A weaker Chinese economy seems to be taking its toll on seafood prices, which showed sluggish growth in October, though shellfish seem to be performing better than crustaceans.
The strongest performers in Chinese seafood wholesale markets in October were abalone, which rose 20.28 percent on the previous month, and mussels, which rose 13.73 percent.
Compared to the previous month, average prices for staple species silver pomfret fell 16 percent and shrimp fell 13 percent, while average prices for catfish went up by 11.8 percent and oyster prices rose by nearly 9 percent in October, according to Chinese government data.
Data from a Ministry of Agriculture survey of 80 seafood wholesale markets nationwide shows an average price of RMB 20.38 (USD 3.31, EUR 2.69)/ kg up 1.5 percent year-on-year and down nearly 3 percent month-on-month. The average price of RMB 35.76 (USD 5.81, EUR 4.72)/kg for seawater products represents an increase of almost 5 percent year-on-year but down 3 percent month-on-month. The average price for freshwater products meanwhile stood at RMB 14.65 (USD 2.38, EUR 1.93)/kg in October, an increase of 2.8 percent and a month-on-month drop of 2.9 percent.
Month-on-month prices for seawater fish were down 6 percent and crustacean prices were down 4.74 percent. Shellfish meanwhile slipped 0.7 percent, while freshwater fish prices were down 0.7 percent and prices for freshwater crustaceans were down 2.8 percent month-on-month.
Of the 49 species monitored in the survey, the majority — 25 varieties of prices — showed a decrease in month-on-month terms. That accounts for 51 percent of monitored species while 20 percent were flat and 14 species or 28.6 percent of those monitored showed an increase in prices. Data compiled on 57 markets for October shows 877,500 metric tons of aquatic products were traded, worth a combined RMB 15.59 billion (USD 2.5 billion, EUR 2.1 billion) in value terms; these represent an increase of 6.5 percent year-on-year, but a 2.92 percent slip in month-on-month terms.
In year-on-year terms the best performers seem to have been shellfish. Marine fish prices were up 0.7 percent and shellfish prices were up 16.8 percent year-on-year compared with the same month last year. Prices for seawater fish rose 0.7 percent, and shellfish prices rose 16.8 percent. Prices for seawater crustaceans fell 6 percent, while prices for molluscs fell 3 percent. Freshwater fish prices fell 2 percent year-on-year in October, and freshwater crustacean prices fell 4 percent. Crab prices were down 28 percent year-on-year. Abalone prices dropped 18.8 percent. Trout prices were down 14.7 percent, and mackerel prices dropped 8.7 percent year-on-year. Freshwater fish prices went down 2 percent, and freshwater crustacean prices dropped 4 percent.
The latest seafood data comes at the same time as China's annual consumer inflation remained near a five-year low in October at 1.6 percent — the same as September, which was the weakest reading since January 2010. This figure has been taken as evidence that China’s economy continues to cool.
