West Africa and the high seas will be China’s solution to a dwindling capture in its local waters, according to a senior fisheries researcher at the agriculture ministry in Beijing.
“China has signed agreements and will hope to sign more such deals with foreign governments, especially in Africa…it will also look to the high seas but fishing there is more difficult due to competition as well as more challenging waters,” Professor Yang Ninsheng (pictured), a senior academic at the China Academy of Fisheries under the ministry (which oversees the country’s fisheries sector), told SeafoodSource. China has pledged to increase the output of its marine capture fisheries from 1.1 million tons in 2010 to 1.3 million tons annually by 2015 by tapping international waters.
Yang described Chinese investment in aquaculture and high seas fishing in the context of the country’s latest five year plan, which commits the aquatic products/seafood sector to increasing earnings from CNY 670 billion (USD 109 billion, EUR 82 billion) to CNY 1 trillion (USD 163 billion, EUR 123 billion) by 2015, with the value-added portion of that rising from CNY 380 billion (USD 62 billion, EUR 47 billion) to CNY 640 billion (USD 104 billion, EUR 79 billion).
“China is expecting the fish sector to enter into a period of high prices but also higher production costs,” said Yang, who points to energy, labor and a weaker U.S. dollar as factors contributing to rising costs for Chinese suppliers.
Yang’s views on China’s expansion into foreign waters for capture fisheries was borne out of recent news out of Fujian, one of the country’s top three producers of seafood.
“Fujian now has seven ocean bases, 209 fishing boats are under construction, and the total amount of fishing boats will be more than 400 in the end of 2013,” according to a recent report from the China Aquatic Products Processing & Marketing Association (CAPPMA), noting that 277 of Fujian’s fishing boats are sent aboard, “mainly working in the high seas of the Pacific, Indian Ocean and the Atlantic.” In the first four months of 2013, the fishing output of Fujian reached 770,000 tons, on a revenue of CNY 730 million (USD 119 million, EUR 90 million), up 14.36 percent and 16.09 percent respectively, according to CAPPMA.
Yang outlined research and development in seedlings, disease prevention and feed efficiency as the three priorities in China’s efforts to develop the local seafood industry. He also called for government to promote and encourage producer groups and organizations as means of simplifying access to markets for Chinese seafood. China’s seafood sector is also seeking to increase the portion of feed from processing byproducts, added Yang.
Challenges facing China’s aquaculture sector include barriers to trade as well as rising labor costs, according to Yang. He said he expected Chinese seafood exports to be increasingly subject to barriers in international markets based on quality and safety.
“There has to be more monitoring and control over aquaculture. We also need more testing of contaminants…ultimately we need to achieve closer compliance with international criteria,” he said. “Access to capital for investment in the sector will be another barrier to growth.”
Yang cited shortage of land and public perceptions of aquaculture as an environmentally negative industry as other challenges to growth.
