China’s seafood exports appear to have softened in the first two months of the year, mirroring a weakening of the country’s overall exports sector. China shipped 550,000 metric tons (MT) of aquatic products worth USD 2.98 billion (EUR 2.2 billion), in January and February combined, down 7.9 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.
That’s according to data from the country’s customs authorities, which also reported that China’s overall exports tumbled in February by 18.1 percent year-on-year, after jumping 10.6 percent in January. Combined January-February exports were down 1.6 percent on the previous year having jumped 7.3 percent year-on-year in the same period in 2013.
Even while discounting for the Chinese New Year break in production (this year’s festival was celebrated in February), the country’s overall trade figures have been taken as evidence of further weakening of China’s economy, even as Chinese policy makers have talked up the positive effects of a recovery in western demand on China’s export industries such as processed seafood.
Some exporters are however out-performing the overall data. Data from some of the country’s key seafood-shipping ports meanwhile suggest that performance by some key export destinations outperformed others. Customs authorities in Quanzhou, in the southeasterly province of Fujian, are reporting a massive 99 percent jump in export value to CNY 186 million (USD 30 million, EUR 21.7 million) in the first two months of this year, thanks to strong demand from Southeast Asia and the U.S. Geographically close, Southeast Asia accounted for CNY 113 million (USD 18.2 million, EUR 13.2 million) of Quanzhou’s seafood shipments in the first two months of the year, compared to CNY 13.3 million (USD 2.1 million, EUR 1.6 million) worth of goods sent to the U.S.
China’s seafood exporters have made efforts in recent years to tap emerging-economy markets in Asia and Africa. There have however been setbacks, with the local branch of the Ocean & Fisheries Bureau in Quanzhou pointing to the effective closing of the Nigerian market to local exporters in 2013. “The government of Nigeria has decided the country should take advantage of its own aquatic resources,” notes a document from the bureau distributed to fisheries and seafood businesses in the city. The bureau called on the sector to improve competitiveness and quality of output as well as product safety controls in order to avoid “green barriers” which it suggested may be placed on the city’s seafood exports — a reference to challenges faced by Chinese firms in export markets on food safety grounds.
Data released by the port city of Beihai, an important tilapia shipment point in Guangxi province, suggests prices paid for exports grew strongly in 2013, outpacing growth in volume. Exporters made CNY 271 million (USD 44 million, EUR 32 million) on 87,000 MT, up 26.6 percent and 1.3 percent respectively, in what’s been reported in the city’s press as a result of recovering prices and demand in the key U.S. tilapia market.
