One of China’s seafood hubs is offering a new wave of generous subsidies to firms who expand their pelagic operations on the high seas. Urging local fishery firms to “ruthlessly” seek out resources on the high seas, city authorities in the southeasterly port and processing hub of Qingdao are promising rewards of CNY 3 million (USD 491,941/EUR 358,027) to pelagic-focused fishing firms who register locally. Up to 20 percent of the cost of building new offshore vessels meanwhile will also be funded, to a maximum CNY 5 million (USD 819,906/EUR 596,654). Importantly, these subsidies are additional to national subsidies that also apply.
Seen by SeafoodSource, a new government document titled “Views on the Acceleration of Development of Long Distance Fishing Industry” seems designed as much to expand the presence of local pelagic firms in far-off waters as much as it is to ramp up processing of those catches in Qingdao. Published by the city’s Ocean & Fisheries Bureau, the document also calls on fisheries firms to support a Qingdao Aquatic Trade and Logistic Center Project (also known as the North China International Seafood Logistics Centre), a blueprint which would make Qingdao the largest seafood processing and trading hub in northeast Asia. The center aims to handle three million tons of seafood annually, worth CNY 54 billion (USD 8.9 billion, EUR 6.4 billion).
To achieve their goals, Qingdao officials have listed a series of species and locations to be particular targets for local firms: tuna resources in the Midwest Pacific and Indian Ocean are singled out, as well as squid in the southeast Pacific and the Southwest Atlantic. Pacific saury is also singled out in the “View on the Acceleration of Development of Long Distance Fishing Industry” published by the Qingdao Ocean and Fisheries Bureau.
Scale is clearly a priority: Qingdao’s subsidy for new vessels applies only to vessels with engines sized a minimum 450 horsepower. Also, firms entitled to the CNY 3 million (USD 491,920/ EUR 357,894) “reward” must have a minimum five vessels on the seas and CNY 50 million (USD 8.2 million, EUR 6 million) in registered capital. Aside from subsidies, Chinese officials’ ability to direct lending by the largely state-run banking sector is proving an advantage in expanding the national pelagic fleet. Nationally, China’s banks have been encouraged under the national “Blue Ocean 51000” plan to support pelagic fisheries. In Qingdao, the leasing arm of Minsheng Bank has promised to work with fishing officials and enterprises in Shandong for “the development and transformation of China’s fishing industry” — the emphasis being on long-distance pelagic fishing.
One of Minsheng’s clients is the Shandong-based Huiyang Group. Increasingly shifting its focus from processing to pelagic fishing, Huiyang is one of the groups Minsheng services as part of a commitment to the Shandong Provincial Ocean and Fisheries Administration. The bank has also signed memorandums to support the Chinese Fishing Gear and Fishing Machine Industry Association.
Minsheng is also financing the Qingdao Aquatic Trade and Logistic Center Project. Set to cost CNY 10.17 billion (USD, 1.7 billion, EUR 1.2 billion), the 400-hectare site aims to be the most important international aquatic trade center in northeast Asia. As well as an international seafood trade center, the project will incorporate a dock, a seafood processing base as well as an equipment center for fishing trawlers. There’s also a leisure zone planned.
China’s current five-year plan for its fishing industry stresses the need for improved logistics.
