Demand for Irish shellfish appears to have recovered in China, with a 55.6 percent jump in the category in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
Overall, Irish seafood shipments to China were up 35.9 percent year on year in the period, according to Bord Bia, Ireland’s food exports promotion agency.
Data compiled by Bord Bia also shows Irish seafood exports to Asia rose 20.3 percent year on year in value terms in the first half of 2024, totaling EUR 46.9 million (USD 52 million). By contrast shipments to Africa were flat at EUR 40.9 million (USD 45.3 million) while sales to North America shrunk by 11.4 percent to EUR 2.4 million (USD 2.6 million).
The Bord Bia data shows there has been a recovery in demand from the E.U., Ireland’s main market, as well as from the U.K. Shipments to the E.U.’s 27 member states rose nine percent to EUR 212.5 million (USD 235 million) in the first six months of 2024, while shipments to the United Kingdom rose 25.1 percent to EUR 56 million (USD 62.1 million) in the same time frame.
Donegal, Ireland-based Bells Isle CEO Des Moore said he’s beginning to see signs of stability in China's demand for oysters, but feels the increases in shellfish exports to China are being driven by crab sales. Earlier this year, Moore said China’s imports of European oysters had declined sharply due to weaker economic sentiment.
“There’s no big change into China, certainly not decreasing and signs of some growth,” he told SeafoodSource.
In its annual report, published recently, Ireland’s Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority pointed to a new protocol with China on crabs as a key achievement of 2023.
“[The agreement of a] revised export health certification protocol to provide assurance on Ireland’s exports of live and processed brown crab to China [resulted in] facilitation of export trade to high-demand Chinese market in a manner that assures strong regulatory oversight of this trade,” SFPA said in the report.
The SFPA data suggests Vietnam has emerged as an alternative destination for Irish crab. Vietnam, which has seen its economy grow as an alternative manufacturing destination to China, bought 152 metric tons (MT) of Irish crab in 2023, compared to China’s 94 MT, making Vietnam the top destination in 2023 for Irish crab, mostly shipped frozen, according to the SFPA report.
Ireland’s 2022 seafood exports reached EUR 530 million (USD 590.5 million) in value, up from EUR 513 million (USD 571.5 million) in 2021.
Ireland’s main seafood export markets by volume were Nigeria, Egypt, China, Congo and Japan, primarily covering exports of high volume frozen pelagic fish.
