Producers and consumers across China are gearing up for their biggest annual festival, the lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 26 this year.
New seafood products to help boost exports together with sharply increasing prices for seafood luxuries are dominant as the country continues to shrug off the global economic downturn.
Chinese seafood producers are offering new deals to help boost exports to neighboring countries for the forthcoming Spring Festival holiday.
But domestic consumers themselves have shown no let-up in demand for imported lobster, abalone and sea cucumber.
Northeast Dalian’s Haitou Tongfa Seafood company, for example, has produced seafood packages of dried seafood, including yellowfish, cuttlefish, sleevefish, hairtail fish and shrimp, with wholesale prices ranging from $15 to $90 per 0.5 kilogram package.
The company hopes to attract consumers in Singapore and Malaysia, which have large overseas Chinese populations.
Latest figures show increasing imports and prices for mainland Chinese consumers ahead of the festival. Retail prices are expected to be around 20 percent higher than usual for lobster and sea cucumber, and demand up by 50 to 100 percent, according to www.hotelbuy.cn.
In Shanghai, lobster consumption could be four times higher than normal, and restaurants in southern Guangzhou are already reporting they may not have enough abalone to meet demand, with the price rising to $1,000 per kilogram for imports from Japan, Australia and South Africa, according to the Web site.
Nanjing city is China ’s top lobster consuming city, followed by Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, according to Nanjing Daily.
