There are signs that demand for “luxury” seafood is rebounding in China, with one of the country’s leading producers of sea cucumber reporting strong growth in its newly published figures for 2016.
Shandong Homey Aquatic Development Co. Ltd.’s income shot up 7.38 percent year-on-year, while its net profit rose 22.5 percent. The company’s gross profit margin, at 21.6 percent, was up five percentage points on 2016 figures.
The company’s profit margin for aquaculture was 43.6 percent and for its wild-catch fishing, it was 16.1 percent.
Homey has long done contract processing for export, and it also processes seafood and other food products for the domestic market. However, in 2016, its lowest margin, at 9.85 percent, came from processing. Some 51 percent of revenue came from processing in 2016 – an increase of 8.2 percent on 2015.
Another 31.4 percent of revenue came from aquaculture – down 11.7 percent year-on-year. There was weak growth, meanwhile, from the company’s long-distance fishing business, which contributed 31.7 percent of revenues, up 1.9 percent.
In February, Homey secured a license to conduct direct selling of “healthy food.” Homey has opened 37 stores to sell its products.
