Seafood processors in China are shutting down processing capacity this summer due to slack demand from key buyers, according to a leading seafood trader.
“All processors are reducing production capacity by at least 30 percent,” said David Jiang, managing director at Unibond Seafood International Ltd., which sources seafood in China for European customers.
Jiang said processors in China are “facing difficulties due to weak demand in Europe and the U.S.,” while Chinese consumers are proving a difficult sell.
“Some processors are trying to develop the domestic market, but the products they process, like cod, haddock, and pollock, do not suit Chinese consumers,” Jiang told SeafoodSource.
Jiang said imports of pollock – China’s top seafood import item from Russia by volume – fell 3 percent in the first half of 2024.
“Russian fishing companies are exporting more surimi and single-frozen pollock blocks to China and Japan due to U.S. sanctions,” he said.
With demand from Chinese processors falling, Russia’s pollock catchers have looked to their domestic market, a development that is welcomed by the U.S. pollock industry.
“The Russian pollock industry is trying to develop demand within Russia for the pollock Russia catches,” Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers CEO Craig Morris told SeafoodSource. “Given there is a limited supply of wild-caught pollock by Russia and Alaska pollock by the U.S., this would reduce the availability of Russian pollock on the global market, thus increasing prices.”
American pollock exporters have been seeking to build premium demand in Japan, Morris said.
“We are working very closely with our surimi customers in Japan repositioning surimi as an outstanding protein choice,” Morris said.
Overall trade between China and Russia grew by 26.3 percent year over year in 2023, with Russia becoming China's second-largest seafood supplier after Ecuador.
In a recent research note emailed to its clients, Spanish seafood sourcing firm Interatlantic said Russian seafood exports to China reached USD 2.9 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) in 2023, of which about USD 1.6 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) came from frozen fish – mainly Alaska pollock, salmon, cod, and sardines – and an additional USD 1.2 billion (EUR 1.1 billion) from crustaceans.
