Prices appear to have grown much faster than volume in China’s 2014 seafood production. China’s output of seafood totaled 53.7 million metric tons (MT) in the first 11 months of last year — up 2.4 percent year-on-year. Output from aquaculture outpaced the overall growth rate: up 4.4 percent to 40.06 million MT, according to the agricultural ministry in Beijing, which has released the data at its traditional annual teleconference on the fisheries sector.
Output in value terms in the first three quarters of 2014 was worth CNY 577.3 billion (USD 93.41 billion; EUR 83.71 billion), up 8.9 percent on the previous year. While the ministry curiously didn’t release full-year data, product with “added value” (such as processed products) at CNY 349.5 billion in the first three quarters was up 9.2 percent year-on-year.
The total production from China’s fisheries sector meanwhile at 13.71 million MT was down 3.2 percent year on year. But there was a bumper haul from what’s termed “offshore fishing,” as ocean fisheries production increased 40 percent to 1.9 million MT.
China has 2,470 vessels at sea, an increase of 311 vessels, “of which 285 are new boats,” according to the transcript of the teleconference presentation by Niu Dun, vice minister for agriculture who has responsibility for fisheries. Niu and director of the ministry fisheries directorate, Zhaoxing Wu, discussed the data with top fisheries officials nationwide.
China’s seafood trade data for 2014 looks similar in growth terms to last year. Exports of 3.73 million MT were worth USD 19.53 billion (EUR 17.59 billion), an increase of 4.8 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. Imports totaled 3.92 million MT worth USD 8.36 billion (EUR 7.4 billion), an increase of 1.5 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. In the first 11 months of 2014 China booked a trade surplus of USD 11.16 billion (EUR 9.88 billion) in seafood products, up 9 percent year-on-year.
The latest figures show growth levels flat with 2013 levels: In the first 11 months of 2013 China recorded exports of 3.56 million tons worth USD 18.19 billion, up 4.3 percent and 7.4 percent respectively, for a trade surplus of USD 10.24 billion (an increase of 5.7 percent year on year).
Meanwhile, there’s a sign that wage and income growth has been easing in China: the average per capita income of Chinese fishermen reached CNY 14,426 (USD 2,344; EUR 2,066), up 10.6 percent on 2013 when the average income was CNY 13,039 (USD 2,108; EUR 1,866), a climb of 15.84 percent on 2012 figures. Central government subsidies to the sector have included fuel subsidies and a housing subsidy for fishermen in key freshwater and sea fishing provinces including Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.
