China’s average per capita consumption of seafood is on course to total 39 kg in 2020, an all-time high for the world’s most populous country.
The 39 kg total is up from 37.9 kg in 2013 and from 26 kg in 2006, according to the latest issue of the China Fisheries Yearbook, published by the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing.
Considering the average Chinese person ate only 11.5 kg of seafood in 1990, revealing the sharp increase in consumption, though calculations by various organizations tend to vary, as some calculate the figure based on the theoretical availability of seafood rather than actual consumption.
Sales of processed seafood rose by an average 8.8 percent per year from 2006 to 2011 and jumped by 10.5 percent in 2015, according to the yearbook. The yearbook also published data showing that while annual growth in seafood sales is slowing, the share of sales completed online is growing sharply. While online sales accounted for 0.4 percent of total trade in 2012, this figure rose to 4.8 percent in 2016 and will hit 8 percent in 2018.
Chinese sales of “fresh food produce” – seafood and other fresh foods – grew 255 percent between 2012 and 2013, but this growth slipped to 117 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to the yearbook, and will fall to 82 percent in 2016, according to yearbook data.
