each in the period 2018 to 2020.
Photo courtesy of Mark Godfrey/SeafoodSource
